Chess

Chess is a game for everyone to play. This is how you play:

Pieces, moves and squares

Pieces

There are 16 pieces a side, altogether 32. Here are the pieces:

Rook - A piece that looks like a castle. It can move up or down and left or right. It's worth FIVE points.
Knight - A piece that looks like a horse. It can move three to any direction and then one in any direction and can jump over any pieces. This piece is worth three points
Bishop - A piece that stands next to the knight and king/queen. It can only move diagonally and is very useful. This piece is worth three points.
Queen - A piece that looks similar to the bishop but taller and has a dome on the head usually. It is worth nine points and is usually thought of as the highest piece in the game. It can move up, down, left, right and diagonally.
King - The most important piece of the game. It can move anywhere but only by one square. If you 'checkmate' the king, you win the game.
Pawns - There are eight pawns and they are very small. They can only move one square forward but if there is a piece on the top-right or top-left square, the pawn can move there and eat it. Also if they are in their starting position they can move two squares or one square forward. The pawns are only worth one point.

There are 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen, 1 king, 8 pawns.

Squares

On most chess boards, there are numbers and letters on the sides. They work like co-ordinates, and it's great to know how to work them out so that you can plan with your friends where to go and confuse the opponent if he manages to listen in.

Moves

There are a few moves that you can do in chess. They can help you win. Here they are:

Castling

Castling can be done when there is nothing in between a king and a rook. The rook and king must be in their starting position and they can't have moved. The king moves two squares towards the rook and the rook jumps over the king and stays on the square after it. Castling can not be done if the king passes over a check (for example, if a queen is controlling a square the king has to jump over, the king can't castle) and Castling can not be done if the king is in check.

Capture En passant

Capture En passant is a rather simple move that is sometimes banned in chess games due to it not being commonly known.

Let's say you have a black pawn on its starting square and a white pawn blocking it from going forward. The pawn next to the black pawn can move 2 squares like in any starting chess game. If you do that, the pawn can move the square in front of the black pawn that moved and take it. This is called Capture En Passant.

En passant can't be done a few moves after the pawn moves 2 squares, it must be done as the next move or never afterwards. It's not complicated once you see a little tutorial of it, and in my view shouldn't be banned.

Check and Checkmate

Check is when a piece is attacking the opponent's king. The king has to move away from the controlled square if he's in check or put a piece in front of the piece that is checking it. If the king is in check but he can't move anywhere else because all those places are also controlled by the opponent, it is 'Checkmate' and the person that checkmated his/her opponent is the winner of the game.

Stalemate

If you can't move the king or any other piece anywhere and the king is NOT in check, it counts as 'Stalemate', meaning that nobody wins; a draw.

Draw

If there are only:

  • Two kings
  • Two kings and a knight
  • Two kings and a bishop

…then it is a draw because you can't checkmate with only the pieces listed above. You can try, but it is impossible and it counts as a draw (nobody wins). This is sometimes common if there are two equally-skilled chess players playing each other.

A Chess match

Starting a Chess match

First of all you need to make sure that the bottom-right square is white (Easier way to remember - White on right). White starts first and then black goes and so on. I reccomend eliminating all of the pieces as soon as you can, sometimes making traps (the game will end earlier if you do).

Ending a Chess match

If it is Checkmate, then you've won. If it is stalemate or a draw, then it's a draw. However, some chess matches are timed. If you decide to play a timed chess match or are playing a timed chess match and don't finish the game before the time is up, it goes down to points. Each player counts how many points you've earnt and then the player with the most points wins. If you don't know how many points a piece is worth, go to Pieces.

Reccomended Tricks

Knight, Queen and King

Try getting your knight in a position where it attacks both the Queen and King, and is not under attack itself (or it's protected by another one of your pieces that may take any pieces wanting to attack it). This forces the king to move as he's under check, and then you can take the Queen. Although the King may take your knight, a knight for a queen is a good exchange in points.

Queen and King in Line

If you see that the King is in front of the Queen, maybe even a couple of squares distance between the two, try getting a bishop, a queen or a rook attacking the King. This forces the King to move, and you can then freely take the Queen. It is best usually to use a low-valued piece to do this, just in case the Queen is protected.

Check Rally

If your King is in check, try making a move that not only protects your King but gets your opponent in Check.

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