Chess
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Chess is a game for two players. It is played on a board, with two colors of pieces. The board is a square, made of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares on each side. Each player starts with sixteen pieces (eight pawns, two each of knights, bishops, and rooks, and one king and queen). The players in a game of chess are called "white player" and "black player", depending on the color of pieces they control.
Each game starts with the pieces set in the same way, which you can see in the picture. The pieces start out, from left to right for the white player, from right to left for the black player, in the first row in front of the players in this order: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. A pawn is placed in the square right in front of each piece. The game commences with the players taking turns moving one piece at a time. White always moves first.
Each piece can only move in a special way. A piece cannot move onto a square that has a friendly piece (meaning, a piece of the same color) on it. A piece also cannot move through squares that have other pieces on them. However, a piece can end its move on a square that has an enemy piece on it. If this happens, the enemy piece is captured, meaning it is taken off the board and is not in the game anymore.
An alternative version of this game is Transfer Chess.
[change] Game pieces
Pawn - A pawn can only move ahead, to the far end of the board. A pawn is placed in each square on the second row away from each player at the beginning of a game, right in front of all of their other pieces, so each player begins with eight pawns. Most times, a pawn can only move to one square, the square in front of it. But a pawn that has not moved yet in the game can move ahead two squares, or just one. Very often, the first move is that the white player moves his "king's pawn" (that is, the pawn in front of the king) two spaces forward.
If an enemy piece is straight in front of a pawn, the pawn cannot capture that piece. Pawns have a special way to capture. A pawn can capture an enemy piece which is on the square left or right of the square straight in front of it. This is the only time a pawn can move to a square that is not straight in front of it.
If a pawn reaches the end of the board, it is removed and replaced by any other piece except for a king.
If a pawn moves two squares on its first move, it may be taken (on the opponent's next move only) by an enemy pawn as if it had moved only one. This is called "en passant" (French for "in passing"). But even very good players do not use this rule very much.
Bishop - A bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, meaning, if you pretend the bishop is in the middle of a big X, it can move to any square along the lines of the X. Because of this, a bishop will be on the same color of squares for the whole game. A bishop is placed on the third and sixth squares from the left in the row closest to each player at the beginning of a game, beside the knights and the queen and king.
Rook - A rook can move any number of squares, up, down, left, or right. Rooks start at the far left and far right squares in the row closest to each player, next to the knights.
Knight - The knight is special because it is the only piece than can move through other pieces. When a knight moves, first it goes two squares in one of the four ways a rook can move. Then the knight ends its move by going one square to the side. The knight is said to move in the shape of an L. See the picture (picture is coming). It "jumps over" the pieces on its way to its new square, and does not capture them, but the knight will capture an enemy piece if it lands on one. Knights are placed at the second and seventh squares on the rows closest to each player, between the rooks and the bishops.
Queen - When the queen moves, she can move like either a bishop or a rook. It is placed on the fourth square in the first row in front of the white player, to the left of the king, and on the fifth square in the first row in front of the black player, to the right of the king. A good way to remember where it goes is to remember that the queen starts on the same color square it is, so the white queen starts on a white square (the fourth square on the white player's first row) and vice versa. It is also important to remember that in order for a game to play and for this trick to work correctly, the bottom-right square for each player must be white. Remember, "White is right."
King - The king starts on the fifth square in front of the white player, to the right of the queen, and on the fourth square in front of the black player, to the left of the queen. The king can move to one of the eight squares around it. A king may also perform a special move known as "castling". This is when a king moves two spaces towards a rook, and the rook moves to the square on the other side of the king. This may not be done if: there are pieces (friend or enemy) between the king and castling rook, either the king or rook have moved during the game, or the king or any square the king moves through is threatened by an enemy piece. Castling may not result in the capture of an enemy piece.
When a player makes a move that will let him or her capture the enemy king on the next move, the enemy king is said to be in check. The player whose king is in danger must use a turn to save the king. A player might save the king by moving the king out of the way, capturing the dangerous piece, or moving another piece between the dangerous piece and the king. If the player whose king is in danger cannot do any of these things, it is called checkmate, and they lose.
Many games of chess end when one player sees they are about to lose, and elect to resign rather than prolong a hopeless game. A player may declare, "Mate in two," (or "three..four...etc.) if they believe the opponent cannot stop them from checkmating in two moves.
A game may end in a draw if both players agree that neither can win.
- If a player cannot make a move, but their king is not in check, this is also a draw. This kind of draw is called a stalemate.
- A game will also end in a draw if no piece is captured and no pawn has moved, after fifty moves. This is called the Fifty Move Rule, and is only used by the player very late in the game.
- If a player checks another player in the same way three times, than a stalemate is declared. This is called stalemate by threefold repetition.
[change] Strategy
Chess is a very complex game, and has many different strategies that can be used to win. Most of them are for the beginning of the game, called opening moves, or simply openings. The most popular opening, the King's Pawn Opening, involves the white player moving his king's pawn (e2) foward two spaces (e4). Black can respond in many different ways, opening up possibilities for a very complex game.
Other chess openings are more risky. The Parham Attack is a very risky move that has the white player moving his queen out in the middle of the board and tries to lure other pieces to capture it. If white loses the queen, white is as a serious disadvantage, because black has more pieces out of the starting position than white. However, if the attack succeeds, white will have many more pieces than black, and black's king will most likely be out in the open and undefended.
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