In chess, an octopus knight is a knight positioned on an extremely strong square deep into enemy territory, often near the center of the board and often protected by a pawn or other pieces, from which it can attack in many different directions at once. The name derives from the fact that a knight toward the center of the board has eight legal moves in all directions, just like a octopus has eight legs, and when these potential moves are drawn with arrows, the knight looks sort of like an octopus.