How To Play Chess: A Beginner's Tutorial

Hello everybody!👋 Welcome to my blog. 

Have you seen other people playing chess, maybe at school or at the pub? Have you ever wanted to try the game and join in with your friends? Well, look NO further. Here is the tutorial that you have been waiting for. HOW. TO. PLAY. CHESS. If you can spare 15 minutes, you can learn how to play the game that we all love. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1: How the pieces move (+ Values of pieces) ➡️📈

1.1: Pawn ♟️

1.2: Knight (aka horse) 🐴

1.3: Bishop 👼

1.4: Rook 🏰

1.5: Queen 👑

1.6: King (+ Check and checkmate and stalemate) 👑#️⃣

1.7: Values Of Pieces 📈

1.71: Why do we use values? 🤔

2: How to set up the board (+ Info on chess clock) 🏁🕰️

2.1: How to set up the board 🏁

2.2: What is a chess clock 🤔

2.3: Why do we have chess clocks 🤔

2.4: How do I use one 🤔

3: Special Moves 😲

3.1: Castling 🏰

3.2 Pawn Promotion ♟️📈👑

3.3 En Passant 🥐

4: Conclusion 👋

HOW THE PIECES MOVE ➡️

PAWN ♟️

That is a pawn. We have 8 pawns to start the game. We move them 1 square. If it is the pawn's first move of the game, we can move it 2 squares! Small but mighty. They move like this: 

Or on the pawn's first move:

2 spaces forwards.

KNIGHT 🐴

That is a knight. An informal way of addressing it is a horse. We have 2 knights per game. They move in a L shape, like this: Knights can jump over other pieces, which no other piece can. Knights are known to be very tricky.

BISHOP 👼

That is a bishop. They can move across the whole board, but with a twist. You can only move it on one color of the squares. You have two bishops at the start of the game. One can only move on the black squares and one can only move on the light squares. We address to them as the "light squared and the dark squared bishops".  They move like this: 

ROOK 🏰

 That is a rook. He is the 3rd most important piece, so take care of him. He can move long distance, right across the board, like the bishop. But the twist is he moves in straight lines. 

QUEEN 👑

That is a queen. She is the most powerful piece. She can move in all directions as far as she wants. But, she can't move like the knight. Protect her. Fun fact- the queen can win the game all by herself in only 2 moves if the opponent is not careful. Here is a diagram of how the queen moves:

KING 👑

That is a king. He is the most important piece of the game. If your opponent attacks the king, he must do CPR, 

• Use one of his forces to Capture the attacking piece
• Use on of his forces to block the check, or defend him from the attacking piece.
• Run!

If you can't do any of these three moves, you lose and your opponent has checkmated you. If they attack your king in any way directly, this is called check. Also, if your opponent traps your king and all your other pieces can't move, it is declared stalemate. Since it is not a direct attack, it is a draw. If it was a direct attack (a check) then it would not be stalemate, it would be either checkmate or the game goes on. 

The King moves 1 space in any direction, like this: 

The spaces highlighted is where the king could possibly move on the next turn. 

VALUES OF PIECES 📈

We give each piece a value based on how powerful the piece is. Here are all the values of the pieces. 

♟️Pawn- Worth 1 point.

🐴Knight- Worth 3 points

👼Bishop- Worth 3 points

🏰Rook- Worth 5 points

👑Queen- Worth 9 points

👑King- Worth the game!

Why do we use values? 🤔

To keep track of who is better.

HOW TO SET UP THE BOARD (+ Chess clock action) 🏁🕰️

How to set up the board 🏁

It may look confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it. Just remember one thing: the king always goes on the e-file! Use the board coordinates (they are the numbers and letters on the sides of the board). This is how you set it up: 

What is a chess clock? 🕰️

A chess clock is a electronic tool that lets you time games. For example, you only have 20 minutes to play the whole game. That means your opponent also gets 20 minutes.

Why do we have chess clocks? 🤔

Because if we don't games could last too long. 

How do I use a chess clock? 🕰️🤔

So, you choose your time by pressing the + or - buttons. Then, you press the play button and off you go! When you make your move, you press the clock to make your opponent's time start to go down. Here is a GIF of someone using the chess clock:

SPECIAL MOVES 😲

Castling 🏰👑

That was castling. It is when the king and rook do a switcharoo, in which the king gets safer and the rook gets more active. Try and castle every game.

Castling Rules:

• If you have already moved your king or rook once before in the game you CAN'T CASTLE.
• You can castle on both sides of the board, and they are marked as 0-0 or 0-0-0.
• You can't castle out of check
• If there is a piece attack one of the squares your king lands on after you castle then you can't castle. 

Pawn Promotion  ♟️📈👑

When a pawn gets to the other side of the board you can choose what piece to turn it into. You can choose all pieces except the king. Like this:

Or like:

Or like:    

Or like:

Pretty cool, right?

En Passant 🥐

Bonjour! (That is the only French phrase I know Lmao) En Passant is a very misunderstood concept of chess. Lemme explain. Back in the olden days, pawns could only move 1 square, even on the first move! But now that they can move 2 squares people released it was unfair. So, they made a rule if it is the passing's pawn's first move, and there is a pawn that is aiming at the square above it, if you move the pawn 2 squares it will get captured. This is what I mean: 

CONCLUSION 👋

Now that you know how to play have fun out there! I wish you the best. I hope you enjoyed this blog. If you did, drop a review right here: Poll: What would you rate my blog? | SmartPolls

Cheers, JETINATE