play chess

Play Chess

1. The Chess
Chess is a two player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered gameboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight by eight grid. It is one of the world s most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide in homes, parks, clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.

Each player begins the game with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Each of the six piece types moves differently. The objective is to checkmate the opponent s king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. To this end, a player s pieces are used to attack and capture the opponent s pieces, while supporting their own. In addition to checkmate, the game can be won by voluntary resignation by the opponent, which typically occurs when too much material is lost, or if checkmate appears unavoidable. A game may also result in a draw in several ways, where neither player wins. The course of the game is divided into three phases: opening, middlegame, and endgame.
2. The Goal of Chess
Chess is a game played between two opponents on opposite sides of a board containing 64 squares of alternating colors. Each player has 16 pieces: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns. The goal of the game is to checkmate the other king. Checkmate happens when the king is in a position to be captured (in check) and cannot escape from capture.
3. Starting a Game
At the beginning of the game the chessboard is laid out so that each player has the white (or light) color square in the bottom right hand side. The chess pieces are then arranged the same way each time. The second row (or rank) is filled with pawns. The rooks go in the corners, then the knights next to them, followed by the bishops, and finally the queen, who always goes on her own matching color (white queen on white, black queen on black), and the king on the remaining square. The player with the white pieces always moves first. Therefore, players generally decide who will get to be white by chance or luck such as flipping a coin or having one player guess the color of the hidden pawn in the other player s hand. White then makes a move, followed by black, then white again, then black and so on until the end of the game.
4. How the Pieces Move
Each of the 6 different kinds of pieces moves differently. Pieces cannot move through other pieces (though the knight can jump over other pieces), and can never move onto a square with one of their own pieces. However, they can be moved to take the place of an opponent s piece which is then captured. Pieces are generally moved into positions where they can capture other pieces (by landing on their square and then replacing them), defend their own pieces in case of capture, or control important squares in the game.
5. The King
The king is the most important piece,but is one of the weakest. The king can only move one square in any direction up, down, to the sides, and diagonally.The king may never move himself into check.
6. The Queen
The queen is the most powerful piece.She can move in any one straight direction forward, backward, sideways, or diagonally as far as possible as long as she does not move through any of her own pieces. And, like with all pieces, if the queen captures an opponent s piece her move is over.
7. The Rook
The rook may move as far as it wants, but only forward, backward, and to the sides. The rooks are particularly powerful pieces when they are protecting each other and working together!
8. The Bishop
The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on one color (light or dark) and must always stay on that color. Bishops work well together because they cover up each others weaknesses.
9. The Knight
Knights move in a very different way from the other pieces
10. The Pawn
Pawns are unusual because they move and capture in different ways: they move forward, but capture diagonally. Pawns can only move forward one square at a time, except for their very first move where they can move forward two squares. Pawns can only capture one square diagonally in front of them. They can never move or capture backwards. If there is another piece directly in front of a pawn he cannot move past or capture that piece.