Chess Has Been Around for About 1500 Years
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Chess Rules! An Ancient Game Chess was invented somewhere in India or the Middle East 1500- 2000 years ago. It was already an old, OLD game during the times of the castles, kings, and knights in Europe. A thousand years ago, Arabians brought a version of chess to Europe. The rules were different then, and it took several days to play a single game! It took another 500 years for the game to slowly change into the version we play now. In the past 500 years, the rules have hardly changed at all. A Great Game There's a reason why it has survived so long—it's a great game! Chess has way more strategy than most games. A well-played game is a work of art. To play the game well requires planning, creativity, thinking ahead, logic, calculation, and patience. Playing chess is a fun way to exercise your brain muscles. The Chessboard A game of chess is a battle of 8 minds fought on a battlefield with an 8 8 array of light and dark 7 squares. Each square has a name 6 that tells you where it is on the board. For example, the square b3 5 is on the b-file and the third rank. Can you locate the e5 and f2 4 squares? 3 b3 Most of the time when you play 2 games of chess, you won't be 1 thinking about the names of the squares, but you will need to a b c d e f g h know them if you want to talk about and learn about chess. 1 Chess Rules! 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h a b c d e f g h Vertical columns of squares are Horizontal rows of squares are called files. For example, the called ranks. line of squares c1 through c8 is called the c-file. The Pieces Each player commands an army of 16 chess pieces. 1 King (K): 1 Queen (Q): Heavy Pieces 2 Rooks (R): Pieces 2 Bishops (B): Minor Pieces 2 Knights (N): 8 Pawns: 2 Chess Rules! It's a little bit crazy, but even though the king and pawns are chess pieces, a lot of times they are not called pieces. When chess players talk about pieces, they usually mean queens, rooks, bishops, and knights, and not the king or pawns. Queens and rooks are heavy pieces while the bishops and knights are minor pieces. The king is the king and pawns are pawns. The Pieces and the Board 8 At the beginning of the game, the pieces are set up like in the 7 picture: king and queen in the 6 middle, rooks in the corners, and knights next to rooks. When 5 setting up the board, remember that the "queen goes on her 4 color" and that the square in 3 your right-hand corner should be white ("white on the right"). 2 1 a b c d e f g h Parts of the Board Queenside Kingside The queenside is the half of the board that the queens are on at 8 Black's back rank the beginning of the game. The 7 White's 7th rank/Black's 2nd rank kingside is the half of the board that the kings are on at the 6 beginning of the game. 5 The The center of the board is the 4 center four squares in the middle of the board—d4, d5, e4, and e5. 3 Sometimes the squares next to 2 the center are included in discussion of the "center." 1 White's back rank a b c d e f g h 3 Chess Rules! The Game The two players take turns moving pieces. White goes first. Each player moves one piece per turn. You can never skip a turn—even you want to! On your turn, you may move a piece to a better spot or you may capture one of your opponent's pieces by crashing into it, removing it from the board, and taking its place on that square. Once a piece is captured, it is out for the rest of the game. The object of the game is to keep capturing pieces until one of the kings is captured by force (checkmate). At that point, the game is over. The pieces all move in different ways, and each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses. A. Pawns Pawns are the weakest of the chess pieces but have the trickiest rules for moving. 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h a b c d e f g h On its first move, a pawn can A pawn can capture pieces only move either one or two squares diagonally forward one square— forward. After that it can only never straight forward, sideways, move forward one square at a or backwards. In the picture, time and never backwards. White's e-pawn cannot move straight forward because it is blocked by Black's e-pawn, but it can capture the black f-pawn. 4 Chess Rules! Special Pawn Moves 1. Promotion You can turn the weakest piece into the most powerful piece! When a pawn makes it all the way across the board to its 8th rank, it gets promoted to the piece of your choice: queen, knight, rook, or bishop. The new piece immediately replaces the pawn on the promotion square. Pawn promotions usually only occur late in the game. 2. En passant Take a deep breath and relax before reading about this silly- sounding move. It isn't nearly as hard as it seems...If a pawn moves forward two squares on its first move when it could have been captured by a pawn if it had moved only one square instead, then the pawn may still be captured en passant. The capturing pawn moves diagonal one square forward to the square where the other pawn would have been if it had only moved one square, and the captured pawn is removed from the board. If the en passant capture is to be made, it must be made immediately after the running pawn moves its two squares. Ugh! What a mouthful! A picture helps. 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h a b c d e f g h The black pawn moves two spaces White pawn sticks out its foot and on the first move and tries to avoid trips the black pawn as it tries to run capture by running past the white past. The black pawn is captured. pawn. 5 Chess Rules! Where did this strange move come from? Over 500 years ago, the rules changed to allow pawns to move two squares forward on their first move. Some people didn't like this: "Doggonit! They'll be able to run past my pawns on the fifth rank and escape! It's not fair!" The en passant capture was invented so that pawns could still move forward two spaces on their first move, but they couldn't do it just because they were scared of being captured if they only moved one square. B. Rooks Rooks can move as 8 far as they like in a straight line along a rank or file—forward, 7 backward, left, right—but they can't 6 jump over other pieces. They capture 5 by crashing into an opposing piece, removing it from the board, and 4 stopping on the square where the 3 captured piece was. 2 The rook in the picture can move to 1 any one of the squares with a star. a b c d e f g h C. Bishops Bishops can move as far as they like diagonally— 8 forward, backward, left, right—but 7 they cannot jump over other pieces. Like all chess pieces, they capture by 6 crashing into an opposing piece, 5 removing it from the board, and 4 stopping on the square where the captured piece was. 3 2 The black bishop in the picture can move to any of the starred squares. 1 a b c d e f g h 6 Chess Rules! A bishop cannot move to a different colored square. A bishop that starts on a light square stays on light squares the whole game and is called a "light-squared bishop". And dark-squared bishops always stay on dark squares. 8 D. Queen At the start of a game, each player has one 7 queen. The queen is like a rook and 6 bishop combined. It can move as far as you'd like it to in any direction 5 along a rank, file, or diagonal but 4 can't jump over other pieces. Like 3 other pieces, it captures by crashing into another piece and taking its place 2 on the board. 1 a b c d e f g h E. Knights Knights move in a small "L" shape. Like the other pieces, they capture by landing on top of another piece. Unlike other pieces, these horses can jump right over other pieces! The knight in the picture can move to 8 any of the starred squares. 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a b c d e f g h 7 Chess Rules! F. King 8 The king can move one square in any 7 direction—forward, backward, left, right, or diagonally.