Two opponents play chess on a chessboard made up of 64 squares arranged in eight rows called ranks and eight columns called files. When you have set up your wooden chess set, all you need to do is know how to play. The pieces are placed at the intersection of a row and a file, occupying a square on the board.
ContentsRules for moving pieces in chessRules for castling in chessEnd of a gameWhat do you need to play chess?The object of the game is to checkmate your opponent's king by placing it under attack from one or more of your pieces without being in danger. Pieces do not have specific moves, and a piece can be moved according to the rules.
Each player starts with sixteen pieces, eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks and a queen. A pawn's initial move is one space forward from its starting position if it does not capture another piece or is not captured itself.
A knight moves in an L shape. A rook moves from one space to another vertically or horizontally. The bishop is a long-range piece, able to move along a diagonal line, and the queen is the strongest attacking piece.
1) Pawns have an initial two-step option through which they can either advance or capture another piece.
2) A knight can move two squares away from his initial position, one square horizontally and another vertically or vice versa.
3) A rook has an unlimited number of possibilities to move in all files and ranks of your wooden chess set .
4) A bishop has limited movement across diagonals only. Although it cannot capture any pieces, it can move to any square unoccupied by another piece.
5) The queen is the most powerful and valuable piece in chess. It can move in any direction, vertically or horizontally and diagonally, and can capture one piece at a time during its movement.
6) A player loses the game if his king is checked, i.e. when he is attacked by another piece and cannot leave this position towards a square which is not attacked because the squares surrounding it are occupied by enemy pieces.
7) A player also loses the game if his opponent successfully places all his pieces in positions where they cannot be captured or are forced to die because they cannot be moved.
8) A player can also win the game if his opponent quits before the end of the game.
1) The king can move two spaces towards its sides, i.e. towards a rook on each side if it does not attack or is not attacked by another piece. This move will be called castling.
2) The player only castles when the king is not in check and there are no pieces between him and either rook. Additionally, castling can only occur if none of the squares adjacent to the king are attacked by an enemy piece.
3) After castling, the position of the king and the rook are exchanged.
4) Castling rights are not lost once used. The king can castle again later in the game even if previous castlings have been made.
1) A player wins when his opponent's king is checked, and the latter cannot escape this condition. The game can end before checkmate by resignation or forfeit of the match.
2) If there is no legal move available to avoid the check, and the piece in question cannot capture any other enemy piece because all the squares around it are occupied, it is said that the piece was "put in a stalemate". This does not count for either player.
3) If none of the pieces can move without being captured by another piece, the game is declared a draw.
Chess is played between two sets of 16 pieces each. It includes eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops and a queen on each side.
A traditional chessboard with 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns) should be available for playing chess. These should be numbered from 1 to 64 along the rows. The extra squares alternate between black and white on either side of the board. There is also a "Queen's Tower" at the right end of each row.
Choose a high quality wooden chess set made of walnut wood with a chess board case and a chess set with a Staunton design.
Pieces should be of appropriate weight and size, no more and no less than 25 grams, while the average pawn height is 15 millimeters or half an inch. The king's piece measures just under half an inch in length and a third of an inch in width.
The pieces should be easy to lift without adding too much weight to the board, so solid wood pieces are preferred over plastic pieces.
