Introduction To Chess

This section is for players who would like to play Chice but are unfamiliar with the rules of Chess.

Chess is a timeless game of strategy that was originally invented in India around 550 AD. The original game, called Chaturanga, was quite different than the modern game that is played today. The Indians gifted the game to the Persians, who developed a variant called Shatranj. Over the centuries, the rules evolved and some of the pieces even changed. By 1808, the game of Chess, as we know it today, was established.

The Basics

What Is Chess?

Chess is a two-player game played on an 8×8 board. It is a perfect information strategy game, which means that nothing is hidden from the players – both players can see the entire board and all the pieces.

Each player starts with a set of sixteen pieces that are comprised of six different types of pieces: one King, one Queen, two Rooks, two Bishops, two Knights, and eight Pawns. Players take turns making any legal move according to the movements allowed for each type of piece. Enemy pieces can be captured, after which they are removed from the game.

 

The Object Of The Game

The object of the game is to checkmate the enemy King. When a King is threatened, it is said to be in “check“. The player who’s King is being threatened must immediately safety their King. If the player can’t protect their threatened King in any way, the King has been checkmated, and the game is over.

The Game Board

The game board is an 8×8 checkered board consisting of thirty-two lights squares and thirty-two dark squares. The ranks are denoted with numbers ranging from one to eight. The files are denoted with letters ranging from “a” to “h”.

The Pieces

There are six different types of pieces in Chess:

Pawn

The Pawn is the most common piece. The Pawn can move forward one square on the same file if the target square is unoccupied. On its very first move, it can move forward two squares on the same file if both squares are unoccupied. Once it has moved, it may only move one square at a time. It can capture only by moving one square diagonally. Hence, it can not capture a piece directly in front of it, as that piece is blocking the Pawn.

Pawns have two special moves – promotions and en passant captures – that are explained below.

Knight

The Knight effectively moves or captures in an “L”-shaped fashion, as it can only move to any closest square that is not on the same rank, file, or diagonal.

The Knight can not be blocked by other pieces, as it is able to leap over any piece.

Bishop

The Bishop moves or captures only diagonally. It always remains on the same color square; that is, a light-squared Bishop remains on the thirty-two light squares of the board, and a dark-squared Bishop remains on the thirty-two dark squares of the board. At the start of the game, each player has one light-squared Bishop and one dark-squared Bishop.

Rook

The Rook moves or captures only in a straight line along the rank or the file of the square it occupies.

Queen

The Queen is the most versatile and dynamic piece in the game. The Queen moves or captures diagonally (like a Bishop) or along the rank or the file of the square it occupies (like a Rook). The Queen is a very valuable piece, so treat her with respect.

King

The King can move or capture only one square in any direction. It is the most valuable piece in the game, as the object of the game is to “capture” the King by checkmating it; that is, by making a threat against it (placing it in “check”) that it can not parry.

The King, in conjunction with the Rook, has a special move called “castling” that is explained below.

Checkmate

If a player’s King is in check, only the pieces that can make legal moves to protect the King can move.

The player can protect the King by any one of the following three actions:

• moving the King out of check

• interposing with a piece between the King and the enemy piece giving check

• capturing the enemy piece giving check

If the player can not perform any of these actions, the King has been checkmated – game over.

Mating Material

A player is said to have sufficient “mating material” if they can checkmate the enemy King. Having sufficient mating material means having any of the following in play:

• a Pawn

• a Knight and a Bishop

• two opposite-colored Bishops

• a Rook

• a Queen

For the case of two opposite-colored Bishops, it means that the player must have at lease one light-squared Bishop and one dark-squared Bishop.

Time Control

Serious Chess games are always played with some sort of time control to force the game to conclusion in a reasonable amount of time, thereby avoiding the situation in which a losing player stonewalls the opponent by simply waiting and waiting and waiting and never making a move.

Once a player runs out of time, the opponent can claim a win if they have sufficient mating material.

Pawn Promotion

When a Pawn reaches the eighth (and final) rank, it is promoted to either a Knight, a Bishop, a Rook, or a Queen. In Chess, the player may choose any one of the four promotions, although the Queen – the most versatile and dynamic of all the pieces – is almost always chosen. (In some rare instances, underpromoting the Pawn can be advantageous.)

Castling

Castling is a special move that the King performs in conjunction with a Rook.

Castling on either side – castling short on the Kingside, or castling long on the Queenside – is allowed only if all of the following conditions are met:

• The King and the Rook in the King-Rook pair attempting to castle have never moved; that is, neither piece has moved up to that point in the game.

• There are no pieces situated between the King and the Rook attempting to castle.

• The King is not castling out of check. The King is not castling through check. The King is not castling into check. (The last condition is very obvious.)

Castling is technically a King move – not a Rook move.

En Passant

A Pawn may capture en passant (French for “in passing”) a horizontally adjacent enemy Pawn that has just advanced two squares on its very first move. The capturing Pawn performs the special move by moving to the square that the enemy Pawn jumped over, as if the enemy Pawn had advanced only one square.

En passant captures are permitted only on the turn immediately after the enemy Pawn jumps two squares. If the en passant capture is not performed immediately, the player loses the right to make the capture on subsequent turns.