The initial position
The object in chess is to checkmate your opponent's King. Checkmate, or just "mate" occurs when a king is attacked and
the king cannot escape capture on the next move.
Chess is played on a board with 64 squares set up in the following way:
The Rooks begin the game in the corners. The Knights (many beginning players call them horses) are next to the Rooks. The
Bishops start next to the Knights. And then the King and the queen.
Note that white and black Queens both begin the game on squares of their color. The white Queen begins on a white square.
The black Queen begins on a black square.
And, at the beginning of the game, always start with a white square in the lower right corner of the chessboard.
TO BEGIN THE GAME, white moves first, and then black... taking turns until CHECKMATE, or one player RESIGNS, or both players
agree to a draw.
How does the King move and capture?
The king can move one square in any direction. The king can also capture an opponent's piece if it is on one of those squares...
assuming of course that the opponent is not defending this piece! The king can NEVER move on to a square that the opponent
controls. Doing so would move the king into check.
. . 
. . 
The first example illustrates how the king moves. It can move to any square marked with an "X"
In the second diagram, the king can move to any of the marked squares or capture the black rook because the rook is one
square away and is undefended. But the king may not move to one of the squares controlled by the black rook even though the
rook is undefended.
In the third diagram, the black rooks defend each other. The white king has only one legal move because the king cannot
move to a square controlled by the enemy rooks.
Finally, it is important to add that if the king is under attack (in check), the next move MUST make sure that the attack
has been stopped. There are three possibilities. The king must move out of check. Or... the attacking piece must be captured.
Or... a piece must be moved between the attacker and the king in order to eliminate the direct attack. If the king is under
attack AND there is no immediate way to end the attack, the game is over. CHECKMATE!
Castling
The king is permitted to take part in a very special move, the only chess move that actually involves two pieces at the
same time! In the following diagram, the white king can castle on either side of the board. To castle, move the king two squares
toward the rook, and then move the rook to the square immediately on the other side of the king.
For castling to be legal, make sure
- (1) that your king and rook have never moved.
- (2) that your king is not under attack. You may not castle out of check.
- (3) that your king is not passing through or arriving upon a square controlled by the opponent.
- (4) that all of the squares between the king and rook are vacant.
You may castle if your rook is under attack. You may even castle if your rook passes through a square controlled by your
opponent.
Here's where the king and rook end up after castling on each side of the board.
So why castle? See below under the section "King strategy"
How does the Rook move and capture?
The rook can move any number of squares in straight line, horizontally or vertically, but the rook may not jump a piece
of either color.
In the diagram, the rook can move to any square marked with an "X" As you can see, the rook captures as it moves. The rook
can capture the enemy bishop or the knight, but it may not jump over these pieces.
How does the Queen move and capture?
The queen combines the powers of both the rook and the bishop. As such, it can move horizontally, vertically, or on the
diagonal. In a sense, it's like the king in that it can move in any direction. Unlike the king, however, it can move far in
one direction so long as there are no pieces in its path.
In the diagram, the queen can move to any of the squares marked with an "X" Like the rook and the bishop, the queen captures
as it moves. In this position, the queen can capture the enemy rook, knight, or bishop, but it may not jump over any of the
pieces on the board.
The diagram shows clearly how powerful the queen is. Use it carefully. As you will learn, it is very risky to bring the
queen out early because, if you lose your queen, you are likely to lose the game!
How does the Knight move and capture?
The Knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces! The knight always moves like the letter "L" Keep in mind,
though, that the letter can be sideways or even upside-down and backwards!
In the diagram, the knight can move to any of the squares marked with an "X" Note that the white knight cannot move to
the square occupied by the white bishop. No exceptions here. Two pieces can never occupy the same square!
How does the Pawn move and capture?
The Pawn is the only piece that moves differently from how it captures. The pawn, like the foot-soldier in war, marches
forward one square at a time. Unlike the other pieces, the pawn can NEVER retreat. Pawn that have not yet moves have the option
of beginning their forward journey with a double move two-squares forward. The pawns may not jump other pieces or pawns.
The pawn captures differently from how it moves. The pawn captures diagonally ONLY one square ahead, as if it were fighting
on its side with a short sword.
. .
In the first diagram, the white pawn can move to any of the squares marked with an "X" By contrast, the black pawn, having
already moved, has only one option.
In the second diagram, the white pawn can move straight ahead, or else capture the black knight or the black bishop. Meanwhile,
the black pawn is about to move to the end of the board. When a pawn reaches the last rank, it becomes another piece! In most
situations, it will become a queen; you may not leave it as a pawn and you may not promote it into a king. As a result of
pawn promotion, it is possible to have many queens on the board at the same time!
Capturing "En Passant"
The pawn is also able to capture in a most unusual way. This is one of the trickiest moves to learn and the single move
that causes consternation among beginners. A small bit of history helps to introduce and to understand the en passant (French
for "while passing") capture. During the early days of chess, pawns could only move a single square at a time. Several changes
were introduced in Europe to speed up the game. One of these changes permitted pawns to move two squares if they had not yet
moved.
But this rule change introduced an unfortunate situation. A pawn could now move all the way down the board to become a
queen without the opponent's pawn ever having a chance to capture it. In the following diagram, it is white's move. When the
White pawn moves forward two squares in a single move, the Black pawn on the neighboring file wants to be able to capture
the pawn before the white pawn can advance further. The en passant rule applies here. For one move, AND ONE MOVE ONLY, the
black pawn can respond by capturing the White pawn as if it had only moved a single square. To effect the capture, move the
black pawn forward diagonally and remove the white pawn.
Note that only pawns can capture "en passant," and only a pawn on an adjacent file can capture in this way.
The relative values of the chess pieces
The following table provides the approximate value of the chess pieces. We assign a value of 1 point to the basic unit,
the pawn. Of course, the king is not included in the table because, in a real sense, it has infinite value.
Use the values in this table as a rough guide. By that, I mean that a rook is roughly worth as much as a knight and two
pawns. A queen is worth approximately as much as a rook, knight, and pawn. Two rook rooks are roughly equivilent to a queen
plus a pawn. Of course, in most situations, there are many other factors to consider, especially the relative activity of
the pieces.
| 9 points |
| 5 points |
| 3+ points |
| 3 points |
| 1 point |
You will also note that the bishop receives a value slightly greater than the knight. The bishop is usually, though not
always worth a bit more than a knight. See the special section basic bishop strategy for more information on why this might
be so.
Note also that there are many moments when it will be to your advantage to give up or "sacrifice" some material in inorder
to gain other advantages. By giving up a pawn, you might gain an important square for your knight or an open file for a rook.
By giving up a rook or queen, you might be able to force checkmate. You should therefore use this table of values only as
a rough guide and not as the sole consideration in your play.
How to keep score in a chess game.
I recommend that all new players learn to keep score using what is called "algebraic" notation. In the diagram that follows,
you will notice that the board includes the numbers 1-8 along the left edge and the letters "a" - "h" along the bottom the
board. We can use the combination of one letter and one number to describe each square on the board.
For example, the white king begins the game on e1. The black rooks begin the game on a8 and h8. If I begin the game by
pushing the pawn in front of the white king two squares, we can describe this move as e2-e4, or simply e4. Moving the knight
on g1 to f3 would be written g1-f3, or more simply as Nf3.
An "x" is used to show that a capture has taken place. For example, Nxe4 means that the knight moves and captures whatever
was on e4. You don't necessarily need to include "check" in your scoresheet, but you can easily with "ch" or just "+". For
mate, many players use "#". Now who could resist that!
A complete chess game
You are watching a complete chess game. The "algebraic score" of the game is below.
Edwards,J (2430) - Lamech,L (2275) [US10CCC]
Black needed to respond to my novelty on move ten with ...Ne5. 10...Bd7 severely limited his counterplay in the center.
I spent great deal of time on my 18th move, easily rejecting 18.Bxa7 but 18.Bxe5 was very tempting. The combination at the
end of the game is mostly for show since there are other wins available.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4 Be7 7.g5 Nfd7 8.Rg1 Nc6 9.Be3 Nb6 10.Qd2 Bd7 11.0-0-0 Nxd4 12.Bxd4
0-0 13.f4 Rc8 14.h4 Nc4 15.Bxc4 Rxc4 16.Qd3 b5 17.f5 e5 18.Be3 Re8 19.h5 Qa5 20.g6 hxg6 21.hxg6 Bc6 22.Bh6 Bf8 23.gxf7+ Kxf7
24.Qxd6 Kg8 25.Rxg7+ 1-0
