The Basic Rules of Chess

Introduction The Basic Rules of Chess One of the questions parents of young children frequently ask Chess coaches is: How old does my child have to be to learn chess? I have personally taught over 500 kindergarten and pre-k students how to play chess, so my answer is.if they can talk, you can teach them how to play. I like to tell parent I prefer to teach kids chess before they are old enough to think it s hard. Despite its complexity, the game of chess can be broken down to simple lessons a small child can learn quickly, and over a period of a few weeks they can master how the pieces moves and the basic idea of the game. Since most adults view chess as something too difficult for a 4- or 5-year old to understand, even with an incomplete understanding they will impress many adults, and the praise they receive will build confidence and motivate them to want to play more, which is the really the key to learning how to play the game well. The first step to learning to play is for the beginner to get to know the pieces their names, how they move and capture, and some other simple facts to help them remember how the pieces move. Once they are comfortable moving the pieces, they need to learn the object of the game: checkmate what checkmate means, and how it is different from and ordinary check, and how it differs from stalemate, which is one of the ways to get a draw (tie) in chess. Finally they need to learn the fancy rules Castling, the Four Strange Pawn rules, and the Four Basic Draws. It is also important that every student learns chess notation this allows them to write down a game they play, for later analysis, as well as learn chess the old fashion way: by reading a book. Because of this, most books teach chess notation first, so that you can read the rest of the book. This book is designed so you can start learning right away, without having to learn notation first. Every time a move is made, in addition to writing the move in chess notation, there is a diagram of the board, showing the piece that s moving. This way the student can learn notation as they go along, and anyone can read and understand this book even if they don t know chess notation. Like any other skill, students will retain much more if they practice regularly every day if possible even if it s only for a few minutes. Short and simple games can be played that help a young beginner remember all the rules and become a chess player in a very short period of time. I encourage parents to learn along with their child which makes the learning process more fun and effective for their child, and you may surprise yourself you are never too old to learn to play chess! I. The Pieces, and how they move It s very common for non-chess players to think of chess as just a more complicated version of checkers. The truth is the two games have very little in common. The most obvious difference is that the chess army is made up of 6 different types of soldiers, each with his own way of moving. Some of these pieces are very easy for even the youngest players to learn; others have special abilities even most grown-ups don t know about. We will start with the easiest pieces first, and work our way to the hardest. You may be surprised which piece is the trickiest one of all! 1

The Rook Looks like a castle Moves in a T Shape Trading Value is: 5 Fun fact about Rooks: If you put a rook on any square of an empty board, it can go to 14 squares. Rooks are the only piece that don t lose power on the edges or in the corners HOW ROOKS MOVE The rook is a very powerful piece, and he is by far the easiest one to learn how to move. Rooks move in straight lines, up and down or sideways. They can move as far as they want to in one turn, but they cannot hop over things. If we put the rook on e1, he can move up and down to any square on the e-file. The rook can move to the right as far as he wants, but he cannot land on or hop over the white pawn. 2

HOW ROOKS CAPTURE Another important difference between chess and checkers is the way in which Pieces are captured. In checkers, to capture a piece you hop over it. That s not how it happens in chess! Here the rook can capture the black pawn on b2 To do this, the rook moves right to b2, bumping the pawn off the square and taking its place. The rook has captured the pawn, and now occupies the square the pawn used to stand on. 3

In this position the rook could capture the pawn on d7 or the pawn on g4. The rook cannot capture the pawn on a4 because the white pawn is in the way and rooks cannot hop over things. The rook cannot capture the pawn on e5 because rooks cannot move diagonally. 4

The Bishop Looks like a Bishop s hat Moves in a Shape Trading Values is: 3 Fun fact about Bishops: Because they only move on diagonals, bishops can never change what color square they are on. Every game starts with 1 light-square bishop and 1 dark-square bishop HOW BISHOPS MOVE The bishop also moves in straight lines, but they move only on the diagonals. Like the rook it can go as far as it wants in one turn, but it cannot hop over things. An important thing to know about bishops is that because they only move on diagonals, bishops always stay on the same color. At the start of the game, one of your bishops is on a white square, and one is on a black; if you ever notice that your bishops are on the same color, it means you made a mistake! When the bishop is on d4 it can move along the diagonal that runs from a7 to g1, or from a1 to e5. It cannot hop over the pawn on f6. 5

HOW BISHOPS CAPTURE Just like the rooks, bishops capture things by landing on them. The bishop on e5 can capture the pawns on c7 and c3. The pawn on h2 is safe, because the bishop cannot hop over the pawn on g3. 6

The Queen Looks like a Queen s crown Moves in a T or an Shape Trading Value is: 9 Fun fact about Queens: The Queen is the most powerful piece.but she didn t use to be! When Chess was first invented queens moved only one square, just like the king, which made her the weakest piece. When the game came to Europe, they changed the rules so the real Queen wouldn t be angry! HOW QUEENS MOVE Everyone knows that the king is the most important piece on the board, but if you want to get any real work done, you need to talk to the Queen. The Queen is the most powerful piece on the board, capable of moving up and down or sideways, like a rook, or diagonally like a bishop. This Queen on e5 can go to 27 different squares! Though Queens are very powerful, they still have limitations; like bishops and rooks they cannot hop over things. They also only move in straight lines; they can t start out moving like a rook and end up moving like a bishop. 7

HOW QUEENS CAPTURE Queens capture just like rooks or bishops; they land on the piece and bump it off the board. This queen on e5 can capture the pawn on b5 by moving like a rook, or the pawn on b2 by moving like a bishop. The pawn on h2 is safe, because the queen cannot hop over the white pawn on g3. 8

The King Looks like a King s crown Moves in a Square O Shape Kings can t be traded! Fun fact about Kings: Kings can never go to any square where they could be captured. Since Kings can capture things, this means Kings are never allowed to touch Kings can never be next to each other! HOW KINGS MOVE The rook, bishop and queen are all fast, long-range pieces; they can streak across the length of the board in one turn Not so with the king. Despite the fact that the whole game of chess revolves around the king, it is not a very powerful piece. Kings can move in any direction, but they can only move 1 square at a time. This king on e5 can go to any of the squares it touches, marked here with an. 9

HOW KINGS CAPTURE One of the most common mistakes beginners make is to forget that kings can capture things. Often beginners think that Kings can t capture powerful pieces like queens and rooks. Many beginners have lost their powerful queens to a slow moving king! This king on e5 can capture either the queen or the rook. Like the other pieces, he would land right on them, and take them off the board. Since the queen is the most powerful, the smartest move would be to capture the queen 10

The Knight Looks like a Horse Moves in a L Shape Trading Value is 3 Fun fact about Knights: Though Knights and Bishops have the same trading value of 3, they are very different pieces; in fact in one way they are complete opposites; while a Bishop can never change what color it is on, if you move a knight correctly it will always change what color it is on. HOW KNIGHTS MOVE The knight is a tricky piece. It can do two things that the other pieces cannot do. This makes the knight a very special piece! First, knights move in a very unusual way. They start out moving exactly 2 squares in a straight line, just like a rook, then it suddenly goes around the corner 1 square. If we put the knight on e5, he could move 2 squares down first, then go around the corner, and land on f3, marked here with an. Sometime people say that the knight moves in an L shape. 11

But the knight doesn t always have to move down first; he can move 2 squares up or sideways, and then go around the corner. If we put the knight on e5, he could to any of the 8 squares marked with an. Knights must always move in this funny L shape. They can never move just one square, or move in a straight line like a lower-case l. One important thing to remember is that if you move a knight correctly, it will always change what color square it is on. Notice that the knight on e5 is on a dark square, but every square it can move to is a light square. HOW KNIGHTS CAPTURE Knights capture just like any other piece: they move like they always do, land right on top of the piece they are capturing and remove it from the board. This knight could capture any one of the black pawns. 12

The second big difference between the knights and all the other pieces is the fact that the knights can hop over things. Nothing can block a knight! This is a silly position that would never happen in a real game of chess, but it will show the amazing hopping power of the knight. Even though there are 2 pieces in the way, the knight could still capture any one of the black pawns. He can hop over the white pieces or the black ones, land right on the pawns and capture them. Remember, chess is not checkers! You never capture pieces in chess by jumping over them! The knight can only capture the pawns, not the pieces it jumps over. 13

The Pawn Looks like a soldier s helmet Moves in an i Shape; Captures in a V Shape Trading Value is: 1 Fun fact about Pawns: Pawns are the weakest piece, but don t think they aren t important. When they work together they can sometimes defeat much bigger pieces and every pawn has the power to turn into something bigger a Knight, a Bishop, a Rook or even a mighty Queen! Pawns are the littlest pieces on the board; so many people think that they will be the easiest one to move. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There are Four Strange Pawn Rules, and these strange rules make pawns the hardest piece for a beginner to learn! 14

HOW PAWNS MOVE Pawns start out moving simply enough; they can move 1 square forward. The white pawn on c2 can move to c3, and the black pawn on g7 can move to g6. On their next turn, they could both move one more square forward. Pawns never, ever move sideways or backwards. If this was the only thing to know about pawns, they would be the easiest piece to learn Strange Pawn Rule #1 Pawns move differently when they are doing a capture! HOW PAWNS CAPTURE One of the things that make pawn movement so tricky to learn is the fact that the pawn is the only piece that changes the way it moves when it captures. These two pawns have advanced until they are standing face-to-face with each other. If it was white s turn, you might expect that the pawn could move forward 1 square and capture the black pawn. This is not correct! Pawns can never capture anything directly in front of them! When there is something in a pawn s way, it is just stuck. Neither of these pawns can move. 15

When pawns capture, they must move diagonally 1 square forward. If it was white s turn, the white pawn on e4 could capture the black Queen or the black knight, but not the pawn right in front of it. If it was blacks turn, the black pawn could capture the white rook or the white bishop, but not the white pawn right in front of it. Pawns are only allowed to move diagonally when they are capturing. When pawns capture, they are only allowed to move 1 square forward. Even if they are on their home square, they are never allowed to move more than 1 square diagonally. 16

Strange Pawn Rule #2 Pawns can move two spaces on their first turn! If a pawn has never been moved before it can take an extra bonus move, and move two squares if it wants. The white pawn on c2 can move either to c3 or c4. The white pawn on d3 can only move 1 square, because he has already moved. A pawn can only move 2 when it is on its home square. The black pawn on g7 can move 1 or 2 squares, to g6 or to g5. The black pawn on f6 can only move 1 square, to f5 Strange Pawn Rule #3 Every pawn can turn into a Knight, Bishop, Rook, or Queen! Since pawns can t go backwards or sideways, what happens to the brave pawn that manages to fight it s way past enemy lines and makes it all the way to the end? In this position, both pawns are 1 move away from making it to the edge of the board. A wonderful thing happens there! 17

When a pawn makes it all the way to the end, it gets promoted. It instantly becomes a bigger piece: a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight. It cannot stay a pawn, and it cannot become another king you only get 1 king per game! Here the white pawn moved to c8, and got promoted to a Queen. It is almost always smartest to promote to a queen, since queens are the most valuable piece. The black pawn has moved to g1, and become a knight. While this doesn t happen very often, every once in a while you might pick a knight because it can go around corners and hop over things two things a queen can t do! Here white moves the pawn to c8. Can white promote the pawn and have two queens? Yes! Every pawn has the power to become a queen. It is possible to have 9 queens if you could get every one of you pawns to the end! If you only have one chess set and you need a second queen, you can use an upsidedown rook if one is available. You can also lay two pawns on their sides in an shape, and have that stand for a queen. 18

Strange Pawn Rule #4: En Passant Capturing a pawn that just moved 2 spaces As the white and black pawns march up the board they will run into each other, and then pawn captures become possible. Look at these pawns, and suppose it is black s turn If black moves the pawn 1 space, he will be attacking the white pawn, threatening to capture it on his next turn. But white gets to move first so white can capture first! 19

But suppose instead of moving, one, he decides to move two instead. By moving two spaces, the black pawn passed up the square the white pawn was attacking, (f6) and so white got cheated out of his chance to capture the black pawn He passed me up! That s not fair!!! When the rule that allows pawns to move two spaces on their first turn was invented, it was intended to speed up the game, but they didn t mean to allow pawns to pass each other without at least one chance to capture. Since the white pawn would have been able to capture the black pawn if it had moved 1 space to f6, En passant allows the white pawn to capture the black pawn, even if he decides to move 2 spaces to f5. The white pawn pretends the black pawn only moved 1, and captures the black pawn, ending up on f6.this is the only time in chess you capture something and don t land on the piece you are capturing! Not so fast! En Passant! The white pawn removes the black pawn from f5, but ends up on f6! 20

En Passant is the hardest rule for most people to learn and remember. Since there are so many pawns, the possibility of an En Passant capture comes up more frequently than most people think. If you are ever wondering if you can capture a pawn En Passant, every one of these things must be true: 1) A pawn must be trying to capture another pawn that just moved two spaces. En passant never captures any other piece, or any other kind of pawn; only a pawn that just moved two spaces 2) If you are going to capture a pawn En passant, you have to do it right away if you don t do it immediately after the pawn moves two, you can t capture that pawn with En passant later. 3) The capturing pawn has to be in the right spot. When the pawn you are trying to capture moves two, the two pawns will be right next to each other, not in front of each other. For En Passant to capture a pawn that just moved two, the capturing pawn must also be able to capture that same pawn if it had only moved one. Because of the Four Strange Pawn Rules, the pawns are by far the hardest piece for a beginner to master. When teaching very young beginners, there is a great way for them to practice the Four Strange Pawn Rules; it is a game called The Pawn Race. This game is easy to play and only takes about 5 minutes to play. The game only uses the pawns, but it uses all Four Strange Pawn rules. This game not only helps teach pawn movement, it also applies directly to real chess strategy; the object of the pawn race is to promote one of you pawns to a Queen, which is a common way to win an actual game of chess. THE PAWN RACE 1) Set the pawns up on rows 2 and 7, just like you would at the beginning of a regular game of chess. 2) White goes first, and the first side to promote a pawn to a queen wins! 21

Practicing pawn captures Pretend you are playing the pawn race, and it is White s turn. Which pawn should white move? Answer: White should move the d-pawn, even though it has farther to go. If white doesn t watch out for pawn captures, white will lose both pawns! Watch what happens if white moves the c pawn instead: White moves his pawn from c5 to c6. Black captures by moving his b-pawn to c6. (bxc6) 22

Now White has only one move: move the pawn from d4 to d5. And black grabs a second pawn. (cxd5) Now let s go back to the initial position: 23

Instead of losing both pawns, white should run with the d-pawn as fast as possible: White moves to d5. Black moves to h5. Since there are no black pawns in the files next to the d pawn, he can t be captured and he will become a queen in 3 more moves. Black can try to run with his h-pawn but it will take him 4 moves, and white will win the race. Bonus Question: what should white do if black moves his pawn to b6? 24

Answer; white should capture the pawn by moving his c pawn to b6. (cxb6) Bonus Question #2: what should white do if black moves his pawn 2 squares, from b7-b5? Answer: white can use the special En Passant rule, and still capture the pawn by moving to b6! 25