How To Play Chess Lesson 1: The Board and The Pieces
It's never too late to learn to play chess - one of the most popular games in the world! I am going to do a series a blogs with different lessons each time so that you know how to play chess!
The Pieces
There are 6 different types of chess pieces in a game of chess. They are all named after men and women in a battlefield. Below is a picture for their names:-
In a game of chess, you have the black pieces and the white pieces. One person takes the white pieces, and the other person takes the black pieces.
How To Setup a Chessboard
At the beginning of the game, the chessboard is laid out so that each player has the white (or light) colour square in the bottom right hand side
The chess pieces are then placed onto the board. They should be placed exactly the same on both sides. To know that you have done this, the board should have 1 line of symmetry (ignoring the colour of course!)
The second row (or rank) is filled with pawns. The rooks go in the corners, then the knights next to them, followed by the bishops, and finally the queen, who always goes on her own matching colour (white queen on white, black queen on black), and the king on the remaining square.
How The Chess Pieces Move
The 6 different chess pieces all move in different ways. Pieces cannot move through other pieces but the knight can jump over pieces. They can never move onto a square with one of their own pieces. However, they can be moved to take the place of an opponent's piece which is then captured. Pieces are generally moved into positions where they can capture other pieces (by landing on their square and then replacing them), defend their own pieces in case of capture, or control important squares in the game.
The King
The king is the most important piece, but is also the weakest. It can only move one square in any direction. Up, down, to the sides, and diagonally.
The Queen
The Queen is the most powerful pieces in chess. It can move up, down, left, right and diagonally. However it can move as far as it wants!
The Rook
The rook can move up, down, left and right and as far as it wants! However it cannot move diagonally.
The Bishop
The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on one colour (light or dark) and must always stay on that colour.
The Knight
The Knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. Moving it is a bit weird. It goes two squares in one direction, and then one more move at a 90 degree angle, just like the shape of an “L”.
The Pawn
Pawns move forward, but capture diagonally. Pawns can only move forward one square at a time, except for their very first move where they can move forward two squares. Pawns can only capture one square diagonally in front of them. They can never move or capture backwards. If there is another piece directly in front of a pawn he cannot move past or capture that piece.
If you are new to chess, hopefully this blog helped you to learn how the pieces move and how to set up a chess board. My next blog will be about another lesson. Thanks for reading!
