What are the rules of chess game

If a king cannot escape checkmate then the game is over. Customarily the king is not captured or removed from the board, the game is simply declared over. Checkmate can happen in the early stages of the game if one of the players does not act carefully. Below, you will find an example of the Fools mate , a checkmate that happens in just 2 moves. Occasionally chess games do not end with a winner, but with a draw. There are 5 reasons why a chess game may end in a draw:. With the move Qc7, black is not threatened and can't move.

The game is declared a draw by stalemate. Get your king to the corner of the board where he is usually safer. Don't put off castling. You should usually castle as quickly as possible. Remember, it doesn't matter how close you are to checkmating your opponent if your own king is checkmated first! Don't carelessly lose your pieces! Each piece is valuable and you can't win a game without pieces to checkmate.

There is an easy system that most players use to keep track of the relative value of each chess piece. How much are the chess pieces worth? At the end of the game, these points don't mean anything—it is simply a system you can use to make decisions while playing, helping you know when to capture, exchange, or make other moves.

You should try and control the center of the board with your pieces and pawns. If you control the center, you will have more room to move your pieces and will make it harder for your opponent to find good squares for his pieces. In the example above white makes good moves to control the center while black plays bad moves.

In the example above white got all of his pieces in the game! Your pieces don't do any good when they are sitting back on the first row. Try and develop all of your pieces so that you have more to use when you attack the king.

Using one or two pieces to attack will not work against any decent opponent. The most important thing you can do to get better at chess is to play lots of chess! It doesn't matter if you play at home with friends or family, or play online, you have to play the game a lot to improve. These days it's easy to find a game of chess online!

While most people play standard chess rules, some people like to play chess with changes to the rules. These are called "chess variants". Each variant has its own rules:. Chess follows all the rules of standard chess, except for the starting position of pieces on the back rank, which are placed randomly in one of possible positions.

Castling is done just like in standard chess, with the King and Rook landing on their normal castled squares g1 and f1, or c1 and d1. Many tournaments follow a set of common, similar rules. These rules do not necessarily apply to play at home or online, but you may want to practice with them anyway. Maybe all this information can overwhelm you a little bit. That is why we put at your disposal these frequent questions that usually occur in those people who are beginning to enter the world of chess.

We hope they're useful to you! Knowing the rules and basic strategies is only the beginning - there is so much to learn in chess that you can never learn it all in a lifetime! To improve you need to do three things:. While there is no one agreed-upon best move in chess, it's important to try to control the center right away. This usually results in most players playing one of their central pawns in front of king or queen forward two squares with either 1.

Some other players prefer 1. Most other moves are not as good. Bobby Fischer believed that moving the king-pawn 1. Pawns cannot move backward. However, when a pawn gets to the other side of the board you must promote it to another piece such as a queen. Then it moves just like that piece and can move backward. You can only move one chess piece at a time when it is your turn to move - with one exception!

When you castle, you move both the king and the rook in one move. The king is the most important chess piece. If you lose the king, you lose the game. But the queen is the most powerful chess piece. The origins of chess are not exactly clear, though most believe it evolved from earlier chess-like games played in India almost two thousand years ago.

The game of chess we know today has been around since the 15th century where it became popular in Europe. Notation was invented so that we could analyze chess games after playing them. Thanks to it, we can register the whole game in writing and reproduce it as many times as we want. We must only write down our moves and our opponent's moves correctly. All of this is executed according to fixed rules which the player is constrained to obey.

Chess Rules for Moving The King moves from its square to a neighboring square, the Rook in its line or row, the Bishop diagonally, the Queen may move like a Rook or a Bishop, the Knight jumps in making the shortest move that is not a straight one, and the Pawn moves one square straight ahead. But such moves are permitted only if the square upon which the piece lands is empty or occupied by a hostile piece.

Moreover, the Rook, Bishop and Queen are obstructed in their motion as soon as they strike an occupied square. Thus, a Bishop on c1 may go to any square in the diagonal c1, d2, e3, f4, g5, h6 unless one of these squares is occupied; if e3 is occupied, f4, g5, and h6 are obstructed and the Bishop may not be moved there. The Rook, Bishop or Queen, however, can "capture" the obstruction, provided it is a hostile piece, by putting the moving piece on the square occupied by the obstruction and removing the latter into the box.

Also, the other pieces, King, Knight and Pawn, may capture hostile men; the King or the Knight, whenever they have the right to move to the square held by the hostile man, the Pawn, however, not thus but with a diagonal move forward to a neighboring square. All pieces are subject to capture except the King. Its life is sacred, the player must defend it, it perishes only when no possible resource can save it from capture.

Whenever that occurs the game is at an end; the player who cannot save his King from capture, is "Checkmate", and loses the game. These rules are not complete, besides they are too brief so that the reader cannot be expected to obtain a clear conception through them, but they serve as an initial step in that they produce a vivid impression of the Chess struggle.

We shall now consider them in detail and at length in order to illuminate the various logical consequences that come thereby into play. The King in Chess The King may move from the square it occupies to any square satisfying the following conditions:. A neighbor to the square of occupation. Not occupied by a man of its own party. Not menaced by any hostile piece. Once during the game the King may violate the first of these rules, namely, in Castling, otherwise never.

In Castling, the King is moved TWO squares to the Right or Left, as the case may be, and the Rook towards which the King has moved is then placed upon the square which the King jumped over. But this move is not permitted when:. The King is in "Check," i. The King or Rook has already made a move. The move of the Rook is obstructed.

The King or Rook after Castling would be exposed to capture. It may go there, because firstly, that square is neighbor to c2; secondly it is not occupied by a man of its own party but a hostile one; and thirdly, the square b2 is not menaced by any enemy, neither the Black King nor the Black Rook, nor the Black Pawn in their present positions being able to capture a piece on b2. On the other hand, the White King could make no other move; it cannot move to b1 or d1, on account of the Black Rook, nor to b3 or d3, on account of the Black Pawn, nor to d2 because of the White Pawn standing there, still less to c1, where two slayers would await it, nor to c3, which is menaced by Bishop b2 and obstructed by a White Pawn besides.

To other squares it cannot move since they are not neighbors to its present residence. The reader may demonstrate that in the next position also the Black King has only one possible move, namely, to g7. Black to move. His King is "Checked" because menaced by the White Queen. The King cannot capture the Queen since g7 is threatened by Pawn f6; the King can go nowhere else for the White Queen threatens its place of refuge; the White Queen can be captured by no Black piece.

The two Kings and the four Rooks still stand where they stood at the commencement of the game. Let us suppose that hitherto none of these pieces has moved. White, if he has the move, can Castle with Rook h1 by placing it on fl and simultaneously jumping with King to g1; or he can Castle with Rook a1 by placing it on dl and jumping with King to c1.

Black, if it is his turn to move, can Castle with Rook as, whereby King and Rook occupy the squares c8, d8 respectively. In practice the player will be well advised always to move the K first and then his R when making this move.

The Rook or "Castle" in Chess In the position below the Rook at c2 has the following possible moves:. The c2 Rook may move to b2, d2, e2, f2 and capture at g2. It cannot go to c1 or c3 because it is under obligation to guard its King against the White Rook g2. The Rook c4 can go to a4 or b4 or d4 or capture e4 but cannot capture f4 because Rook e4 is an obstruction; it may also go to c8, c7, c6, c5 or c3 but not to c2 or c1 owing to the obstruction of Rook c2.

The Rook e4 has only two squares open to it, d4 and c4, and the Rook g2 no less than 12 squares, any square of the "g" file and all but two squares of the second row: h2, f2, e2, d2, c2, g1, g3, g4, g5, g6, g7, g8. Bishops are placed on c3, c4, f6; also three Rooks, c1, d2, f7, and of course the two Kings - the Kings never being captured - on a1 and g8. Since the Bishops move diagonally, Bishop c3 can capture f6, and vice versa. But the Bishop c3 cannot capture Rook d2 because the Bishop is forced to protect its King against Bishop f6 by obstruction.

The Bishop c4 can capture Rook f7; this piece is immobile since it is pinned by the Bishop c4. The Black Queen a4 which can move like a Rook or like a Bishop has the following moves at its disposal: to b4, c4, d4, capture on e4, a1, a2, a3, a5, a6, a7, a8, b5, c6, d7, b3, capture on c2. The White Queen, however, has a very limited range, because it is "pinned" by the Rook e8. If the pin would be released it could go to h7 and there, supported by the Bishop c2, Checkmate the King; as it is, the Queen must either capture the Rook e8 or suffer capture by that piece; she can only move to e3, e2, e5, e6, e7, capture on e8.

Two of the Knights are immobile, Knight e2 on account of the Bishop h5 and the Knight g7 because of the Rook g3: they must protect their Kings. The Knight f5 can move to one of the following squares: e7, d6, d4, e3, g3 whereby it captures the Rook h4, h6. The shortest jump on the Chessboard is, namely, to take two squares in the air in a line or row and one square perpendicularly thereto.

That movement allows to Knight f5 eight possibilities, but in the above position one of these, on the square g7, is taken away by the obstruction of a Knight partisan to Knight f5. The Knight f6 has eight possible moves: it threatens the hostile King, "gives Check," or "Checks," and the King will have to fly, for instance, to f7, in order to save himself. At the beginning of the game the White Pawns are placed on the second row and the Black Pawns on the seventh row; thence they move or capture ahead towards the enemy, the White Pawns from below upwards, the Black Pawns in the opposite direction.

For instance, Pawn d4 may capture e5 and conversely, because the Pawns, though moving ahead in their file, capture obliquely, always advancing towards the enemy. The above position shows three immobile Pawns, "blocked" Pawns: g3, g4, and f7.

Pawn g3 is blocked by g4, because the Pawn does not capture straight ahead but obliquely. The position shows nine Pawns standing on the squares where they stood at the start of the game: a2, b2 e2, f2, h2, a7, b7, c7, f7; they have not moved yet; the other seven Pawns have advanced during the progress of the game.

The Pawn d4 has two possible moves: to advance to d5 or to capture e5. The Pawn c3 has only one possible move: to advance to c4. Now the rule was introduced about four centuries ago that Pawns in their initial position and which are not blocked may advance one or two steps according to the plan of the player.

This rule made the game more lively, and therefore the Chess world accepted it in time. For instance, Pawn a2 may advance to a3 or to a4 in one move. With this rule a difficulty arose. A rook is worth 5. A queen is worth 9. The king is infinitely valuable. You should try and control the center of the board with your pieces and pawns. If you control the center, you will have more room to move your pieces and will make it harder for your opponent to find good squares for his pieces.

In the example above white makes good moves to control the center while black plays bad moves. In the example above white got all of his pieces in the game! Try and develop all of your pieces so that you have more to use when you attack the king. Using one or two pieces to attack will not work against any decent opponent. Knowing the rules and basic strategies is only the beginning - there is so much to learn in chess that you can never learn it all in a lifetime!

To improve you need to do three things:. Just keep playing! Play as much as possible. You should learn from each game — those you win and those you lose. If you really want to improve quickly then pick up a [recommended chess book]. There are also many resources on Chess. Everyone loses — even world champions. As long as you continue to have fun and learn from the games you lose then you can enjoy chess forever! How To Play Chess.

History of Chess The origins of chess are not exactly clear, though most believe it evolved from earlier chess-like games played in India almost two thousand years ago. The game of chess we know today has been around since the 15th century where it became popular in Europe. The Goal of Chess Chess is a game played between two opponents on opposite sides of a board containing 64 squares of alternating colors.

Starting a Game At the beginning of the game the chessboard is laid out so that each player has the white or light color square in the bottom right-hand side. How the Pieces Move Each of the 6 different kinds of pieces moves differently. The King - The king is the most important piece, but is one of the weakest. The Queen - The queen is the most powerful piece. The Rook - The rook may move as far as it wants, but only forward, backward, and to the sides.

The Bishop - The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. The Pawn - Pawns are unusual because they move and capture in different ways: they move forward, but capture diagonally. Promotion Pawns have another special ability and that is that if a pawn reaches the other side of the board it can become any other chess piece called promotion.

Castling One other special rule is called castling. Draws Occasionally chess games do not end with a winner, but with a draw. Some Tournament Rules Many tournaments follow a set of common, similar rules. Touch-move If a player touches one of their own pieces they must move that piece as long as it is a legal move. Introduction to Clocks and Timers Most tournaments use timers to regulate the time spent on each game, not on each move. Basic Strategy There are four simple things that every chess player should know: knight, but that will be trading three of his points the knight for one pawn one point!

Getting Better at Chess Knowing the rules and basic strategies is only the beginning - there is so much to learn in chess that you can never learn it all in a lifetime!

To improve you need to do three things: 1 Play Just keep playing!