Opening Moves - Player Facts

DVD Chess Rules Chess puzzles Classic games Extras - Opening moves - Player facts General Rules The aim in the game of chess is to win by trapping your opponent's king. White always moves first and players take turns moving one game piece at a time. Movement is required every turn. Each type of piece has its own method of movement. A piece may be moved to another position or may capture an opponent's piece. This is done by landing on the appropriate square with the moving piece and removing the defending piece from play. With the exception of the knight, a piece may not move over or through any of the other pieces. When the board is set up it should be positioned so that the letters A-H face both players. When setting up, make sure that the white queen is positioned on a light square and the black queen is situated on a dark square. The two armies should be mirror images of one another. Pawn Movement Each player has eight pawns. They are the least powerful piece on the chess board, but may become equal to the most powerful. Pawns always move straight ahead unless they are capturing another piece. Generally pawns move only one square at a time. The exception is the first time a pawn is moved, it may move forward two squares as long as there are no obstructing pieces. A pawn cannot capture a piece directly in front of him but only one at a forward angle. When a pawn captures another piece the pawn takes that piece’s place on the board, and the captured piece is removed from play If a pawn gets all the way across the board to the opponent’s edge, it is promoted. The player whose pawn is being promoted can choose any piece (except a king) that the pawn will turn into. Normally a player will want to promote his/her pawn to a queen, since the queen is the most powerful piece on the board. The new piece is placed where the pawn ended its movement. En Passant A special rule concerning pawn movement is called En Passant (=”While Passing”). It can only happen when a player moves his pawn two squares on its first movement. If the opposing player has a pawn that threatens the square the first pawn skipped, this player may use his turn to capture the first pawn, as if this pawn stood on the empty square. This capturing must be done immediately after the pawn to be captured moved the two squares. In the example video the white pawn has just moved two squares, and the black pawn captures it using the En Passant rule. Rook Movement The rook is one of the more powerful pieces on the board. The rooks, together with the queen, are often thought of as the "major pieces". The rook can move any number of squares in a straight line along any column or row until it is prevented from continuing by another piece. The rook CANNOT move diagonally. Enemy pieces can be captured normally. A special rule concerning the rook’s movement coupled with the king’s is Castling. Knight's Movement The knight is the only piece on the board that may jump over other pieces. In this way it is more flexible than the other pieces. The knight’s movement can be viewed as an "L" laid out at any horizontal or vertical angle. 1) First it moves one square either horizontally or vertically. 2) then it moves one square diagonally but still moving onward in the same direction. Only an enemy piece on the final square can be captured, the other squares are jumped over. Bishop's Movement The bishop may move any number of squares in a diagonal direction until it is prevented from continuing by another piece. Enemy pieces can be captured normally. A bishop always remains on the same coloured squares that it stands on at the beginning of the game. Each player has one bishop that moves only on the dark squares, and one that moves on the light squares. The Queen's Movement The queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. She can move any number of squares along any horizontal, vertical or diagonal row until she is prevented from continuing by another piece. Enemy pieces can be captured normally. The queen cannot jump over other pieces. It is generally thought to be unwise to bring the queen out too early in the game. The cluttered board makes it easier to trap her. King's Movement The king is the most important piece although he is not the most powerful one. The player who loses the king, loses the game. The king can only move one square in any direction. He can capture enemy pieces normally, but he may never move into a position where he may be captured by an opposing piece. Because of this rule, two kings can never capture each other. Castling Castling is the only case when more than one piece is moved during a single turn. When castling the king moves two squares towards either rook, and that rook moves to the square the king just moved through. Castling is only allowed if: - there are no pieces standing between the king and the rook. - neither the king nor the rook have moved from their original positions. - there is no opposing piece that threatens the king in his original square, the square he moves through or the square that he ends the turn. End Game A chess game can end in three different ways: - A player’s king is checkmated - A player resigns - There is a stalemate Check and Checkmate When a player moves a piece into a position where it threatens the enemy king, this king is said to be “in check”. The player who placed the king in check announces this by saying “check”. The defending player is now obligated to remove the threat either by moving the king, or by capturing the threatening piece. When it impossible for the defending player to move into safety or to capture the threatening piece, the player loses the game. This is called “checkmate”. The king is now considered lost. Resigning Either player may resign at any point in the game. This generally happens when a player loses an important piece and victory seems unlikely. Stalemate and draw A stalemate occurs when a player's only move is to place his own king in check, but its current square is not threatened. Stalemate is considered a tie. The game ends when a stalemate occurs. As long as he can move another piece or the king can move to an open square, stalemate may not occur. A draw also results when the only two pieces on the board are Kings, regardless of their position. Another reason for a draw is if check mate with the remaining pieces is impossible. This is called insufficient material. Variants Tournament chess and chess clocks In tournament play, once a piece has been touched by a player, it must be moved. Outside of tournaments this rule is often used, but not always. To ensure that neither player delays the game a chess clock can be used. A chess clock uses two adjacent clocks to keep track of the exact amount of time used by each player. There are many several different kinds of time control that can be used. - SD/30 means a Sudden Death game where each player only has 30 minutes to win the game. If either player runs out of time before winning, he loses the game. - 40/120 followed by SD/60 means 120 minutes to complete the 40 first moves, and then 60 minutes to finish the game. If a player’s time runs out before the game has reached a natural end, that player loses. Blitz chess Blitz chess is played with between 3 and 15 minutes for both players to use during the game. For example SD/5 is common in Blitz chess. Letter chess and e-mail chess These variants are popular when players are geographically far apart and are not in a hurry to finish the game. The player playing white sends a letter or an e-mail to the other player describing his first move. The other player executes his opponents move on a normal chess board with all the pieces. He then player takes the time he wants but eventually replies describing his counter move. The game goes on like this just like a normal game of chess until the winner is found or there is a draw. Fun variant Suicide chess In suicide chess the winner is the first player to have lost all his pieces. The pieces move normally. - When it is possible for a player to capture an enemy piece, he must do so. - If a player has several possibilities of capturing pieces, he may choose to capture any one of them. - When a pawn reaches the far end of the board it is promoted. The player may choose between all pieces except pawns for this promotion, even a king. Opening moves Ruy Lopez 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 With this opening White starts an attack immediately, while simultaneously preparing to castle. White directs pressure on Black's e-pawn and prepares for a pawn on d4. Black's best reply on move 3 is a6, which attacks White's attacking bishop. After that, White can back up (Ba4) or exchange pieces (Bxc6).

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