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I have no source for this but that is the definition for a knight's valid moves, it goes where the queen cannot within that distance

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The official definition, as per the FIDE laws of chess [1], article 3.6 is

"The knight may move to one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands but not on the same rank, file or diagonal."

[1] https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf

That's a horrendously hard to parse definition. Couldn't they say "3 squares away but not on the same rank/file/diagonal" or something a bit easier?

"3 squares away" is not entirely obvious though. The definition as it stands is mathematically unambiguous. Obviously, it's not how you teach the rule to a beginner, but that's irrelevant.

If "nearest" is unambiguous then "3 squares away" is also unambiguous. The nearest squares are 1 square away, the ones nearest to those are 2 squares away, etc.

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