Chess
Chess is a turn-based board game for two players, and is generally considered the most popular game in the world.[1] The goal of the game is to place the opposing king into checkmate, that is, a position in which the king is attacked and cannot escape from this situation.
Modern international chess has a powerful, sweeping queen who was not in the original game. The long reach of bishops today was also lacking at first. Maneuvers such as castling or capturing en passant have been developed within the past few hundred years.
Today, chess is one of the most popular board games in the world. International competition, including world championship events, is organized by an organization called FIDE and American competition organized by the USCF (United States Chess Federation). The only American world champion was Bobby Fischer. The current world champion is Russian Vladimir Kramnik.
Contents
Origins
Chess has its roots in India, where locals played a game called Shaturanga. The earliest extant description of the game is contained in the Bhavishya Purana, which dates from A.D. 300 to A.D. 600. Shaturanga used dice, but Hinduism bans gambling. As a result, the game of chess developed free from any dice or chance. European travelers visited India in the 15th century, and brought back knowledge of the game, and modern chess was developed in southern Europe.
Pieces
Each player has a total of 16 pieces; 8 pawns, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 2 rooks, 1 queen, 1 king.
Movement
The pieces move as follows.
- The pawn moves one square forward, except when moving from it's opening position, when it can optionally move two. The pawn is the only piece that captures in a way different from the way it moves. It captures opposing pieces by capturing one square diagonally forward. When another piece is on the square directly in front of a pawn it cannot move unless it is making a capture.
- The bishop can move as many squares as desired diagonally.
- The knight, which is the only piece that can jump over other pieces, moves one square in one straight direction and two in the other.
- The rook can move as many squares as desired in a straight direction.
- The queen is the most powerful piece in the board. It can move as many squares as desired (without jumping over another piece), either straight or diagonally.
- The king, which is the most important piece on the board, moves one square, either straight or diagonally.
Special Moves
- Castling- When a player has no pieces between a rook and his king, and he has not moved either piece, he can move the king two squares in the direction of the rook, and then place the rook on the square that the king passed over. A player cannot castle if the King is currently in check, would be in check after castling, or would move through a square which is under attack.
- en passant- French for "In passing." In chess, if a player pushes his pawn far down to the end of the board, and his opponent pushes a starting pawn 2 spaces ahead, to put the pawn on the same row to avoid confrontation, the player may choose to invoke the "en passant" move, which treats the enemy pawn as though it had only moved one space. The player may capture diagonally on the square behind the enemy pawn, and remove the enemy pawn. The principle is that the two space rule for a pawn's first move cannot be used to avoid confrontation between two pawns. However, the player may only invoke "en passant" on the first turn after the opponent pushes his pawn. You cannot make it after than turn.
Value
For the relative value of the pieces, see below.
Style
The most popular style of pieces are known as Staunton style pieces, the tournament standard for chess pieces, although other types exist. Often, popular themed chess sets will appear with characters from popular culture or fiction taking the places of the more common Staunton style pieces. These novelty pieces are not tournament sanctioned however, and can sometimes cause confusion during gameplay as to which piece is which.
Although chess pieces can come in a variety of materials, marble and glass tend to be very popular, but for most chess tournaments, simple plastic pieces are usually favored. Also, while many home chess sets use heavy boards made out of wood or stone or some polymer material, tournament boards are actually roll-able mats with the board printed on it.
Gameplay
All pieces attack each other along their lines of motion - if a piece could move to occupy the location of another piece, it can therefore be taken. The only piece that does not attack along lines of motion is the pawn, which can only attack diagonally by one square. A piece is said to be undefended if it has no piece "supporting" its position - i.e., preventing an opponent from taking it by threat of losing his attacking piece.
The goal of the game is to protect your own King while attacking your opponent's. Every time the King is under direct threat from another piece - queen, bishop, et al, the King is said to be under check. When a player is in check, the King must be protected - no move that fails to remedy the check is acceptable.
When check is not correctable - as in, when the King is under check, and no move can be made to extract him, the King is under checkmate, and the opposing player wins. Alternately, if the King is NOT under check, but the player cannot move with any other piece, and the King cannot be moved without placing himself in check, stalemate occurs, which means that the game is a draw.
The player with the White pieces always moves first.
When a pawn reaches the far side of the board, it may be promoted to any other piece (except a King).
Strategy
Moves which win material
There are several basic types of moves that win material.
The Fork
When a player makes a move which attacks 2 of his opponent's pieces simultaneously with one piece of his own, it is called a fork. This forces his opponent to essentially, choose which piece he will lose. Knights are especialy adept at Forking because their method of movement allows them to attack any other kind of piece without being under attack from that piece. Forks in which the enemy King is one of the pieces under attack are especialy effective because they force the opponent to move the king, leaving no choice as to which piece to move. While the knight is the most adept at forking, all of the other pieces are capable of it.
One example of the fork is called "The Pickle". A inexperienced player can be tricked into losing one of his rooks in the following manner. You move your king pawn forward 2 squares. Your opponent pushes his kings pawn up 2 squares as well. (the most common response) You move your queen out diagonaly to the right all the way to the edge of the board. If the other player is ambitious, they will most likely advance the knight's pawn 1 square to attack your queen. At that point, you move to capture your opponent's king pawn with your queen. This will place the king in check, forcing him to block the check with a piece. Then, since he moved his knight's pawn, the path will be clear for you to capture the kings rook. this sets you up with one of his rooks out of the way, and you have controll over the center of the board.
Pinning
This strategy involves maneuvering your piece, so that there is an enemy piece in between your attacking piece and another more valuable enemy piece. This creates a situation in where the opponent cannot move the piece in question without losing the more valuable piece behind it, effectively "pinning" the piece. A pinned piece can be easily taken.
Other Strategy
Doubling Rooks
Placing both Rooks together in a rank or file with no pieces in between is a powerful method of attack, because each rook defends the other.
Sacrificing
When a player intentionaly allows one of his own pieces to be taken in exchange for better position is called Sacrificing. Often the piece is offerend in an attempt to get the players opponenet to weaken his own defenses by capturing with a piece that is had been in a good defensive position.
Relative Value of Pieces
There are several different ideas about the relative value of the pieces. It is important to note that the "points" used to assign a value to each piece are hypothetical and do not constitute a score.
The method most often used is:
- Pawn--1
- Knight--3 (some say 2.5)
- Bishop--3
- Rook--5
- Queen--9
- King--Priceless (although in an endgame, the King has an attacking power of about 3)
