Chess is a beautiful and fun game, in which it is your ultimate goal to checkmate the king of your opponent. A checkmate is a position in which the opponent’s king is about to be captured and cannot escape from that capture.
Although beginners find playing chess sometimes a challenge, this strategic game has rules that are quite easy to learn. What makes chess challenging and at the same time so interesting, are the great amount of moves possible during any moment of the game.
A chessboard has 64 white- and black squares and each chess player gets 16 pieces:
- 8 pawns
- 2 knights
- 2 bishops
- 2 rooks
- 1 queen
- 1 king
The player with the white pieces starts the game and each player should move one piece at a time and that chess piece moves from one square to another, following a certain rule.
Pawn
The pawn can move one or two squares at its initial move, but after that, the pawn can only move one square and cannot go backwards. It can attack other pieces only one square diagonally.
Knight
The knight is the only piece of all chess pieces that can jump other pieces. It moves over the board in a L-shape, by moving two squares forward and one square to the side or moving two squares to the side and one square forward. Knights can move forward and backward.
Bishop
The bishop moves diagonally over the board, but it can move over an unlimited amount of squares, until it attacks an opponent’s piece. Bishops can move in all kinds of directions.
Rook
The rook moves vertically or horizontally over the chess board and it can move over an unlimited amount of squares, until it attacks a piece. Rooks can move backward as well as forward.
Queen
The Queen is the most powerful piece of all. The Queen can move in any straight forward or backward direction, horizontally, vertically and diagonally and also attack from any of those directions.
King
The King is the most important piece of the game, since losing your king means losing your game of chess. The king can only move and attack one square in any direction at a time.
Chess Strategy
At the start of the chess game, you should have a strategy. You should always protect your king, since he is the unit you do not want to lose. Try to control the center of the chess board, since this gives you more riem to move your chess pieces around. Do not give any pieces away. You will need as many pieces as possible to capture the opponent’s king.