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Writer's pictureAmith A

Your Roadmap to Success: Follow These 6 Simple Steps to Thrive in Chess

Updated: Mar 3


1.General Rules of Chess


How do the pieces move on the chess board?


  • King


King movements on the chess board
How does a king move?

The king is the most important piece on a chess board. Outcome of the game is determined by a person who succeeds to trap the king and successfully corners the king by having an influence over the king's square movements and the square in which the king is present. The king always has restricted movements and the movement is one square from it's presence to along the diagonal, vertically or horizontally . The rule of the king's movements are equally applied to both the black pieces as well as the white pieces.


  • Queen



Queen is the most powerful piece on the chess board and can move anywhere along the diagonal, horizontally and vertically. The restriction of the queen's movements is only when there is a presence of an opponent pawns or the pieces or also with the presence of same side pawns and the pieces. When the queen is placed alone on the chess board, it can cover 27 squares in total. The movements of the black queen is same as that of the white queen with both the queens having same level of powers.


  • Rook

Rooks move vertically and horizontally up and down along the chess board. The rooks cover a maximum of 14 squares at a time.



The bishops move move anywhere diagonally on the chess board. The bishop is not able to switch from one coloured square to another coloured square.

  • Knight

Knight movements in a game of chess
How does a knight move?

The knight moves in the L shaped format on a chess board in the form of 2-1 format or 1-2 format with numbers representing the number of shifting squares in a single direction and the other being movement in another direction either horizontally or vertically but nowhere along the diagonal.

  • Pawn

Pawn is the only piece on the chess board which cannot go back to it's previous square. From it's base position it can move either 1 square or 2 squares after which it can move only 1 square at a time.


2.How many points each piece counts on a chess board?

  • Queen- 9 points

  • Rook- 5 points

  • Bishop- 3 points

  • Knight- 3 points

  • pawn- 1 point

3.How do you setup a chess board?


Setting up of a chess board to play standard chess
How to setup a chess board?
  • Arrange the chess board so that the light square comes to the right side corner of the chess board.

  • Rooks are placed at both the corners of the chess board.

  • Knights are placed next to the rooks.

  • Bishops are placed next to the knights.

  • The white king is placed on the dark square and black king is placed on the light square.

  • The white queen is placed on the light square and black queen is placed on the dark square.


4.Special moves in chess


Castling

Castling is a move played when the king shifts two squares towards the rooks present near the edges of the board and the rook switches it's position next to the king. Below are the rules to be followed for performing the castling on a chess board.

  • King and the Rook should not be moved even once from it's initial position.

  • King should not be in check.

  • The two squares to the side which king is moving should not be influenced by any of the opponent's pieces.

  • No same side or opponent's piece should be present in between the king and the to-be-castled rook.


En-Passant


En-Passant is a special move made by either black or white with the movements of the pawns. En-Passant occurs when the pawn moves two squares to the front from it's base position and and a pawn is present in the immediate square adjacent to the pawn, then the opponent's pawn is allowed to capture the pawn like a normal capture on the file as if the pawn had just moved one step from it's base position. This special move can be done only on immediate next move of the movement of the opponent's pawn.


Pawn Promotion


A pawn might be able to promote to either a queen, rook, bishop or the knight on reaching the last rank inside of the opponent's territory. It cannot promote to a king as there cannot be two kings for the same side.


5.How does a player win or loose a game?


A player may win or loose the game by the following ways:


Win/Loose

Draw:

Checkmate



Checkmate is a situation when the player's king who is said to be checkmated is having his king under the influence of the opposition's pieces and is having no other squares to move to escape from the influence of the opposition piece.

Resignation by any of the players


A player may resign a game at any point of time and the player who is said to have resigned looses the game and the point.


Timeout


When timers are present, the player whose time runs out looses if the opponent has sufficient material to checkmate the opponent king.


3 fold repetition


If the same position repeats thrice continuously move by move, then the game is said to be drawn by a 3 fold repetition.


5 times same position occurs


If the same position occurs 5 times even though it may not be in a continuous move order then the game is said to be drawn. It requires an arbiter intervention and does not require the players to claim the draw.


Insufficient material


If there are not enough material to checkmate the opponent king then the game is said to be drawn.


Draw by mutual agreement


If both the players agree to a draw even if the position is a winning or loosing then the game is said to be drawn.


50 moves rule


If only a lone king of either of the players is present then the player with the lone king has to be checkmated within 50 moves failing which the game is said to be drawn. Even if the opponent is checkmated on the 50th move, the game is said to be drawn.


Stalemate




Stalemate is a situation when the player's king is not in check and he does not have any legal move to make and it is his turn to make the move.


6.What are the basic strategies to be implemented while playing chess?


There are a few basic strategies which needs to be followed while playing a chess game:


Protect your king


The king is the most powerful piece on the chess board. When it comes to protecting the king v/s protecting the other pieces, king has to be preferred to be protected. Get your king to safety by either castling on the queenside or the kingside.


Play always occurs at the Centre:


The action on the chess board always occurs at the center of the board. Always place your pieces towards the center or controlling the center squares and play at the center by bringing the pieces towards the center of the board.


Attacking the king:


Always use all your pieces to attack the opponent's king. A single piece does not do much harm to the opponent's king as much as a group of pieces. So gather all your forces in a right manner to stage the attack.


Exchange of pieces:


Go for exchanging of the pieces only if you are getting an advantage from it. Do not exchange a higher point piece for a lower point piece unless you are getting a significant compensation or an advantage of some sort. Save your pawns or the pieces as they are the ones who help you in converting the game into victory in the endgame.







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