The Chess Set. The Chessboard

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Mark Lowery's Exciting World of Chess http://chess.markalowery.

1 Mark Lowery's Exciting World of Chess Introduction to Chess ********* The Chess Set the Chessboard, the Pieces, and the pawns by Mark Lowery The Chess Set The game of chess is played on a square board consisting of 64 squares of alternating light and dark squares in a grid pattern, called the chessboard (or more commonly simply the board). The chessboard along with the players' pieces and pawns (the fighting units), collectively constitute the chess set. Chess sets, whether they be computer, Internet generated, or actual ones, come in a wide variety of shapes, styles, and colors. The colors for the board, pieces, and pawns, traditionally and usually are White and Black, but may be any offsetting contrasting light and dark colors. In chess books and publications, usually black squares are represented by a dark gray or black with lighter gray cross-hatching. The Chessboard The chessboard and arrangement of the pieces and pawns at the beginning of a game are shown in the diagram at the top of the next page, using a traditional wooden board and including the ranks and files. 1 of 8

2 DIAGRAM INTRO The chessboard is arranged into: Eight (8) horizontal rows called ranks; and, Eight (8) vertical columns called files. In diagrams and chess programs, the White player plays from the bottom of the chessboard and his or her pawns advance vertically upward. The Black player starts at the top of the board and his or her pawns advance vertically downward. Most chess programs (as with real board) allow flipping the board to view it from the Black player's perspective, with the Black player at the bottom. The chessboard therefore may be viewed as split into two horizontal halves: the upper horizontal half being Black's side of the chessboard; and, the lower horizontal half being White's side of the chessboard. This manner of viewing the chessboard will assist a player in understanding the concept of space (how much area of the chessboard the player controls behind his or her forward positioned pieces and pawns). Notation: English Algebraic coordinate system Notation is the method by which the players' moves in a game are recorded, analyzed, and evaluated. There are several methods (or styles) used to do notation in the chess world (reviewed in the Notations tutorial). The only officially recognized notation type now in use under FIDE's Official Rules of Chess is the English Algebraic. FIDE is one of the premier worldwide chess organizations that establishes rules governing the playing of chess and provides for centralizing control in the chess world. Allied with notation, but somewhat different, is annotation, which refers to providing comments/commentary, criticism, suggested alternative moves, and 2 of 8

3 different playing lines to consider other than as was played in a game, as a means of further analyzing a game or as a teaching tool for practice lessons and reviews. Notation in the English Algebraic type uses a coordinate system based on the files and ranks. Each square on the chessboard is assigned an identification label to distinctly identify the square for notation, based on its rank & file location (i.e. its coordinates). Ranks Each player has eight ranks corresponding to the horizontal rows. The ranks are numbered 1-8, with 1 being the White player's back rank, and 8 being the Black player's back rank. A common checkmate occurs against an opposing King on its back rank, especially in lower levels of play, and is called a back rank mate. The ranks are referred to by their ordinals. In common usage, an ordinal number is an adjective that describes the numerical position of an object, e.g., first, second, third, etc. Therefore, in chess ranks are called the first rank, the second rank, the third rank, and so on. You may also see it referred to by shorter versions for ordinals such as 1st rank, 2nd rank, and so on. A player's first rank is also called the player's back rank, as mentioned earlier. For White, the ranks increase in order following the rank numbers in the same order as the rank numbers in English Algebraic: the back rank is rank 1, second rank is rank 2, and so on. For Black, the ranks decrease in order follow the reverse rank numbers: the back rank is rank 8, the second rank is rank 7, and so on. The words rank and ranks therefore have a dual meaning. One corresponds to the rank numbers assigned in English Algebraic notation coordinate system. The second corresponds to the relative rank position on the board as to each player. The relative ranks are utilized for notation in the English Descriptive notation system, which used to be used widely and still is by some older players. Notation systems are covered more thoroughly in a later tutorial. Possible confusion due to this dual meaning can arise with a particular principle in chess. This principle is: "Rook on the Seventh Rank." The principle refers to the powerful tactical and strategic maneuver of a player gaining control of his or her seventh rank with one of his or her Rooks with the opposing King trapped on the opposing player's back rank. The power of this tactical and strategic maneuver is covered more thoroughly in later tutorials. For now, simply looking at the label given 3 of 8

4 to the principle without understanding the premise underlying the principle could cause confusion. Does the principle refer to the seventh rank on the board under the English Algebraic notation system? Knowing the principle, a player quickly understands that it does not. Instead, it refers to the rank relative to the player's first rank: White gaining control of the 7th rank with Black's King trapped on the 8th rank; Black gaining control of the 2nd rank with White's King trapped on the 1st rank. Files The files are lettered a to h, with "a" file being the White player's leftmost file and the Black player's rightmost file, and "h" file being the White player's rightmost file and the Black player's leftmost file. The file letters should always be expressed in lower case letters, not capital letters, in English Algebraic; however, some chess programs and images may show them as capital letters. The two vertical sides of the board (the a & h files) often are called the wings. They also are referred to as the flanks. A player inevitably will encounter tactical and strategic play where an attack occurs along the wings instead of concentrated in the center of the chessboard, and usually this is called simply a flank attack. Another manifestation for one of the wing files in a general guideline for playing is "the rim." This general guideline is: "A Knight on the rim is dim." The guideline refers to an often-relative lack of positional strength due to relative inability to be used offensively or defensively because the Knight's mobility is limited when a Knight is placed on a square in one of the wing files, rather than more centrally located on the board. This is not to say placing a Knight on a square in one of the wing files is always bad. The opposite proposition can be just as important. Placing a Knight on such a square might be very good from a tactical and/or strategic standpoint depending on the players' material and positional strengths and weaknesses. Squares Each square is identified, in English Algebraic, by its coordinates in the format: file letter followed by the rank number (e.g., a1, c7, h5, etc.). Thus, a1 refers to the square located in the a file on the first rank, while c7 refers to the square located in the c file in the seventh rank. 4 of 8

5 Pieces and pawns In a normal game of chess, there are 32 playing objects called pieces and pawns - a total of 16 for each player at the beginning of a game. The pieces and the pawns sometimes are collectively called the chessmen. The pieces are assigned capital letters in English Algebraic: King=K, Queen=Q, Rook=R, Bishop=B, Knight=N (sometimes Kn, but this is obsolete; cannot use K because that is used for the King). No letter is used to designate a pawn in English Algebraic; however, in the English Descriptive notation system the capital letter "P" is used for pawns. While that notation system is no longer officially used, some older players still use it because that is what they used while learning and playing chess, and many chess books and periodicals (except generally very recent ones) used it as it was the predominant system for many years. The system also is covered in the Notations tutorial. In chess books and on the Internet you will usually see graphic representations for the pieces and pawns. For traditional actual chess pieces, the King is always the tallest piece on the chessboard, followed in descending order by the Queen, the Bishop, the Knight, the Rook, and the pawns. Sometimes the Bishops and Knights are relatively equal in height, and sometimes the Rook and Knight are relatively equal in height. Basic actual chess sets typically have pieces and pawns as shown in the first diagram below, although great variety exists both for actual sets (see second diagram for an "unusual set" example, and note the lack Queen is larger than the Black King in that set) as well as in computer and Internet programs, and in chess books and publications. Due to the historical development of chess, sometimes pieces are different than you may commonly encounter (e.g., in Chinese chess the use of Elephants instead of Bishops, Chariots instead of Rooks, two Cannons (no comparable piece in western chess), no Queen but two Advisers, and five "pawns" instead of eight). You should, though, have no difficulty discerning the pieces and pawns in the typical styles you will encounter. There are, however, more outlandish chess sets that if you play using them you would need to become familiar with what is utilized for what piece or the pawns as they differ so greatly from the typical styles that ascertaining what is what can become almost a nightmare! 5 of 8

6 Major Pieces Minor Pieces & pawns Thru-the-Looking-Glass and What Alice Saw There just one of the many carved, unusual, and exquisite sets from TheChessPiece.com Board Orientation & Set-Up to Start the Game IMPORTANT! The right-hand corner on White's back rank (square h1) must always be a white or light colored square (if using a chessboard with other than white squares). Also, as mentioned earlier, the "a" file is the White player's leftmost file and the Black player's rightmost file, and the "h" file is the White player's rightmost file and the Black player's leftmost file. Usually, the coordinates for files and ranks as shown with the chessboard above are not part of an actual chessboard although ones may be purchased with coordinates added, and certainly ones may be created if desired. In some computer and Internet chess programs, and in chess books and publications, usually they are included. In other programs, you may set an option to have the program draw the coordinates in on the sides of the board. Some programs draw them in on the left side for the rank numbers and below for the file letters. Some draw them in on all four sides, while others allow you to specify the positioning for the rank numbers and file letters. As shown in the game start diagram above, a player's pawns always start the game lined up horizontally across the player's second rank (rank 2 for White and rank 7 for Black). The player's pieces start the game lined up horizontally across the player's first (back) rank...rank 1 for White and rank 8 for Black. The Rooks are placed on the four corners of the board, the Knights next to the Rooks, the Bishops next to the 6 of 8

7 Knights. The Queens begin the game in the d file on the squares of their own colors (d1 for White and d8 for Black), facing each other. The Kings start the game in the e file on the squares of opposite color to their own (e1 for White and e8 for Black). Areas of the Chessboard The area comprised of the squares in the three files to White's left and Black's right (a file, b file, and c file) is called the Queenside of the board. Conversely, the area comprised of the squares in the three files to White's right and Black's left (f file, g file, and h file) is called the Kingside. These special labels are used routinely throughout chess. For example, a special defensive move involving the King & Rook - Castling or The Castle Move (reviewed in other tutorials), are referred to as a Queenside Castle or Kingside Castling and a Kingside Castle or Kingside Castling. The d file also is called the Queen file. The e file also is called the King file. The d file and e file also are called the center files. The four center squares - d4, d5, e4, & e5, are in a very important area referred to as "the center." Gaining and retaining control of the center and these important squares is a focus point especially in openings (traditional and variations, but not as much in some other openings such as some gambits and some of the modern & hypermodern, some of the modern openings, and other non-traditional openings that concentrate on the wings & flanks. The opening squares for the pawns in front of the Queens and Kings often are used to describe the most commonly played chess openings - d pawn openings or e pawn openings. These also are called respectively Queen's-pawn openings and King'spawn openings. Players who prefer and usually play one or the other type of these openings are often called a King's-pawn player or Queen's-pawn player. OTB (Over the Board) & Correspondence Chess You should make note of a special designation you will see often in the chess world - OTB, which means Over The Board. This refers to when two players are at a table with an actual physical chess set playing a game of chess, as opposed to playing a game on the Internet or in a computer chess program or via pen pal or correspondence chess (via postal/mail delivery or other written or oral means of communications to exchange moves). There is a section at the website on correspondence chess that covers notation and issues about rules and playing correspondence chess. 7 of 8

8 Unusual & Esoteric Ways to Play Chess There are many, many unusual and esoteric ways devised to play chess involving alternative arrangements such as: a. one player permitting the other player to have a second King; or b. a player (usually a much higher rated one than the opposing player) agreeing to start off the game with some of his or her pieces and/or pawns already removed from the chessboard; or c. one player allowing the other player to start off with alternative pieces (e.g. two queens); or d. having the game start with the pieces and pawns in preset positions on the chessboard other than as normally occurring at the beginning of a chess game. There are many more, including so-called variants, of which there are many out in the world of chess. The unusual and esoteric ways of playing chess are beyond the scope of the tutorials at my website. 8 of 8

Essential Chess Basics (Updated Version) provided by Chessolutions.com

Essential Chess Basics (Updated Version) provided by Chessolutions.com 1. Moving Pieces In a game of chess white has the first move and black moves second. Afterwards the players take turns moving. They