Written documents, a thousand years old, referring to Chess, have been found. The game of Chess of those days was not, however, the game that we now know. No doubt, Chess has undergone many changes and who knows whether Draughts, or, more precisely, a game related to Draughts, was not a forefather of our Chess.
The European career of Chess began a thousand years ago. At that time it was an admired favorite in Spain, the game of the noble and the learned. In feudal castles and at the courts of princes it was cultivated; it was praised in artistic poems.
For centuries it remained the aristocratic, noble, royal game, accessible only to a refined taste. Later, it penetrated through Italy and France, and at last it found a home wherever the foot of the white man trod. Chess, as pointed out, has changed, but in its attire, in its forms only, by no means in its essence, its idea.
That has remained unchanged all through the many centuries of its life. To discover this idea is therefore not difficult: at all times Chess has had the will, the intent, the meaning of picturing a war between two parties: a war of extinction, conducted according to rules, laws, in a cultured manner, yet without clemency. This becomes evident from the rules of the game almost at first sight.
The Chess Board Let's start chess rules by looking at the chess board. The most ancient and most enduring feature of Chess is certainly the board, the table upon which it is played on the field of the Chess struggle. It consists of 64 parts everyone a small square, in their totality composing a large square.
In eight rows and, perpendicularly thereto, in eight lines the 64 squares are ordered. Consequently one can draw a Chessboard by halving the side of a big square three times in succession. The technical process of producing a Chessboard is therefore very simple, and the logical conception, neither is apprehension of the board complicated.
The perception of the 64 squares by the eye is no so easy, but it has been facilitated by the use of color. The squares are alternately colored black and white, so that from time immemorial the Chessboard looks as follows:.
It is of importance that the student of Chess should know the board very accurately; he should be able to visualize each square in its individual position as well as in its relations to its neighboring squares.
For this reason the board has been divided into three regions: the middle and the two wings. The left wing is composed of the first and second line to the left, the right wing in the same way by the two extreme lines on the right hand, and the middle is formed by the four remaining lines, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
In the center of this middle, four squares are situated, which form the intersection of the fourth and fifth line with the fourth and fifth row. These four squares in the center of the board have, for strategic purposes, the greatest significance.
To describe the events on the Chessboard briefly and exactly, a name has been given to every one of the 64 squares; in olden times a descriptive name, in our time, where the science of Nature and of Mathematics has become so prominent, a mathematical name. This mathematical name reminds us of a system of coordinates in the manner as introduced by Descartes. Accordingly, the eight lines, running upwards, are successively designated by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and the eight rows running from left to right, are successively designated by the letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h.
The "a" line, "b" line, through the "h" line is therefore a certain line; the first row, second row, through the eighth row is a certain row.
Since each square belongs to one line and to one row only, its line and row unambiguously designate it. For instance, "b5" is that one square on the b file that belongs to the fifth row.
According to custom the letter precedes the number: one writes b5, never 5b. Thus this notation has the advantage of naming each square without ambiguity.
Of the other notation, the descriptive one, which is in use in many countries and also in the Anglo-Saxon world, we shall speak more fully later on. In the mathematical notation, the division of the board described above would read as follows: the left wing "a" and "b" files, the right wing "g" and "h" files, the middle c, d, e, f line, the center d4, d5, e4, e5.
The boundary of the board is formed by the "a" file, the "h" file, the first rank, the eighth rank. The corners are a1, a8, h1, and h8. The student should endeavor to acquire the habit of designating the squares and of visualizing their position. There are many Chess players who fail merely from their incapacity to master this geometrical task, not suspecting its value.
The White pieces form the one side, the Black pieces the antagonistic side. The two sides are briefly called White and Black. The coloring of the piece therefore determines its obedience and fidelity, unconditionally. A piece never deserts to the enemy, nor does it ever rebel; it is faithful unto death.
True, if it falls in combat, it wanders from the board merely into a box where the captured pieces are kept until the next game; then it celebrates a merry and hopeful resurrection. White and Black have equal forces. Either party, therefore, counts sixteen pieces.
The pieces stand on the board until they are captured, each piece on one square, no two pieces on the game square.
At the start of the game the pieces are placed in a determined position shown hereafter, and then they are moved, the players moving alternately. Thus a struggle of the Chess pieces takes place according to determinate rules, until the King of a party is captured by force or the contestants agree upon a drawn issue.
The pieces are usually carved of wood. The King has the appearance of a crowned monarch, the Queen bears a smaller crown, the Rooks or Castles suggest sturdy castles, the Bishops have a characteristic headdress, the Knights show a horse's head, and the Pawn is like a man without distinction, a man of the crowd, a common soldier. The move consists in transferring a piece from one square to another. White "moves" a white piece, Black a black one. Sometimes two pieces are thus put into motion, namely, when a hostile piece is "captured," i.
All of this is executed according to fixed rules which the player is constrained to obey. Chess Rules for Moving The King moves from its square to a neighboring square, the Rook in its line or row, the Bishop diagonally, the Queen may move like a Rook or a Bishop, the Knight jumps in making the shortest move that is not a straight one, and the Pawn moves one square straight ahead.
But such moves are permitted only if the square upon which the piece lands is empty or occupied by a hostile piece. Moreover, the Rook, Bishop and Queen are obstructed in their motion as soon as they strike an occupied square.
Thus, a Bishop on c1 may go to any square in the diagonal c1, d2, e3, f4, g5, h6 unless one of these squares is occupied; if e3 is occupied, f4, g5, and h6 are obstructed and the Bishop may not be moved there. The Rook, Bishop or Queen, however, can "capture" the obstruction, provided it is a hostile piece, by putting the moving piece on the square occupied by the obstruction and removing the latter into the box.
Also, the other pieces, King, Knight and Pawn, may capture hostile men; the King or the Knight, whenever they have the right to move to the square held by the hostile man, the Pawn, however, not thus but with a diagonal move forward to a neighboring square. All pieces are subject to capture except the King.
Its life is sacred, the player must defend it, it perishes only when no possible resource can save it from capture. A bishop is worth 3. A rook is worth 5.
A queen is worth 9. The king is infinitely valuable. You should try and control the center of the board with your pieces and pawns. If you control the center, you will have more room to move your pieces and will make it harder for your opponent to find good squares for his pieces. In the example above white makes good moves to control the center while black plays bad moves.
In the example above white got all of his pieces in the game! Try and develop all of your pieces so that you have more to use when you attack the king.
Using one or two pieces to attack will not work against any decent opponent. Knowing the rules and basic strategies is only the beginning - there is so much to learn in chess that you can never learn it all in a lifetime! To improve you need to do three things:. Just keep playing! Play as much as possible. You should learn from each game — those you win and those you lose. If you really want to improve quickly then pick up a [recommended chess book].
There are also many resources on Chess. Everyone loses — even world champions. As long as you continue to have fun and learn from the games you lose then you can enjoy chess forever! How To Play Chess. History of Chess The origins of chess are not exactly clear, though most believe it evolved from earlier chess-like games played in India almost two thousand years ago.
The game of chess we know today has been around since the 15th century where it became popular in Europe. The Goal of Chess Chess is a game played between two opponents on opposite sides of a board containing 64 squares of alternating colors. Starting a Game At the beginning of the game the chessboard is laid out so that each player has the white or light color square in the bottom right-hand side. How the Pieces Move Each of the 6 different kinds of pieces moves differently.
The King - The king is the most important piece, but is one of the weakest. The Queen - The queen is the most powerful piece. The Rook - The rook may move as far as it wants, but only forward, backward, and to the sides.
The Bishop - The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. The Pawn - Pawns are unusual because they move and capture in different ways: they move forward, but capture diagonally. Promotion Pawns have another special ability and that is that if a pawn reaches the other side of the board it can become any other chess piece called promotion.
Castling One other special rule is called castling. Draws Occasionally chess games do not end with a winner, but with a draw.
Some Tournament Rules Many tournaments follow a set of common, similar rules. Touch-move If a player touches one of their own pieces they must move that piece as long as it is a legal move. Introduction to Clocks and Timers Most tournaments use timers to regulate the time spent on each game, not on each move.
Basic Strategy There are four simple things that every chess player should know: knight, but that will be trading three of his points the knight for one pawn one point! Getting Better at Chess Knowing the rules and basic strategies is only the beginning - there is so much to learn in chess that you can never learn it all in a lifetime!
Click through the example below to better understand this odd, but important rule. One other special chess rule is called castling. This move allows you to do two important things all in one move: get your king to safety hopefully , and get your rook out of the corner and into the game.
On a player's turn he may move his king two squares over to one side and then move the rook from that side's corner to right next to the king on the opposite side. See the example below.
However, in order to castle, the following conditions must be met:. Notice that when you castle one direction the king is closer to the side of the board. That is called castling " kingside ". Castling to the other side, through where the queen sat, is called castling " queenside ". Regardless of which side, the king always moves only two squares when castling. The player with the white pieces always moves first. Therefore, players generally decide who will get to be white by chance or luck such as flipping a coin or having one player guess the color of the hidden pawn in the other player's hand.
White then makes a move, followed by black, then white again, then black, and so on until the end of the game. Being able to move first is a tiny advantage that gives the white player an opportunity to attack right away. There are several ways to end a game of chess: by checkmate, with a draw, by resignation, by forfeit on time The purpose of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king.
This happens when the king is put into check and cannot get out of check. If a king cannot escape checkmate then the game is over. Customarily the king is not captured or removed from the board, the game is simply declared over.
Checkmate can happen in the early stages of the game if one of the players does not act carefully. Below, you will find an example of the Fools mate , a checkmate that happens in just 2 moves. Occasionally chess games do not end with a winner, but with a draw. There are 5 reasons why a chess game may end in a draw:.
With the move Qc7, black is not threatened and can't move. The game is declared a draw by stalemate. Get your king to the corner of the board where he is usually safer. Don't put off castling. You should usually castle as quickly as possible. Remember, it doesn't matter how close you are to checkmating your opponent if your own king is checkmated first! Don't carelessly lose your pieces! Each piece is valuable and you can't win a game without pieces to checkmate.
There is an easy system that most players use to keep track of the relative value of each chess piece. How much are the chess pieces worth? At the end of the game, these points don't mean anything—it is simply a system you can use to make decisions while playing, helping you know when to capture, exchange, or make other moves. You should try and control the center of the board with your pieces and pawns.
If you control the center, you will have more room to move your pieces and will make it harder for your opponent to find good squares for his pieces. In the example above white makes good moves to control the center while black plays bad moves. In the example above white got all of his pieces in the game! Your pieces don't do any good when they are sitting back on the first row.
Try and develop all of your pieces so that you have more to use when you attack the king. Using one or two pieces to attack will not work against any decent opponent. The most important thing you can do to get better at chess is to play lots of chess! It doesn't matter if you play at home with friends or family, or play online, you have to play the game a lot to improve. These days it's easy to find a game of chess online! While most people play standard chess rules, some people like to play chess with changes to the rules.
These are called "chess variants". Each variant has its own rules:. Chess follows all the rules of standard chess, except for the starting position of pieces on the back rank, which are placed randomly in one of possible positions. Castling is done just like in standard chess, with the King and Rook landing on their normal castled squares g1 and f1, or c1 and d1. Many tournaments follow a set of common, similar rules.
These rules do not necessarily apply to play at home or online, but you may want to practice with them anyway. Maybe all this information can overwhelm you a little bit. That is why we put at your disposal these frequent questions that usually occur in those people who are beginning to enter the world of chess. We hope they're useful to you! Knowing the rules and basic strategies is only the beginning - there is so much to learn in chess that you can never learn it all in a lifetime!
To improve you need to do three things:. While there is no one agreed-upon best move in chess, it's important to try to control the center right away.
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