Chess Guide (VERY BASIC)

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Hello Sythe users! I'm here because I would like to share a guide of one of my favorite games of all time: Chess. Before reading this, realize that chess is a dying game and as technology and time progresses, it'll become less and less popular.

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Who am I?: I'm not a grandmaster by any means. There's a very large chance that I won't be the next Bobby Fischer or Kasparov. However, I do have an extensive knowledge of Chess and a great Chess background. I've played for around 10 years now. For about 5 of those years, I competed in day-long tournaments. I'm currently retired, but if time permits me, I may start to go back into a competitive scene.

The real guide begins here!​

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What is Chess?: Chess is a strategic board game in which both players start on a completely level playing field. In Chess, both players start with eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. From the start of the game, both players work towards capturing pieces to reach the endgame. The endgame is known as checkmate. Checkmate is when you place the opposing king in a situation where he cannot escape the board control of your other pieces. You can only win the game by either placing the enemy king in checkmate or forcing the enemy to surrender.

NOTE: DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW THE PIECES MOVE​

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Now you might be a casual Chess player and know how the pieces work, but you play very sparingly. When you play very frequently, you must be aware of a great deal of openings. An opening is a certain arrangement you make at the beginning of the game that helps develop your pieces. Here's a comparison for the new-aged people.

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Do you play League of Legends? Chess and League of Legends are very similar. What's the goal of League of Legends? To capture the enemy nexus. This can be done through a multitude of ways, but is the only way to win the game. Think about the early game portion of LoL. Your job is to develop your champion by getting kills, farming and buying items. The same early strategy of Chess is the same. Early on, your job is to develop your pieces to counter your opponent's. Let's say his queen is lined up diagonally to capture your rook once the guarding pawn moves. A good counter-development would be to move another pawn forward, diagonally guarding that pawn. That way, if the queen were to advance, it would be in threat of being taken by the pawn diagonally from it. In LoL, around mid-game, you and your team (hopefully) start to take objectives and have a few teamfights along the way. In Chess, during mid-game you and your opponent start to make advances against the other pieces, trying to capture other powerful pieces and to place your opponent in bad situations. But when attempting to capture pieces in Chess, think of it like a teamfight in LoL. The queen is the carry, the pawns are minions, the bishop, knights and rooks can represent any one of the roles, and the king is the nexus. While it's always good to obliterate the carry in a teamfight, if the carry is in a very secure position, you'll just end up hurting yourself by wasting resources by focusing everything on it. In Chess, a bad strategy is to focus only on capturing the queen. While capturing a queen can definitely be a game-changer, it's almost obsolete if you lose a whole bunch of pieces along the way. Optimize your pieces to predict the enemy's movement and have them place their queen in a bad situation.

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Also, in LoL, having map control is a great benefit. Being able to secure the Dragon, Baron and buffs with ease is a HUGE benefit. Chess is the same. By developing pieces, it's always good to have board control. For instance, a knight is far more powerful if it's in the middle of the board, where it can move onto 8 spaces, rather than in it's beginning spot, where it can only move to two places.

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What's worth losing pieces over?: The way I learned the value of pieces was through a point system.

King​

- Infinite value. Lose this fucker and you're out of luck.

Queen​

- Ten points. Valuable, but not a guaranteed loss if you lose it.

Rook​

- 5 points. The second most valuable power piece (every piece but a pawn and king), but can only move vertically and horizontally, so it's only half of the value of a queen. The reason a rook is more valuable than a bishop is because bishops can only move on one color tile the whole game, while rooks can move on any color of tile.

Bishop​

- 3 points. More valuable than a pawn, the bishop can move in long lines and has great board control, but is limited to only diagonal movements.

Knight​

- 3 points. More valuable than a pawn, the knight can jump over pieces and has a unique moving pattern, which allows it to make great plays, but limits it to certain spots.

Pawn​

- 1 point. The least valuable piece in the game.

So now you're thinking: "Okay, awesome. So if I can trade a pawn for a queen I'm in great shape?" Basically, yes. However, keep this in mind: Piece values can change drastically in different situations. For example: You have a pawn that can capture a queen, however it's the only thing guarding your king from a rook/bishop checkmate. It's a 9 point trade in your favor, but it will lead to you losing the game.

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Overall, keep in mind that Chess is a very complex game. You can't just become a genius overnight. It takes a lot of patience and you're going to suck when you first start. If you're really determined, don't give up. Chess has led me to learn and be great at many strategy-based games and even view life from a more rational perspective. I could be a wackjob, but I apply Chess to many real-life situations.

So that's it, folks! Let me know what you thought of this guide! Feel free to challenge me to an online game or post your progress on here! As always, thanks for reading!​

 

My initial thoughts are that the thread layouts needs to be a lot more organized, right now its a bit of an eye sore.

Maybe illustrations of the movements would be good also.

 

Definitely, I still can't figure out how to indent paragraphs, as evident by the fact that it's just a huge block of text. And I'm hoping to make some gifs of movements, which would definitely provide a great visual representation of the game.

 

Hit Tab or chuck in a few spaces.

I read through it all and it's far from bad though, I like your point system! I'll give you a game or two sometime!

 

I have really really wanted to start learning chess. They use it as a reference to thinking a few steps ahead of somebody in the show white collar. I love the show and was inspired. Lamp you should add me on skype and we can discuss chess.

 

I'll play you in about an hour bud?

 

good effort. the thread needs to be more organized and neat. colors and illustrations would be useful also

 

Yeah, I agree with you and darkest there. I still can't figure out how to indent; pressing space isn't working and neither is tab.

 

use these things

 

I tried LOL

 

Good effort, good basic guide but I agree that it needs to be more organized.

 

Good start. It's worth mentioning that point values are situational; trading off an exchange is often worth it; knights are worth less when the game progresses if the board is open and more if it's closed; single knight > single bishop in most endgames, etc. Also some strategy would be good.

 

Nice guide.

 

I used to play chess so much , maybe i'll start again

 

I have never really played chess much ever in life, mostly because I haven't known how to play very well. This could be useful, although it would be nice if it would be more organized.

I doubt it will be more organized any time soon if the op is banned though .

 

I loved chess when I played! Thanks for sharing.

 

I'll stick to checkers .

 

So where does the pawn go?

Just jking iv been playing 3 years and this was pretty good guide

 

Use stockfish 5. My best guide