HOW TO PLAY CHESS

THIS IS HOW

LOOK LIKE

A CHESS BOARD

THINGS TO REMEMBER

• The board has 64 squares (8×8)

• 32 light squares and 32 dark squares

• The board is labeled with letters (a–h) and numbers (1–8)

• Horizontal rows (1–8) are called ranks

• Vertical columns (a–h) are called files

LET'S LOOK AT THE PIECES

LETS LOOK AT ONE BY ONE

NIGHT

BISHOP

PAWN

ROOK

QUEEN

KING

LET'S START WITH PAWN

Pawns in chess move straight forward one square at a time, but can move two squares on their first move. Also, pawns capture one square diagonally.

MOVEMENT

Pawn promotion:

When a pawn reaches the opposite end of the board, it must be replaced with a piece other than the king as per the player's choice.

ATTACK BY THE PAWN

MOVEMENT

• A pawn moves straight forward only.

• It moves 1 square forward normally.

• On its first move, it can move 2 squares forward.

• It cannot move sideways or backward.

• It cannot move forward if a piece is blocking the square in front of it.

NEXT LET'S LEARN ABOUT NIGHT

Knights in chess are the most unique. They move in a 'L' shape in all directions. This peculiar movement allows them to basically jump over pieces.

BISHOP

Bishops in chess move along diagonals. The dark square Bishops remain in dark squares while the light square Bishops remain in light squares.

• Each player starts with two bishops.

• Bishops move diagonally across the board.

• One bishop stays on light squares, the other on dark squares.

• They are powerful in open positions because they can cover long distances.

Rooks:

Rooks in chess move in a straight line; both horizontally across the row and vertically across the column

• Movement:
  The rook can move any number of squares forward, backward, left, or right, but not diagonally.

• Starting Position:
  Each player starts with two rooks, placed in the corners:

  • White rooks: a1 and h1

  • Black rooks: a8 and h8

• Special Move — Castling:
  The rook plays a key role in castling, a special move involving the king and rook that improves king safety and activates the rook.

• Strategic Use:

  • Strong on open files (columns with no pawns)

  • Very effective when connected (working together)

  • Often dominates in the endgame

• Coordination:
  Rooks are most powerful when they support each other or combine with the queen for attacks.

NEXT LET'S LEARN ABOUT KING

King:

It is the most important yet one of the weakest pieces. A king can move in all directions but only one square at a time.

However, a king has a special move called 'Castling'. A king can castle if the following conditions are met:

1. The king is not moved yet from its starting position

2. One of the Rooks is not moved from its original position

If these two conditions are met then the king can move two squares to the right or three squares to the left. Also, after castling, the rook towards which the king castles comes to the other side of the king

Queen:

The Queen in chess is the most powerful piece. It moves in all directions across diagonals, rows and columns. It basically combines the movement of both Rooks and Bishops.

Queen

• Movement:
  The queen combines the moves of a rook and a bishop—it can move in straight lines and diagonals across the board.

• Starting Position:
  Each player begins with one queen placed on its own color:

  • White queen on a white square (d1)

  • Black queen on a black square (d8)

• Role in the Game:

  • Strong in attacks and checkmates

  • Controls large areas of the board

  • Often used to support other pieces

• Strategic Use:

  • Avoid bringing the queen out too early, as it can be easily attacked

  • Use it effectively in the middle and endgame

  • Works best when coordinated with rooks and bishops

Special Move: Castling

Special Move: En Passant

En-Passant:

En-Passant is a very special type of move made by the pawn. It requires specific circumstances. They are:

1. A white pawn is in the 5th rank ,or a Black pawn is in the 4th rank.

2. A opposite colour pawn moves two squares from the initial position in such manner that if it had moved one square than the other pawn could have captured it.

In such circumstances, a pawn can capture the enemy pawn as if it moved one square instead of two.

However, this move must be played immediately after the pawn is moved two squares. Else it will become an illegal move.

Check

Check (in chess) is a situation where the king is under attack by an opponent’s piece.

When a king is in check, the player must remove the check immediately by:

• Moving the king

• Blocking the check

• Capturing the attacking piece

In one line:

Check is when the king is attacked and must be protected on the next move.

Double Check

King attacked by 2 pieces at the same time

Checkmate

Checkmate is how you win a game of chess.

It happens when your opponent’s king is in check (meaning it is under attack), and there is no way to escape. This means:

• The king cannot move to any safe square (every possible square is still under attack).

• The attacking piece cannot be captured.

• The attack cannot be blocked by putting another piece in between.

When all these conditions are true, the king is trapped, and the game is over — that’s checkmate.

Stalemate

Stalemate (in chess) is a situation where:

• The player to move is not in check

• The player has no legal moves

• The game ends in a draw

Short example:
If the king cannot move anywhere without going into check, and no other pieces can move, but the king is not currently in check, then it is stalemate.

Stalemate is a draw when a player has no legal move and is not in check.

Basic Strategy and Principles

Basic principles:

In order to be able to checkmate the opponent king, we must first pass through many intermediate stages.

ACTIVITY IS EVERYTHING :

At the start, we must try to make our pieces as active as possible.

1.This usually translates to putting our pawns in the centre and defending them with our pieces.

2. Later, we can advance our pawns and put our pieces in the centre for active play.

Basic principles:

In order to be able to checkmate the opponent king, we must first pass through many intermediate stages.

ACTIVITY IS EVERYTHING :

At the start, we must try to make our pieces as active as possible.

1.This usually translates to putting our pawns in the centre and defending them with our pieces.

2. Later, we can advance our pawns and put our pieces in the centre for active play.

PROTECT OWN KING:

It is easy to forget that our opponent is also trying to checkmate our king. We must protect our own king at the same time as trying to checkmate our opponent.

1. The most important step for protecting the king is castling our king. This also activates the Rook.

2.Making sure our own king is not under any threat before proceeding a move is important.

EVALUATION OF POSITION:

We need to constantly evaluate the position after every move. To do that,we must observe the indices:

1. Whose King is more safe.

2. Who has more material.

3. Whose piece activity is more.

The value and weight of each matrix changes depending on the position type , and there is no solid formula to figure that out.

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