Chess Game Play

The beautiful game of Chess

The chess game is essentially a ‘war’ of wits between two people. The chess pieces represent the armies available to each player and the playing board is the battlefield. One side has the white pieces and the other player has the black pieces. The decision as to who plays as white army is simple, a coin could be tossed, but more usual is to hold a piece (pawn) of each color in your closed fists and then your opponent picks one hand which when revealed will signal his or her choice of color.

Chess game objective

The object of the game is to kill or capture the opposing king. The game ends when one of the kings is lost. The king is one of the 16 pieces that each player owns and they are positioned on the playing surface directly in front of each player. The chess board is an 8 x 8 grid of squares of equal size. It can be made easily of card and painted with alternate light and dark squares.

Chessmen

Chess pieces

The pieces too can be home made from old metal or paper mache and kits are molds are available in hobby shops. Each army consists of 1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, 2 Rooks and 8 pawns. The 8 pawns are considered minor pieces (mere pawns) while the other 8 pieces are more valued. The board placement is important and the first thing for the players to do is place the board with a white square at their respective right hand sides.

Chess board piece layout

The layout of the pieces at the start of the chess game is as follows. The first rank, consisting of a row of 8 squares directly in front of each player are the first used. These squares are the ones nearest to each player. The rooks (also known as castles) reside in the corners of the board. Next to the rooks are the knights (sometimes known as horses) and beside the knights are the bishops. This leaves just 2 empty squares on the first rank for the king and queen. The white queen sits on a white square and the black queen sits on a black square. The queens are the only females on the board. The kings go on the remaining square of the first rank. If the pieces are properly laid out on the chess board the King will face the opposite king and the queen will be facing her counterpart queen and so on.

Mere chess pawns

Only the pawns remain and they are placed immediately in front of the first rank. The 8 pawns are arranged along the second rank, each pawn standing in front of a major piece of its own color. To understand how strong or valuable your army is you need to compare values of the respective pieces. This is a guide to the major piece strength and is based on pawn value.

• King (invaluable)
• Queen (9 pawns)
• Rook (6 pawns)
• Bishop (3 pawns)
• Knight (3 pawns)

Explain chess board movement

Pawn movement is straightforward up the board. The bishops remain on diagonals when moving while the rooks are moved horizontally or vertically. The queen can move like a rook or in bishop fashion. The knight movement is more complex and this piece can leap over other pieces. No other piece has this capability. The king can move only 1 square at a time in any direction. Pieces are traded off throughout the game and the game can be declared a draw if both kings survive.

Serious chess players

For more serious chess advice one should begin reading newspaper columns and practicing the chess puzzles presented and working out the solutions which are usually printed in the solution section of the newspaper. Better still is to join a local chess club. Chess software exists for your computer that will teach the game as well as allow play against the human player by displaying the computed move on a computer screen. Modern software will instruct users and show graphically the movement of pieces and tactics to a high level of expertise. The Internet is a most useful means of exploring previous games played by experts. Chess experts are referred to as grandmasters.

Grandmaster chess

Some notable grandmasters of yesteryear are Fischer and Spassky who played memorable games in the world championship in 1970’s. Fischer is considered to be the greatest chess player who ever lived and books on his games are valuable sources of learning for any aspiring player. Top modern players since 2005 are Topalov, Kramnik and Anand.

School Chess

Most schools try to include chess education into the curriculum. Great entertainment can be provided by a chess game and it is very good for children to utilize the mathematical planning and strategic abilities that are required to play chess.