HOW TO PLAY CHESS
Chess is very easy to learn but the most difficult to master.Here in this post I will tell you the most basic rules of chess and how each piece moves in chess.
First we will learn how each piece moves,its limitation and advantages of a particular piece in chess.
1)PAWN
Pawns are the shortest and weakest chess pieces,however they are extremely important especially in an end game where both players are trying to promote that pawn to queen.(will be discussed later)
There are a total of 16 pawns in a beginning of a chess game,8 for white and 8 for black.In hindi pawn is referred to as “pyada”.
On its initial movement pawn can move forward one or two vacant spaces,but it is only allowed to move one vacant space afterwards.They cannot move forward if there exists any other piece in front of them whether that piece is from his own side or enemy side.Pawn is the only piece in the chess board which cannot move backward.Pawn captures pieces situated one space diagnolly in front,it cannot capture pieces directly ahead.There is also a special case in which pawn captures another pawn (en passant) which I will be discussing later in this post when i will get to some special moves in chess.When a pawn reaches the eighth rank for white side and first rank for the black side then it can be promoted to any piece except king.
No. of points=1
2)ROOK
Rook also called as a castle piece,it looks like a tower and upper side of it looks like elephant’s feet.In hindi it is called as “haathi”.It is a very important piece and it can move in a continuous line forwards,backwards and side to side unlimited amount of spaces.It can capture pieces on its way and it can also jump over the king in a special move called as “castling” which I will be discussing later.
No of points=5
3)KNIGHT
Knight also referred as “godha” in hindi are the only pieces in chess which can jump off other pieces.They can move even if there are other pieces on its way.The knight moves in a L shape.Two spaces in a direction forward,backward or side-to-side and one space at a right turn or left turn.
No. of points=3
In the above image you can see the knight jumps over a black pawn and takes another black pawn.
4)BISHOP
Bishop also referred as “oont” in hindi can move diagonolly unlimited amount of spaces and can capture enemy pieces in its path.There are two bishops available for each player one stays on light square and the other one stays on the dark square.
No. of points=3
5)QUEEN
Queen also referred as “Wazir” in hindi is the most powerful chess piece. can move as many squares diagnolly,vertically or horizontally.It moves like a bishop and a rook combined.It is a tall piece with a round cap.
No. of points=9
6)KING
King also referred as “Raja” in hindi is the most important piece,it does not have any individual points but is of utmost importance.It is the tallest chess piece with a “+” sign on its top.It can move one space at a time in any direction.
You can’t move your king into a space where it can get captured during the next turn.In other words you can’t place your king intentionally into a check.
(More about check and checkmate I will be discussing later.)
Check And Checkmate
Check is a condition that occurs when a player’s king is under threat of capture.Since a king can never be removed from the board so there exists check and checkmate.If a player is in check,they must get out of check and if they are unable to get out of check then that condition is known as checkmate.Below diagrams beautifully explains check and checkmate.
Some special moves in chess
1)En Passant
En passant which is french for “in passing” is a special move in chess in which if opponents pawn moves two squares on its first move then if there is a opponent pawn just on his side then he has the option of capturing the pawn moved by two spaces in the first move. This will be more cleared by the diagram shown below.
Note that this en passant move is possible only after the black moves his pawn on e5 and then white immediately captures black e5 pawn on its next move.It is not possible that if black keeps his pawn on e5 then white moves something else then black moves something and then on the next move white tries to en passant,this is not possible.En passant is only possible on the immediate move after black plays e5.
2)Castling
Castling is another special move in chess which is mainly done to protect and safeguard your king.There are two types of castling
1)King side castling
2)Queen side castling
In order to castle some conditions must be fullfilled-
1)It must be king’s first move
2)It must be that rook’s first move
3)The king must not be in check or pass through check
