Introduction
Chess is the oldest board game still played today. Of course, it is a game. To those who only play for fun or not at all insist that it's only a game; that it doesn't really matter. However, I'm convinced that it's not just a game. Throughout the years people have (rightly so) compared it to mathematics, science, art. There are even those who think of it as a metaphor for life.
With all that said, many people will automatically think it's a hard game to play. The popular perception of Chess, furthermore, is that it's a difficult strategy game that should only be played by smart guys.
That, however, is only a popular misconception. The basic rules of chess aren't that hard to learn. Many children learn chess at an early age-in fact, I used to play against a man at a Chess club who had been playing since he was three years old. Of course, that's not the norm, but there should be no reason a teen or adult will have any problem learning the game.
The reason it's considered difficult is because, though the rules are simple, strategies can get very complex. There are those who devote their entire lives to the study of the game. Some of the grandmasters I've met told me they study fourteen hours a day, every day, and they've been doing this for many, many years. So it can be said that you get out of Chess what you put into it. If you just want to play for fun, you can learn in no time at all. If you want to win big prizes at tournaments, it's going to take a lot of study.
The reason Chess can be so complicated is that each side (white and black) gets sixteen pieces of six varieties. Their movements and the rules aren't that difficult (memorizing how six types of pieces move isn't so hard), but because those pieces can move just about anywhere you want them to, you get a lot of variables very quickly. Some experts have said that there are more possible games of Chess than grains of sand on the entire planet. One expert went so far as to say that the total number of atoms in the entire universe is trivial compared to the possible variations of Chess you can play up to move forty (and many games last longer than forty moves).
To put that into perspective for Chess, let's imagine you're at a point in the game at which ten of your sixteen pieces can move (yes, I just made that number up to illustrate a point), and each of them has, let's say, three possible moves. That's thirty possible moves. Your opponent has thirty possible moves to reply and you have thirty possible moves to reply to that. The number of variables increases the longer the game goes.
But again, don't let that discourage you. You don't need to know all those variables. There's not a person on Earth who knows all those variables, not even the World Chess Champions. All you need to know in order to play is a short set of rules. Once you get to that point, you can do as much or as little as you please.
The Board & Pieces
The Chessboard is a checkerboard battlefield of sixty-four squares with alternating colors (that's an 8x8 square board).
The pieces are divided into two colors: white and black
(some Chess sets use different colors, which can be defined as light
and dark, but officially, they're called white and black). Each army
has exactly the same pieces. They are:
Pawns-each side has eight
Knights-each side has two
Bishops-each side has two
Rooks-each side has two
Queen-each side has one
King-each side has one
Basics
The first move of the game is always made by white. That gives white a slight advantage, so to compensate for this, players usually alternate colors after each game. Some people choose to flip a coin to decide who plays white first. Others "pick pawns." What this means is that a player holds a white pawn and a black pawn, one in each fist, so that the other player can't see them. The other player chooses a hand and plays whichever color pawn he chose.
After the first move, the players alternate moves until the end of the game.
Any piece in Chess can capture (remove from the board) any other piece, regardless of rank. To capture a piece, simply move one of your pieces onto the square the enemy piece occupies. You cannot capture your own pieces.
The only exception is the King. Neither player's King may ever be captured. In fact, the goal of Chess is the King, so it's the most important piece. I'm sure you're probably scratching your head right now. If the goal of Chess is to get the enemy King, but the King can't be captured, how does the game ever end?
Well, the King is never actually captured and removed from the board, but the goal is to trap the enemy King by putting it in "checkmate." Checkmate is a position in which the king is in danger from an enemy piece and has no way to escape. We'll explain exactly how check and checkmate work when we discuss the King, a little bit later.
For now, let's set up the board.
Setting Up
The set-up is fairly simple. You place the board between the two players, so that there is a white square in the bottom right corner (this will be the bottom right for both players, because the white corners are diagonal from each other).
The pieces always begin in the same order. One tip you should remember is that your pieces will be directly opposite the enemy pieces of the same type (Kings directly across from Kings, Rooks directly across from Rooks, and so on).
In the row closest to you (the back row), you put all the pieces except for the Pawns.
The Rooks go in the corners. Next to them go the Knights. Next to them go the Bishops. And in the middle squares go the King and Queen. The Queen always goes on her own color and the King always goes on the opposite color (in other words, the white Queen goes on a white square, the black Queen goes on a black square, the white King goes on a black square and the black King goes on a white square).
In this diagram, you can see all the pieces (not pawns) in their starting positions.
In the row directly in front of those pieces, go all eight of your pawns. So you have a row of pawns, and then all your various pieces. The starting position should look like this:
This diagram shows the starting position. Every game of Chess begins with the pieces set up as shown.
Now you're done setting up and you're ready to play.
Captures
Capturing a piece in Chess simply means one of your pieces lands on a square on which an enemy piece is resting, at which time you remove that enemy piece. It is now captured and no longer in play.
Many people who are already familiar with Checkers before they learn Chess are familiar with "jumping." That doesn't happen in Chess. You don't capture an enemy piece by jumping over it, but by landing on it.
Other people, familiar with other board games or card games, are familiar with the idea that pieces are captured according to rank (i.e., a lower ranking piece cannot capture a higher ranking piece). This is not true in Chess. A pawn can capture the queen just as easily as a queen can capture a pawn.
The Pieces & How They Move
Pawns
The pawn is the weakest piece in the game, but there are those who say a good pawn formation can win or lose a game. Alone, a pawn can do very little. In combination, they can do a lot. Two pawns working together have the strength of four pawns working alone. Three pawns together have the power of nine pawns working alone.
Moving pawns is fairly simple. They only move straight forward, one square at a time.
In this diagram, the arrow shows which square your pawn may move to.
On its first move (the pawn's first move, not your first move), a pawn may move two squares forward instead of just one. Another way of saying this is that from any square other than its starting square, the pawn can move only one square forward at a time. From its starting square, it may move either one or two squares forward.
This diagram shows two pawns, both on their starting squares. The one on the left is moving only one square forward, while the one on the right is moving two squares forward. However, either pawn, from this starting position, could choose to move either one square or two squares.
In Chess, almost all pieces capture enemy pieces simply by moving and landing on the same square. The only piece that captures in a different manner than it moves is the pawn.
The pawn captures an enemy piece by moving one square diagonally forward, landing on the square on which the enemy piece is resting.
This pawn may move diagonally forward to capture the enemy pawn. It could also choose not to capture and just move straight forward normally (this alternative is not shown in the diagram).
It is important to note that a pawn may never move backward. On a standard move, it moves one square forward. To capture, it moves diagonally one square, also forward.
The pawn may never move diagonally except to capture an enemy piece.
The pawn may never jump over or move through any piece (yours or your opponents).
In Chess, there are a couple of "special moves," that only apply in certain circumstances. Two of these involve pawns. They are called "pawn promotion" and "en passant" (meaning, "in passing"). We're going to get to those in a couple of minutes. Don't worry about them for the moment.
Knights
Each player has two knights. Generally, they look like horses. The knights are unique in two ways. First, they don't move in straight lines, as the other pieces do. Second, they are the only pieces in Chess that may jump over other pieces.
Knight moves have been described thus: the knight moves to the nearest square to that on which it originates, but not on the same rank, file, or diagonal (ranks and files are Chess lingo for vertical and horizontal rows).
This is true, but very confusing. If you spend a few moments and figure that out, you realize that the knight moves in an "L" shape.
The arrow in this diagram show all the different squares to which this knight may move. Notice the "L" shape of the moves.
Basically, the knight moves two squares one direction, and then one square in another direction, to make that "L" shape.
As I said earlier, the knight may jump over other pieces, yours or your opponents. However, this is not Checkers. When a knight jumps over a piece, that piece is not captured. It remains exactly where it was.
The knight captures an enemy piece by landing on its square.
Bishops
Each player begins the game with two bishops. Usually they are fairly tall pieces, with a slit or notch in the "head."
The bishops may move as many squares across the board as they wish, but they only move diagonally. This has the effect that the bishop always remains on the same color of square (thus, at the beginning, each player has a white square bishop and a dark square bishop).
The arrow show the squares to which the bishop may move. Note that the bishop need not go all the way to the end of its chosen diagonal. It may move as many or as few squares in that direction as it wants (as long as it's in a straight line along the diagonal).
The bishops may not jump over any other piece of either side. The bishop captures an enemy piece by landing on its square.
Rooks
Again, each player has two rooks, which usually look like castle towers. Thus, the rooks are often called "castles." In casual terminology, this is acceptable, and any Chess player will know what you're talking about, but I recommend you use the proper name (rook) from the beginning.
The rooks may move any number of squares they want in a straight line, forward, backward, or to either side. In other words, while the bishops move in a straight line along the diagonals, the rooks move in a straight line along the rows and columns (properly called ranks and files).
The arrows show the squares to which the rook may move. Again, like in the case of the bishop, the rook need not go all the way to the end. It may move any number of squares along its straight line.
Like most other pieces, rooks do not jump over any pieces and capture by landing on the same square as an enemy piece.
Queen
The queen is the most powerful piece in the game. It's like a bishop and a rook combined.
The queen may move as many squares as you wish in a straight line, forward, backward, to either side, or along any diagonal.
The arrows show possible queen moves. Again, the queen may move as many or as few squares as desired along these straight lines.
The queen may not jump over or move through any other pieces and captures by landing on an enemy piece's square.
King
The king is the most important piece of the game, but not the most powerful. For an explanation of the importance, see "Check & Checkmate" below.
As far as movement is concerned, the king is something like "queen-light." Like the queen, the king may move in any direction. Unlike the queen (which can move as many squares as it wants), the king may only move one square at a time.
The arrows show possible king moves from this position.
In other words, the king may move to any of the eight adjacent squares which form something of a "box" around the king.
Of course, it goes without saying that the king cannot jump over other pieces (how could it, given that it only moves one square at a time). The king captures by moving to a square occupied by an enemy piece.
Check & Checkmate
The goal of Chess is to trap the enemy king (that's why it's the most important piece in the game). While the king is never actually captured and removed from the board like other pieces, when your king is trapped, you are said to be in "checkmate" and the game is over. Let's explain the terminology briefly and then we'll go into more detail.
Check is the situation in which your king is threatened by an enemy piece, but has a way to escape.
Checkmate is the situation in which your king is threatened by an enemy piece, and there is no way to escape. If you are checkmated, you lose.
So, let's imagine an enemy piece is threatening your king.
You can see in this diagram that the black rook is threatening the white king. This is "check," because the king is in danger, but has a way to escape.
This is known as check. There are three possible ways to escape (get out of check):
Move. You may move your king away to another square, on which it is no longer in danger.
In this example, the king moves to the side. He is moving out of the check, because the square to which he moves is not threatened by any enemy piece.
Block. You may move a different piece between your king and its attacker, thus blocking the enemy piece's attack.
In this example, the white rook moves between the black rook and white king. The king, therefore, is no longer threatened.
Capture. You may capture the attacking piece (either with the king or with another piece).
In this example, the white bishop captures the black rook, thus ending the threat.
If none of these options is possible, that means it's checkmate and you lose (so your goal, in order to win, is to put your enemy into that situation).
In this diagram, white is in checkmate. The black queen is threatening the white king. There are no other pieces on the board with which to neutralize the attack. All squares to which the king might move have been covered. And the king cannot capture the queen because it is protected by the black king.
There are a few simple rules about check to remember.
First, you may never move your king into check. You wouldn't want to anyway, but if you make a mistake and do it by accident, your opponent may not then capture your king. Your move into check was illegal and you must go back and choose a different move before proceeding.
Second, if you are in check, you must deal with that before moving on to other plans. The king may not remain in check. This has led to a common courtesy that when you put your opponent in check, you simply say "check" to make sure he notices. Note that this is not a rule (and in a tournament situation, is discouraged), but is something I suggest beginners do to help things along. Again, if you make a move that leaves your king in check, you must go back and do something different.
Checkmate, we've already described as a situation in which you're in check and have no legal move to escape (in which case you lose). We've also already established that you may never move yourself into a position of check.
So what happens in a situation where you're not in check (thus, not in checkmate either, naturally), but have no legal moves (i.e., all moves would place you in check)? This situation is known as "stalemate." If this happens, the game is a draw (or tie).
Assuming it's white's move, this position is a stalemate. White is not in check, but has no legal moves to make (all moves would put white in check). If it were black's move, it would not be stalemate. He would be able to put white in checkmate by moving the queen in front of white's king. Also note that if white had other pieces on the board which could move, this would not be a stalemate (while he would not be able to move the king, there would still be legal moves on the board).
Other Types of Draws
Stalemate is a draw in which there is no legal move to make, but that's not the only way to come to a draw. Here are the other possibilities.
Three Move Repetition
If the EXACT SAME position appears on the board three times, the game is considered a draw. Basically, the assumption is that if you're just moving back and forth in the same way over and over and over, it means that neither player is ever going to win. That would just keep on going until someone got bored and left.
Perpetual Check
If the situation comes up in which you can keep your opponent in check on each move, but you can never seem to put him in checkmate, this is called perpetual check, and is considered a draw.
The rule is that if you are placed in check and move out of it twenty times in a row (with no moves in-between), it's a draw by perpetual check.
The Fifty Move Rule
In Chess, a "move" is defined as one move by each player. Meaning, white moves a piece and then black moves a piece, and this is considered one move.
If fifty moves go by without any pieces being captured, or without any pawn moves, the game is a draw. The idea is that if fifty moves go by without a pawn move or a capture, the game is probably never going to end.
Players may also agree to a draw, even if these situations don't come up. One player simply offers a draw, and the other player may choose whether to accept or decline the offer. If it's accepted, the game is scored as a draw. If it's declined, the game continues as usual.
Either player may offer a draw at any time (generally, the offer is made immediately after your move, but before the opponent's move), and may offer as many times as he wants. However, it is proper to wait at least several moves before offering again. You don't want to annoy anyone.
Special Moves
There are a few special moves you need to know about, that I chose not to include in the basic descriptions of how the pieces move.
Pawn Promotion
Pawns only move forward, so the more astute among you may be wondering, "what happens if a pawn makes it all the way across the board?"
Well, if you manage to move a pawn all the way across the board, to the "back rank," you may promote that pawn. Commonly, this is known as "Queening" because you can turn that pawn into a queen, but that's not accurate, so please don't use that word.
In fact you can get the queen back if you want, but you're not limited to the queen. When a pawn reaches the other side, you may turn it into a knight, bishop, rook, or queen (in other words, anything except a king or leaving it as a pawn).
In this situation, the pawn is removed from the board, and the new piece is placed on its square.
It should go without saying that you may not promote your pawn to an enemy piece.
The promotion takes place on the same turn as the pawn lands on the back rank, but that new piece may not make any additional moves until your next turn.
The most commonly selected piece chosen is the queen, but there are times when you might want a bishop, knight or rook. That's perfectly acceptable.
With pawn promotion, it's possible, in fact, to have an extra queen (if your original queen has not yet been captured). It's possible to have three rooks, or four knights. In other words, you're not obligated to choose only a piece which has been captured. If you do not have a captured piece of the type you want to "get back," you can get creative and just use some form of marker to keep track of which piece is which. Just make sure your opponent knows what kind of piece you're promoting to.
Note that you may promote as many pawns as you can get across the board. However, once you've promoted a pawn, that piece may never change into anything else. I once played a game in which my opponent promoted his pawn to a rook. Several moves later, that rook landed on his back row (the one closest to me) and he tried to promote that to a queen. That's not legal. Promotion is a one-time deal.
En Passant
En Passant, or "in passing" is a special pawn move that seldom comes into play, but it's very important to know about it.
If you have a pawn far advanced across the board, to your fifth rank (the fifth row, when counting from that which is closest to you (first rank) to that which is closest to your opponent (eighth rank)), and the enemy moves a pawn up two squares, passing through (but not landing on) a square threatened by your pawn, you may capture it "in passing."
In this diagram, it's black's move. His pawn may move either one square forward or two, as shown by the arrows. If he moves one square forward, we see that the white pawn may capture it. It would, however, appear to be safe if it moves two squares forward. Not so. Let's assume it moves two squares forward.
In this diagram, the black pawn has moved two squares forward, thus passing through the threatened square. See the arrow. It would appear to be safe, but En Passant allows white to capture that pawn "in passing" as if it had only moved one square.
In this diagram, white has captured the black pawn through En Passant. The "X" is the square the black pawn was taken from.
There are a few simple rules for this special move.
You may only capture an enemy pawn with En Passant. No other pieces are vulnerable to such an attack.
You may only capture with a pawn of your own. No other pieces are capable of making such an attack.
You are not required to capture the pawn, but if you want to, you must do so immediately after the enemy pawn's move which would allow it. You can't wait one or more turns and then decide to go back and capture it later. En Passant means "in passing," so it must be done immediately.
Castling
In Chess, you are never allowed to move more than one piece per turn, unless by a special move called "Castling." There are very specific conditions which must be met, and we'll discuss those in a moment, but the basic idea of Castling is that you may move your king and rook, in a specific manner, in a single turn.
You may castle with the king and either rook (it doesn't matter whether you use the kingside rook or the queenside rook), as long as certain conditions are met.
First, here's the basic move. You move the king two squares toward the rook (the only time the king can move more than one square at a time) and you move the rook to the opposite side of the king.
On the kingside, or short side, it looks like this:
Before:
After:
On the queenside, or long side, it looks like this:
Before:
After:
The first rule, which should be obvious, is that all the squares between the king and rook must be unoccupied. If you choose to castle queenside, there are three squares which must be empty; if you castle kingside, only two squares need to be cleared.
The second rule is that neither piece involved may have moved previously in the game. If the king has moved, you're no longer able to castle. If the rook you choose to use for this move has moved previously, you're no longer able to castle on that side (however, if the rook on the other side has not moved, castling is still possible over there).
The third rule is that you may not castle into, out of, or through check.
With those rules in mind, just remember that the king may move two squares toward the rook, and the rook moves to the square directly on the opposite side of the king.
Those are the rules of Chess. You can go out and play the game without any more knowledge at all. However, I do have other articles which will help you improve your game.
Please do not read those articles immediately. Play a few games first, make sure you know all the rules and are comfortable with them (you might want to play a couple games with an experienced player first, just to make sure you're doing everything right). When you're ready, come back and read the article on Chess notation, which will help you understand the other articles which follow.