The Basics of Chess

The Basics of Chess
Part One: The History, The Board, and the Pieces

Origins of Chess

A game called chatrang was invented in India in the 6th century. Over the next 400 years, it was heavily modified and became known as shatranj. Shatranj was further modified by Europeans in Italy and Spain, the first countries to adapt the modern rules. A few kinks were edited until the 1800s, but chess basically was the game it is today by 1500.

Objective of Chess

The Objective of Chess is to checkmate the other player, or to put their king in check so that the check cannot be blocked and the king cannot move. A player generally attempts to keep more pieces 'alive' than the opponent so that they have the tactical advantage and therefore a better chance at checkmate.

The Pieces and their Movement

King

Image of a Black King


The king is the most important piece on the board. It must be protected, or you will easily lose the game. The king is not a good attacking piece however, because it can only move one square in any direction at a time.

Image of King's Allowed Movement


Queen

Image of a Queen


The queen is the most powerful piece on the board. She can move any direction diagonally or up and down or side to side for as many squares as possible, without jumping over pieces of course. As you will see later, the queen is basically a combination of a rook and a bishop.

Image of Queen's Movement


Rook

Image of Rook


The rook, also known as the castle, is the second most powerful piece in the game. It can move up and down and side to side across as many squares as possible.

Image of Rook's Movement


Bishop

Image of Bishop


The bishop is a semi-powerful piece. It can move in any direction diagonally.

Image of Bishop's Movement


Knight

Image of a Knight


The knight is a semi-powerful piece, worth about as much as the bishop. The knight is unique because of its movement pattern and the fact that it is the only piece in chess that can jump over other pieces. The knight moves in Ls, either moving 1 square forward than 2 squares sideways or 2 squares forward and one square sideways. Please refer to the diagram below, as it is hard to describe how the knight moves.

Image of Knight's Movement


Pawn

Image of a White and Black Pawn


The pawn is the weakest piece in the game, yet it can be very useful when used in conjunction with other pawns to limit the squares that the opponent can move. The pawn can only move forward, one space at a time. However, if the pawn has not moved yet, it can move forward two spaces. Additionally, the pawn can only take diagonally, one space at a time. Taking is the only time a pawn can move diagonally.

Image of Pawn's Movement


The Board

The Board is 8 by 8 squares, consisting of 64 squares in total. The squares alternate between white and black, with a white square being in the bottom right hand corner of the piece setup (for both players). These squares may change color, but there will always be one light colored type of square and one dark colored type.

Image of Empty Chess Board


The Initial Setup

Chess is a game played by two people, so naturally it has two different sides. One side has white pieces, and one has black pieces. Other than color, there is no difference between the two sides in the initial setup. The board is setup with your eight pawns in front of your pieces (on the second closest rank to you), and you pieces behind those pawns, with the rooks (castles) on the edges, then the knights on the second square in, then the bishops, then the king and queen, with the queen on its own color. (i.e.: If you are black the queen is on the black square)

Image of a Set Chess Board


Conclusion

Chess is a great game that can be played either as a simple board-game or at the level of grand masters where a single move can take more than 45 minutes to make. Once you can understand these basics of chess, you will be able to start to learn basic strategy and play against your friends in this fun game. ​

Thank you for reading my guide! Please leave feedback and feel free to make suggestions or corrections.

 

Nice guide, never knew how to play chess.

I stick with connect 4

 

Thanks. It's a great game to learn how to play.

 

I like this guide. It's very informative towards I havn't a clue how to play chess, only a minor explaination was on the wire tv series in an episode. This has gave me a general idea how to play and you've explained it very well. I think being a starter to chess you need to explain some more points so that I can comprehend it better. For example is the only way to win is that you have to checkmate their king, or can your bishop jump all the checks and then win. You also said that like people can take up to 45 minutes thinking of a move, but isn't there a like time clicker thing in professional matches?

Give credit for the pictures and where you got them from. Also I've noticed something when I was reading it you said "if you are black the queen is on the black square" But the picture below shows that the queen is black, but it's on the white square, which is quite confusing.
However overall, I like this guide, good use of colours, pictures and the centre of the page. Thanks for making it.

 

Thanks for the feedback.
Previously I have gone through many guides, some made by current/former UEs, and have not seen any credit given for the pictures or seen 'pictures from Google Image" which means nothing, so I didn't think we had to post credit, seeing as 'copy image link' gives the URL for the image.


On your point on the clock, there is indeed a timer in professional matches, but in the "Standard" matches at the highest level of play, they both have about 2-4 hours each, and sometimes they will use half of their time on one move.

 

Sick guide bro

 

Since so far your guide hasn't gotten criticism from anyone who actually plays chess, I figure I'll offer some tips:

Overall you got a great start, however you may want to consider talking about castling, and if you're really bold, en passante. Castling is definitely a must-have though... it's really an integral move in most games.

Also, although it might seem obvious, perhaps you should mention some of the peculiar states the game can take; for example the three ways you can draw, the minimum amount of pieces necessary to produce a checkmate, and what happens when that little pawn does get to the other side.

But overall an excellent guide, just a bit disappointed you haxered all your images

 

Thanks for the suggestions.
I actually wrote a whole thing on castling, checks, and en passant, checkmate, and stalemate (does en passant have an E at the end?), but I didn't write it in Word and it got deleted . When I get back to the US I will re-write it.

 

Well i like'd reading the guide, but could you post a few good methods? That would get the quality of you're guide raising alot.