The game is won when the king is either captured, or is in a situation where any move would result in it being captured-this is called “checkmate”, derived from the Farsi “shah mat”, meaning “the king is dead”. In other words, instead of going from A-H, 1-8, it goes from H-A, 8-1. When playing as black, the order reverses.
For example, BXe5 means “bishop moves to e5 and captures”.īear in mind with notation that it is based on the board as seen from the WHITE side. When a piece makes a capture, you write the letter, then an X, and then space. So, for example, the sentence “bishop moves to e5” can be simplified to “Be5”. When you move a piece to another space you write the letter that the piece begins with, and then the space. Spaces can go from A1-A8, B1-B8, and so forth until H1-H8. Every space has a letter and a number (see the first image). This is done to “commentate” a formal game, and it’s very useful in playing chess with somebody over Zoom or other forms of correspondence. The king can move one space in any direction, straight or diagonal. The Xs note which spaces the knight can legally move to. The knight is also the only chess piece capable of jumping over another piece without capturing. The knight moves in the shape of a letter L: two in one direction, and one perpendicular. The queen is the most powerful piece, as she can move in straight OR diagonal lines. Note that this means that a bishop on a white square can only ever go on white squares, and ditto the black. The rook moves in straight lines, either up and down or side to side. And speaking of, let’s talk about those other pieces. When a pawn gets to the other end of the board, it can become any other piece (except for a king). The pawn captures another piece by moving in diagonals. The pawns move only one space forward, except for on its first move (and ONLY its first move), when it can move two spaces. In contrast, the king is not a fashion plate, and his colors don’t match.Įvery piece moves in its own unique way. The queen is very fashionable, and thus her clothes match the furniture (in other words, the queen matches whatever space she’s on IE: white queen on white, black queen on black). Next to the knight is the bishop, and between the bishop are the king and queen (sardonically, one can remember this by remembering that, like all politicians, the king and queen desire to portray themselves as devout churchgoers). Think of it as “the horse lives in the castle”. Directly next to those are the knights (the horses). The farthest left and right have rooks (the castles). These are slightly trickier, but there are mnemonics that you can use to easily remember these arrangements. The back row has what I have dubbed the “power pieces”: pieces that have a greater range of motion (and thus power) than the pawns. The second row is the easiest to set up: all of your pawns are set up on that row. Then we have to put the pieces on the board. When setting up the board, remember that both sides have “white on the right” ie: both sides should have a white space on the bottom right. Think of this as a “How to Play Chess for Beginners Guide.” Chess Board Setup and RulesĪ chess board has 64 spaces total.
With all this being said, now is as good a time as any to write an article explaining the basic chess game rules in a concise and easily digestible way for chess beginners. Whether it’s popular shows like The Queen’s Gambit, popular Youtube channels such as Grandmaster Nakamura’s, or the growing popularity of chess themed memes and image macros, it seems that there are many newcomers to the king’s game. Especially now that there is something of a “newbie boom” to the game at the moment. I will admit to you, the reader, that most of the articles I have written thus far assume that the reader is already a fairly avid chess player, who is aware of the basic chess game rules and thus is interested in learning more advanced strategies, traps, and tricks with the goal of decisively defeating the opponent.īut, of course, not everybody is born knowing all the rules of chess-there are, in fact, many out there who are unfamiliar with the game, and need an introduction to learn chess step-by-step.
0 kommentar(er)
