chess basics and fun chess facts
chess basics and fun facts
Chess 101: Basics, History, and Fun Facts About the World's Most Popular Game
Chess Basics
Chess is a strategy game, played by two players, who take turns to get better positioning on the chessboard in order to capture the other players’ king.
A chess board is made of 64 squares, with 8 rows and 8 columns, called “ranks” and “files” respectively.
Players may use either a white or black set of pieces.
Each players starts with 16 pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen, and one king.
Each piece has its own unique way of moving:
Pawns: Move forward unless they are capturing an opponent’s piece. In that case they can move diagonally.
Knights: Can move in “L” shapes, either two squares vertically and on square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically. They can also jump over other pieces during the game.
Bishops: Move diagonally forwards or backwards across the board for any amount of spaces.
Rooks: Move forwards or backwards, horizontally or vertically, across the board for any amount of spaces.
Queen: Moves horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, in any direction, and for any amount of spaces.
King: Can move one square in any direction.
Typically, the person with the white set of pieces makes the first move.
Each player must move on their turn and must not put their own king in check.
Fun Chess Facts:
Chess is a required school subject in Armenia.
The longest official game of chess took place in 1989 that went on for 20 hours and included 269 moves.
In a single game of chess, there are 400 possible moves after each move played.
It is possible to checkmate your opponent in just two moves.
Chess is a proven way to improve memory function.
The world record for the number of moves without capture is 100, and was set in 1992.
About 70% of the adult population has played chess at some point in their lives, and about 605 million adults play chess regularly!
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