The Purpose of the Game
The game of chess revolves around attacking (or checking) your opponents’ king. The ultimate goal of the game is to put the other side’s king in checkmate. A checkmate is when the king is put in such a position that it is being attacked and has no other available square on which to move. Once a player puts his opponents’ king in checkmate he has won the game.
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Setting Up the Board
When setting up the chess board you want to make sure that the light square is on the right side. A helpful way to remember this is to memorize the saying, “light on right”. Once you have the board set up you can set up the white pawns by lining them all up on the second row. Then you can set up the rooks on each corner. Next to the rooks go the knights and then the bishops. By now you should have two open squares left on your first row. Always remember that the queen goes on it’s own color. So if it’s white it needs to start out on the white or light square. This then leaves the last square for the king. You can then do the same thing for the black pieces on the other side. Refer to the above video for assistance.
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Pawn
Each pawn on its first move can move one or two squares forward. After that initial move it can only move one square forward at a time. However it attacks on its diagonal. In other words it can “eat” an opponents piece when it is next to a square that is in front of it.
When a pawn reaches the opposite side of the board it can be promoted to either a rook, knight, bishop or queen.
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Knight
The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. It moves in an “L” shape by either going forward, back or to the sides two spaces and then one square to the side. It can eat an opponents piece when that piece is on a square that it can land on.
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The Bishop
The bishop can move on its diagonal forwards or backwards as many squares as long as there are no other pieces blocking its way. It can capture an opponent’s piece by landing on its square.
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The Rook
The rook can move any number of squares horizontally or vertically as long as there are no pieces blocking its path. In order to capture an opponent’s piece the rook must be able to land on the piece’s square.
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The Queen
The most powerful piece on the board is the queen. This is because the queen has the most freedom of movement. As long as there no other pieces blocking its path it can move as many squares horizontally, vertically, diagonally, forward or backward. You can think of it as a rook and bishop combined into one piece.
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The King
The king can move one square in any direction. It is the most important piece on the board. When the king is being attacked or in other words, in check, it must move. It cannot move to a square that is being attacked. If your king is in check and cannot move to a square that is not being attacked then you have lost the game.
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Castling
When certain conditions are met the king and a rook can move at the same time. These conditions are:
-The king nor the rook have previously moved.
-The king nor the rook will be moving through an attacked square.
-The king nor the rook will end up on a square that is being attacked.
-The squares between the king and rook are empty.
When these conditions are met they may castle. The king moves two squares toward the rook and the rook moves over the king toward the next square. When this is done on the king’s side it called “king’s side castling”. On the other side it is called “Queen’s side castling”.
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En Passant
When a pawn moves two squares on its first move and ends up on the side of an opponent’s pawn then that opponent’s pawn has the option of capturing it. The pawn captures the other one by move diagonally forward (not by taking the square of the captured pawn.) This special move’s name is in French which basically means, “in passing”.
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