What Is Chess?
Chess is one of the oldest and most beloved board games, played between two opponents on a checkered board using specially designed pieces with distinct colors (often white and black) with the aim of capturing an opponent’s King.
Moves
The board represents a battlefield on which two armies battle to capture each other’s kings. A player’s army consists of 16 pieces starting on either of two ranks closest to them. There are six distinct pieces; these are: King, Rook, Bishop Queen Knight Pawn; these can be distinguished both visually and by how they move. Players alternate moves; White will move first.
King
White’s King begins on E1 while Black’s begins at E8. Each King may move one square in any direction; for instance, White may move from E1 to D1, D2, E2, F2 or even F1.
Rook
Rook Each player starts the game with two rooks (also referred to as castles), starting on corner squares a1 and h1 for White players and a8 and h8 for Black ones. A rook may move vertically or horizontally along its file or rank until reaching any unobstructed square within its file or rank.
Bishop
Whiteadversaire Each player starts the game with two bishops; their starting positions for White are c1 and f1, and for Black are c8 and f8. A bishop can move to any unobstructed square on its diagonal path; accordingly, each player has one that only travels on light-coloured squares, and one who only travels on dark ones.
Queen
Queen Each player begins the game with one queen, which combines the powers of both rook and bishop into a powerful piece that’s easily mobile and flexible. White’s queen starts at position 1, Black at 8.
Knight
Knight @ b1 and g1 for White; at b8 for Black. Their starting squares are between their rooks and bishops–at b1 and g1 respectively–where the game starts off on. Their movements begin by taking an L-shape movement: first one square like a rook, then two steps like a bishop but always moving away from where it began e4. An example: when starting at e4, moving in an L shape might take them anywhere between e4 and f2, g3, g5, f6, d6, c5, c3, or even d2. Furthermore, the unique nature of its movement allows it to jump over other pieces in its travels before finally reaching its intended square location – it always travels in order to land somewhere outside its starting square while being protected by other pieces that might hinder other pieces’ moves while moving in an L shape towards square of another colour than before starting at its starting square when starting from there!
Capturing
Kings, rooks, bishops, queens and knights capture enemy pieces by moving in a similar fashion as themselves. For instance, a White queen moving along d3 could capture an opposing Black rook at h7 by moving there herself and taking out its enemy piece from the board. Pieces may only capture pieces they come in contact with on their journey across the board.
Pawns
Each player begins the game with eight pawns that begin on their second rank closest to them; thus White’s start at a2, while Black’s begin on a7 and so on. Pawns are unique because they only move forward; they cannot retreat. Pawns move differently than they capture; for instance, moving directly forward rather than diagonally forward allows them to capture on diagonal squares directly in front of them; such as when at f5, White pawns at f6 have to capture only on either g6 or e6 squares, while an unmoved pawn has the option of moving either one or two squares forward at any one time. As such, another unique option known as en passant–meaning in passing–is available to pawns when an enemy pawn advances two squares on its initial move and could have been captured had they moved only one square. Initially, one pawn can capture any other advancing pawn by taking them en passant, as though they had only advanced one square. An en passant capture must either take place immediately or not at all – only pawns can capture in this manner! Another special characteristic of the pawn occurs if it reaches the end of a file; at that point it must be exchanged for either a queen, rook, bishop, or knight piece.
Castling
One exception to the general rule that players may only move one piece at a time is castling, an elaborate move comprising of both king and rook pieces at once. Castling involves shifting the king two squares toward an adjacent square where an enemy piece has crossed, before placing their rook there upon its return from where it had started moving (eg: White can castle kingside by moving their king from E1 to G1 and their rook from H1 to F1). Castling may only ever occur once during any one game but will be prohibited if any square between starts crossing, crossed by, or finishes being attacked by any hostile piece (ie when starting, crossing, crossing or finishing at an enemy piece’s point).
Relative Piece Values
By assigning the pawn a value of 1, the values for the other pieces should generally follow: knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9 etc. This value may change with different pawn structures and tactical considerations may temporarily override these expectations – material considerations take second place to winning!
Object of the Game
When one player moves a piece onto an area where it could attack an enemy king–i.e. a square from which it could capture him or her unprotected or moved–then that piece is said to have reached check. A victory occurs when both kings are in checkmate; this is called checkmate and victory is assured when either of them cannot escape capture on subsequent moves; checkmate also marks victory when believing their situation hopeless enough, they resign in such cases.
Chess can end three ways: win, lose or draw. Six situations could cause a draw: (1) by mutual consent, (2) when neither player has enough pieces for checkmate, (3) when one player can repeatedly checkmate an opposing king (perpetual check), (4) when neither side is in check has no legal moves left (stalemate), (5) a similar position has occurred three times with either party having the right to move and no piece has been captured or moved during this 50 move period and/or (6) no pieces have been captured or moved this far into this matchup.
Competitive events typically score victories as one point, draws as half points and losses with no points being awarded.
Game notation
A move can be recorded using game notation by notating both initial of the piece being moved and square it has moved to. For instance, Be5 indicates a bishop has moved from E5 to B5. There are two exceptions; knights are identified using N while no initials are used when recording pawn moves. As an example, 1 e4 indicates White’s initial move – two-square advancement of a pawn on the e-file – while Black responds with 1… Nf6 to bring his knight from g8 to f6. Castling queenside for both players is represented by 0-0 while forkingside by 0-0-0. Captures are indicated by placing an “x” or “:” between the piece moving and its destination square, for example pawn moves require writing “dxe5”, which indicates a White Pawn on D4 has captured a piece on E5, respectively. En passant captures are designated with an e.p. Checks are indicated by appending “ch” or “+” to the end of each move, while checkmate may be indicated with # or + in its place. Notation allows players to record games as they occur and analyze them afterward through printed analysis. Annotating (commenting on) a game typically uses exclamation marks and question marks to indicate very good or extremely good moves, respectively; two exclamation marks sometimes serve to signify extremely brilliant ones; question marks indicate poor moves; two at once indicate errors; while exclamation mark+question mark on one move signifies double-edged or dubious decisions.