| Have you ever watched a chess game and | | | | easier to come up with these "plans". The |
| wondered how the heck the game works? | | | | middlegame is when you play your battles and |
| | | | try to take more of the opponenets pieces |
| On one level it looks kind of like checkers, | | | | than he takes of yours. The endgame comes |
| but not all the pieces are shaped the same | | | | when there are only a few pieces left to play |
| and they move in strange and mysterious ways. | | | | with and eventually ends in either a draw or |
| If you've ever wanted to be one of those | | | | checkmate. |
| intelligent looking folks sitting on either | | | | |
| side of the chess table, then this guide can | | | | Not all the chess pieces behave the same. |
| help you learn how to play. It's not that | | | | Each one moves in a different way and has |
| difficult and you can even be playing your | | | | different rules. A piece may capture an |
| first game by the end of the day! | | | | opponents piece by landing on the square of |
| | | | the opponents piece - the captured piece is |
| To make it easier to talk about chess pieces | | | | then removed from the board. The object of |
| and moves on the board, a special method of | | | | the game is to checkmate the opponents king |
| notation has been devised. In chess the rows | | | | so this piece must always be protected. The |
| on the board are called ranks and the columns | | | | King can only move 1 square at a time but he |
| are files. In this notation the files are | | | | can go in any direction, vertically, |
| identified with a letter and the ranks are | | | | horizontally or diagonally. The only |
| identified with a number. So when looking at | | | | restriction is that he cannot move into a |
| a chessboard from the "white" side, the | | | | square that would allow him to be captured |
| leftmost file is 'a', the one next to it 'b' | | | | (or checkmated) by the opponenet as this |
| and so on until the last file which is 'h'. | | | | would be a huge blunder that would end the |
| The closest rank for white is 'rank 1', the | | | | game. So, looking at an empty board with a |
| next one is 'rank 2' and so on until the last | | | | king on e4, he can move to e3,e5, d4, f4, d3, |
| rank, which is the back row for black and is | | | | f3, d5, f5. |
| 'rank 8'. So the when using chess notation, | | | | |
| the leftmost back square for white would be | | | | Th Queen is the most powerful piece and can |
| called 'a1', the square directly above 'a2' | | | | move in all directions but unlike the King |
| an so on. Isn't that easy? | | | | can move any number of square without having |
| | | | to "jump over" another piece. A Queen that |
| A game of chess has 3 basic phases - the | | | | is on d4 has 27 possible moves and can move |
| opening, midgame and endgame. The opening | | | | to any square on the d file, any square on |
| begins the game and is the first 10 or 15 | | | | the 4th rank all 7 squares on the a1-h8 |
| moves. During the opening you should | | | | diagonal as well as all 6 squares on the |
| concentrate on getting your pieces into a | | | | 'b7-g1' diagonal. |
| good position (called promotion). But what | | | | |
| is a good position? Typically it is good to | | | | The Bishop is initially placed on either side |
| control the center of the board and of course | | | | of the King and Queen and can only move on |
| you want to be sure your king is protected. | | | | diagonals but can move as many squares as he |
| You should have some sort of general plan in | | | | wants. Because of this, the Bishops will |
| mind when promoting your pieces - don't worry | | | | always stay on same colored squares. He is |
| as you get more experience playing it will be | | | | slightly more valuable than a Knight. |