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ChesS Lessons for beginners and experts
What is Chess?
Chess is a board game for two players. It is played in a square board, made of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares on each side. Each player starts with sixteen pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. The goal of the game is for each player to try and checkmate the king of the opponent. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the opposing king which no move can stop. It ends the game.
During the game the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the board. One player ('White') has pieces of a light color; the other player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. There are rules about how pieces move, and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. The player with white pieces always makes the first move. Because of this, White has a small advantage, and wins more often than Black in tournament games.
What moves can each Chess Piece make?
Pawns: Pawns can only move forward. On their first move, they can move one or two squares. Afterwards, they can move only one square at a time. They can capture an enemy piece by moving one square forward diagonally.
Bishops: Bishops can move any number of squares diagonally.
Knights: Knights can move only in an L-shape, one square up and two over, or two squares over and one down, or any such combination of one-two or two-one movements in any direction.
Rooks: Rooks can move any number of squares, up and down and side to side.
Queens: Queens can move any number of squares along ranks, files and diagonals.
Kings: Kings can move one square at a time in any direction.
How to win in Chess all the time?
Chess is a game that involves strategical planning, critical thinking, and relatively high intelligence. The most efficient method in becoming a better chess player, to a point of mastery where the chess player is able to defeat any opponent they're challenged up against, is to 1) learn how to apply strategical tactics based on the real-time position of the chess pieces on the board, and 2) learn how to use counter-based thinking to predict the opponent's future moves (the more moves ahead the chess player is able to predict, the higher the level of expertise the chess player possesses).
There are several techniques chess players should memorize and be able to implement during specific times of the game in order to achieve certain objectives, whether it be clearing the path of the opponent's pawns or checkmating the opponent's king. Some of the more important techniques that are essential to know in order to become a competent chess player are listed below on this page. Understanding the techniques and how they work is relatively easy; being able to apply them during a game at the right moment is what the majority of chess players struggle with.
Tutor STEM offers individualized coaching for beginners and experts at chess, and can assist individuals with learning the basics of chess, in addition to learning the complex strategies and tactics required to compete with professional chess players.
Rules of chess
King Movement
Queen Movement
Queen Movement
The King can move one square in any direction, however it cannot move to 1) a square that is occupied by an allied piece; 2) a square where it will be checked by an opponent piece; 3) or a square that is adjacent to the enemy king.
Queen Movement
Queen Movement
Queen Movement
The Queen can move any number of squares straight or diagonally in any direction.
Rook Movement
Queen Movement
Bishop Movement
The Rook can move in a straight line, any number of squares horizontally or vertically.
Bishop Movement
Bishop Movement
Bishop Movement
The Bishop can move any number of squares diagonally. Additionally, each bishop piece can only move on the same colored squares, as it started the game.
Knight Movement
Bishop Movement
Knight Movement
The Knight can jump to any square using an L shape. The Knight is the only piece that can jump over another piece, whether it be an allied piece or an opponent piece.
Pawn Movement
Bishop Movement
Knight Movement
The Pawn can move either one or two squares forward during the first turn. Every turn after the first turn, the pawn can only move forward one square. The pawn captures by moving diagonally one square forward in each direction. The pawn cannot move backwards, nor can it capture an opponent's piece backwards.
Pawn Promotion
Castle & Castling
Pawn En Passant
When a pawn reaches the end of the board on the opponent's side (for the White piece it is the 8th rank, for the Black piece it is the 1st rank), it must be exchanged for one of the following: a Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight of it's own color. The owner of the pawn gets to choose which piece the pawn is exchanged for. The pawn cannot be exchanged for a King.
Pawn En Passant
Castle & Castling
Pawn En Passant
En passant pawn capture occurs when the opponent's pawn has just moved from it's starting position two squares forward and an allied pawn is adjacent (directly next to) it. This kind of capture is only allowed during this time and cannot be done later in the game.
Castle & Castling
Castle & Castling
Castle & Castling
Castling is when the King moves two squares towards the direction of a Rook, whilst the Rook jumps over the King and lands to the square adjacent to it. Castling is not possible if: 1) the King is in check; 2) there is a piece between the King and the Rook; 3) if the King is in check after castling; 4) if the square through which the King passes is under attack; 5) if the Rook or the King has already been moved in the game.
Check
Stalemate & Draw
Castle & Castling
A King is in check, when it is attacked by the opponent's piece. The king can never be captured, only checkmated. A King must get out of the check immediately; this can be done by: 1) moving the King away from the opponent piece checking it; 2) by capturing the piece that gave the check; or 3) by blocking the check with one of the opponent's pieces (this is not possible if the check was given by an opponent Knight).
Checkmate
Stalemate & Draw
Stalemate & Draw
If the King cannot escape from the check, the position is checkmate and the game finishes. The player that got checkmated loses. The player that checkmated their opponent wins.
Stalemate & Draw
Stalemate & Draw
Stalemate & Draw
There are three possible results in a game of chess. The first of which is White wins. The second of which is Black wins. The third of which is a tie. A tie means neither player has won, nor lost. It is a worse outcome in comparison to winning the game, but a better outcome than losing the game. The following times a tie can happen is 1) a stalemate, which occurs when one of the players have no legal turn to make and is not in check nor being checkmated; 2) a perceptual draw, which occurs when both players make three repetitions in their respective moves; and 3) a theoretical draw, which occurs when there are not sufficient pieces on the board for either player to checkmate their opponent.
Starting the game
Arranging the Pieces during the Start
In the starting position, the square located on a1 is always Black. The Queen always starts on her own color, next to the King in the middle. The pieces for White are placed in exact mirror copy of the Black pieces.
Review the image to the left to see how the pieces must be arranged prior to the game commencing.
Chess Notation
The Mechanics behind Chess Notation
- Chess notation combines the chess piece moved with the new square it has moved to, on the chessboard.
- Chess notation uses abbreviations for each piece, using capitalized letters.
- King = K, Queen = Q, Bishop = B, Knight = N, Rook = R, Pawn = no notation.
- Capturing an enemy piece sees an “x” placed between the piece moved and the square the captured piece was upon.
- When the opponent’s king is threatened by check, a “+” sign is added to the end of the notation.
- Castling kingside is written as “0-0”. Castling queenside is notated with “0-0-0”
- Chess notation is used in order to communicate the movements of the players' respective chess pieces.