The object of the game chess is simple enough: Capture the other player’s king. Each piece on the board moves in a different way. To begin to understand the game, you first must understand each piece.
The King. The king is the largest piece on the board. Each player has only one. The object is to protect your king from being captured while you are able to capture the other player’s king. The king moves one space at a time in any direction. The king may capture any other piece if he moves into their space.
The Queen. The queen is the most aggressively moving piece on the board. The queen can move in any direction as far as she can until she runs into another piece. She can capture any other piece that she runs into in any direction.
The Bishop. There are 2 bishops on the board. Bishops are color specific, one plays on red and the other on black. The bishop may only move on the diagonal but can move as many spaces as they want until they come to another piece. They can capture any piece that they move into.
The Knight (Horse). There are 2 knights on the board. This piece moves in a peculiar fashion. They move two spaces in one direction the one space in the other. For example, 2 spaces forward, one space right, or 2 spaces left, one space forward. It will take a while to master this maneuver. The knight captures only the piece on the space on which it lands.
The Rook (Castle). There are 2 rooks on the board. The rook moves vertically or horizontally as far as they are able. They can capture any piece that they move into.
The Pawn. There are 8 pawns at the beginning of every game. They are placed on the 2nd row of the board in front of all the other pieces. The pawn moves forward. It may start out with a 2 space forward move if wanted, but after that, it only moves one space forward per turn. To capture another piece, a pawn must move one space diagonally.
The object again is to capture the other player’s king. As you move your pieces into position to do this, be sure to continue to protect your own king. The players take turns moving their pieces until the game is ended.
When you get into a position where your piece could capture the king on it’s next move, you call “Check.”
This warns the other player of imminent danger. The player must resolve this “Check” by blocking the move, capturing your piece, or moving their king. If the player can not resolve this situation, it is considered “Checkmate” and the game is over.
The game of chess is complex. There are numerous strategies to help you succeed. This is just a beginning instruction. Practice learning the moves of each piece against an opponent. When you think you have mastered that, consider researching strategies to improve your game.
Want to know some advanced moves to getting an quick checkmate? Check out some instant checkmate tricks on justchess.biz. Great advice!
