A Brief Summary of the Rules of Chess for the Intelligent Neophyte hess is one of the world’s oldest and most popular The Chessboard BLACK Cboard games. Its longevity and popularity can prob- Chess is played using a game ably be attributed to a number of advantages offered by board called a chessboard diagonal file the game: It requires no special equipment to play; the (Figure 1). The chessboard is a rules are simple and understandable even to young chil- square flat surface of any con- dren; there is no element of chance in the game (that is, venient size that is divided rank the outcome depends exclusively on the relative skills of into an eight-by-eight array of the players); and the number of possible games in chess smaller squares of two alter- is so astronomically high that it provides an extraordi- nating colors. Any two colors WHITE narily broad range of challenge and entertainment for all may be used to distinguish the Figure 1 fi players, both young and old, from the rst-time novice squares, as long as it is possible to clearly tell them to the seasoned grandmaster of chess. apart, but whatever the real colors used, they are usual- This guide explains the basics of the game, and pro- ly referred to as white and black for convenience. You vides you with enough information to allow you to and your opponent typically sit facing each other, at begin playing chess yourself. It also describes chess opposite edges of the board. fl ff notation brie y, and o ers information on playing the The horizontal rows of the chessboard, as seen from game against computers (since a human opponent of above and from the position of either player, are called suitably-matched skill level and interest may not always ranks, and the vertical columns are called files. Straight fi be easy to nd). lines of squares of the same color whose corners touch The Basics are called diagonals. The chessboard must always be oriented such that you Chess is a game for two players. It is played using a (and your opponent) have a white square in the right- simple game board and a number of special playing most positions of the ranks closest to each of you (as pieces. You and your opponent take turns moving pieces shown in the figure). around the board to play the game, according to specific rules of movement for each piece. The object of the Chess Pieces game is to trap one of your opponent’s playing pieces, Upon the chessboard are initially placed 32 chess called the king, such that it cannot escape capture. pieces that you and your opponent move about the board The actual form taken by the game board and the play- during the course of play. In chess, one player is called ing pieces is virtually irrelevant in chess, as long as they White, and the other player is called Black, and each are recognizable. Thus, chess can be played with simple player has a set of 16 playing pieces of his own color. or elaborate chess sets, or with pencil and paper, or on a See Figure 2 for an schematic illustration of the pieces computer screen, or even from memory (if you have a and their initial arrangement on the board. good memory!). Each player’s pieces are divided into six types, and each player begins the game with eight pawns, two square risks being captured by you during a subsequent rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen, and one move, assuming that he takes no action to prevent this. king. In general, when one of your pieces is being attacked At any given point in the BLACK by your opponent, you are not obligated to take any game, a given square on action to prevent the capture of that piece, if you do not the chessboard may be wish to do so. However, there is one exception: If the either occupied by a single piece under attack is your king, you are said to be in chess piece or empty; but check, and you must take action to protect your king no square may be occupied from attack during your very next move, or you lose the by more than one piece at a game (a condition called checkmate). Indeed, the whole time, and no piece may object of a chess game is to checkmate one’s opponent. occupy more than one It follows from this principle that you are also prohibit- square. ed from making any move that would place your king in The pieces belonging to WHITE check (i.e., expose it to attack). rook (R) bishop (B) you as a player, and in play knight (N) queen (Q) Blocking Moves at any given moment, are king (K) pawn (P) often referred to collective- In general, you can move a piece to any unoccupied Figure 2 ly as your material. square (or to any square occupied by an opponent’s piece) as long as you follow the rules of movement for Rules of the Game the type of piece you are moving, and provided that no To play the game, you and your opponent alternate in intervening squares are occupied. In other words, you moving your chess pieces from square to square on the cannot move, say, a rook five squares forward (even board, following specific rules for the movement of each though the rules for a rook allow this) if one of the three type of piece. Each move in chess consists of White intervening squares is occupied by a piece of either moving one of her pieces, followed by Black moving color. one of his pieces. This pattern is followed without The one exception to this rule is the knight, because the exception throughout the game. It follows, then, that knight is allowed to jump over other pieces. White always begins the game. A corollary of this is that attack by another piece is You may move only one piece per move, and it can only generally blocked by an intervening piece of either be a piece of your own color. You cannot skip a move, color, because no piece (except the knight) can jump and you cannot move twice in a row. over other pieces of either color. Note, however, that the only way to protect a piece against attack by a knight Attack and Capture (since it cannot be blocked in this way) is to either move You may not move one of your pieces to a square the attacked piece or capture the knight. already occupied by another of your pieces. However, you may move one of your pieces to a square occupied Types of Playing Pieces by one of your opponent’s pieces, if you wish. This lat- All of the rules of chess described up to now would ter operation is called capture, and when you carry it make for a pretty dull game in themselves, were it not out, your opponent’s captured piece is permanently for the fact that each of the six types of playing pieces is removed from the board, and it no longer participates in required to move in a slightly different way. The poten- the playing of the game. Your own piece then occupies tial complexity of the interaction of pieces due to these the square formerly occupied by your opponent’s cap- constraints provides for almost unlimited variety in the tured piece. Moving to the square and capturing your playing of the game. opponent’s piece are accomplished together as a single Below we explain the rules of movement for each of move. the six types of playing pieces. Any square on the board on which one of your pieces can be placed during your next move of the game is said Pawns to be under attack by that piece. In consequence, any The pawn is generally considered to be the weakest piece belonging to your opponent that occupies such a type of chess piece on the board. A pawn can only move - 2 - The knight is also unique in that it is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. One consequence of this is that you cannot block an attack by a knight on one of your pieces simply by moving another piece between the two. If your king is in check by your opponent’s knight, your only option is to move the king or capture the knight; if you cannot do either of these, you are check- first move subsequent moves mated, no matter how many other pieces are between the without capture without capture knight and your king. This particularity of the knight can be decisive in many situations. Another consequence of the knight’s ability to jump over other pieces is that it is very powerful in the early portion of a game, when a large amount of material on the board still obstructs the movements of other pieces. first move subsequent moves with capture with capture Figure 3 one square directly forward (towards the opposing side of the board) during a move, except on its very first move, during which can move either one or two squares forward. Furthermore, a pawn cannot capture a piece by knight bishop moving straight forward; it only captures diagonally. See Figure 4 Figure 3 for details. Both of these characteristics are You initially have two knights, in the back rank of your unique to the pawn; all other pieces move in the same side of the board.