Why Chess?

On the outside, chess might look like an innocent game. What could possibly be so intimidating about those 32 wooden pieces? However, a deeper look into the age old pastime presents a world of possibilities and strategies that could quite literally bring someone to insanity. Chess is not just a game; it’s a tool we may use in order to learn many valuable life skills such as critical decision making and thinking ahead. Of course, it is simple to begin playing the game, but to climb up the ratings and get better requires a tremendous amount of hard work and concentration. Personally, I am not that great of a chess player, but I enjoy watching and learning about it so that I might get better. The game has made me a more thoughtful and “intelligent” person. I would love to take you along on a journey into the game of chess so that you, too, might see the beauty in it.

Pieces: The Building Blocks of Chess

Before we are able to start analyzing different chess players and games, it is imperative that we understand the chess board and the basic moves of the pieces. First, a chess board is made up of 64 squares including 8 ranks (columns), 8 files (rows), and diagonals. It is along these ranks, files, and diagonals that our pieces are allowed to move.

Additionally, each square can be given a unique name using a combination of letters and numbers as seen in Figure 1.

Now let’s meet our pieces and see what they can do:

1. The King – This is the most important piece on the chess board. The goal of both players is to protect their own king and attack their opponent’s king by putting it in checkmate, which will be discussed later. Always protect your king at all costs. The King is allowed to move to any square adjacent to it as long as it in not occupied by another piece or will put itself in direct attack from an opponent’s piece.
   

   The bishop stops the king from moving to f4 and g3.

2. The Pawn – At first sight, the pawn seems like the weakest piece. However, I assure you this piece can do some major damage. From its starting position, the pawn can move up either two squares or one square, but after that it can only continue by moving one square forward. It is prohibited from going backwards at any point of the game. Also, to make it more exciting, if the pawn gets to the opponents back rank, it can be promoted to a bishop, knight, rook, or queen!

3. The Knight – Sometimes known as a “horsey”, this piece can do some serious damage as will be seen in the future. The Knight moves in an “L” shape 2 squares one way and 1 square the other. This piece is also referred to as a minor piece.

4. The Bishop – The second minor piece is the bishop. A player starts out with two bishops, a light square bishop and a dark square bishop. Throughout the whole game these bishops can only stay on the same colors they started out on as they are confined to moving on the boards diagonals.

5. The Rook – This is the first of the so-called major pieces. The rook is able to move across ranks and files and serves as one of the most powerful pieces on the board. The loss of a rook can be very hard to come back from.

6. The Queen – This is the most powerful piece on the board and is the second major piece. The Queen is essentially a combination of a rook and a bishop. It can move both on ranks and files, and across diagonals. Losing the queen during a game is simply catastrophic. Besides the King, a player should attempt to protect their queen at all costs.

Now that we know the pieces, it is important to understand the relative value of each piece. We will assign points to the pieces with more points equating more power.

Pawns – 1 point

Bishops and Knights – 3 points

Rooks – 5 points

Queen – 9 points

King – Infinite. Lose the king, lose the game.

Checkmate: The Best Move in Chess

Though there are many types of tactics and strategies, the most important move a chess player needs to know is the checkmate. A checkmate is reached when a player puts their opponent in check (directly attacks their king) and their opponent is unable to escape the check. Essentially, their king is unable to escape being attacked. Here is a simple example in which the king cannot leave its check.

When this position is reached, the game is over and the king is in checkmate. Here are some puzzles you might enjoy. Try to checkmate your opponent’s king.

 

I hope you’re having as much fun as I am! Next we will start looking at some specific strategies that go into winning chess.

Answers to puzzles:

1. Rook to c8
2. Queen to b1
3. Rook to d8
4. Rook to a8
5. Queen to b5
6. Queen to f3
7. Bishop to g6
8. Bishop to g3