How to play Chess

Checkmate

The object in chess is to capture or “back the opposing king into a corner where escape is impossible and is threatened.

The Pieces and their traitsThe Pawns are the weakest pieces on the board. Each player has 8 to start and are initially positioned in front of the other pieces. They can move either 1 or 2 spaces forward on their initial move, after their first the can only move one space forward or if they are attacking an opposing piece the move one space diagonal. The pawn can not backwards. If a pawn moves across the board & reaches the other side, it can become any other piece (Ideally, the most powerful piece the queen).

The Knight and his movesThe knight is the most versatile piece on the board. It moves in an “L” shape on the board. It can leapfrog ANY piece on the board, as well as move forward and backward.

The Bishop and his movesThe Bishop moves diagonally along its colorand attacks diagonally. It can not jump over any piece. Each player starts off with 2 bishops, they each start off on different colors (white and black) and stay on that color for the entire game or until they are captured.

The Rook and his movesThe Rook moves horizontally and vertically as many moves as it can. It attacks the same way it moves and it can not jump over pieces.

The Queen and her movesThe Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. While you can win without her, she will do the most damage and has the most maneuverability of all the pieces. She can move as many moves in ANY direction forward or backward.

The King and his movesWhile the queen is the most powerful of the pieces, the king is the most important. When a player threatens the opposing king with any of his\her pieces that player says “check” and the opposing player must move their king out of danger, or capture the piece that directly threatens the king.

Positioning the pieces The pieces are set up in a symmetrical pattern. The rooks go in the corners. The knights are placed next to each of the rooks. The bishops are next to the knights. The King and Queen are placed in the center with the queen being placed on her color. As shown, here is a chess board with the pieces positioned properly.

Strategies for playing ChessMy personal strategy for chess is to control the center of the board. To do that, I usually move the two center pawns out immediately in my first two moves. The first being the queen pawn out 2 spaces and the king’s pawn second to back up the queen’s pawn. The idea being that the first move gives you position, while the second pawn backs-up the first move.

Strategies for playing ChessBacking pieces is key to victory in chess. Moving your pieces forward is important, but to protect you more valuable pieces is essential. Before moving. The most important thing to do is consider the next move of the opposing player. Playing as the white player, my next move would be to attack the pawn. This does a couple of things. First, it puts the black king in check and the pawn is backed up by the white queen the corner.

Pieces Ranking systemPieces Symbol Value

pawn 1

knight 3

bishop 3

rook 5

queen 9

Some people play chess by using a points system. The pawn is most abundant, and therefore the least valuable at 1 point . The knight is ranked as a 3 point piece , but is the most “agile” of the pieces. The bishop is also a 3 point piece, it is handicapped by only being able to move on its color. The rook is the second most valuable piece at 5. The Queen can move almost anywhere on the board and is valued the highest at 9 points. Leaving the king, which is valuable in that it is need to continue the game.

Example of checkmate

As you can see, the black king is in checkmate because it is threatened by the white rook.

Regardless of where the black king moves, he is still threatened by the white rook.

The least amount of pieces needed to checkmate an opposing king is the king and the rook.

Stalemate

Stalemate occurs when the opposing king has nowhere to move, but is notthreatened by an opposing piece.

As you can see here, it is the Black King’s move and cannot move anywhere without moving into check, which is against the rules.

Also notice that the black king is not Being threatened by the white queen or king.

Stalemate among chess players is Widely considered a tie.

Hope you learned a little about chess !