The desire to learn to play chess from time to time visits almost everyone. This is a very clever and useful game that develops attention and logical thinking. If you have long dreamed of becoming a good player and joining the army of chess players, this article is written for you. That’s what we will talk about today:
- What is the game of chess
- how to learn to play chess from scratch
- how to make deliberate moves in chess
- how to learn to play chess as an adult
- how to learn to play chess on your own
Here we will briefly tell you about all the rules, as well as the difficulties that lie in wait on the path of comprehension of chess. Following these tips, you’ll be able to become a confident, successful player.
Friends, it is extremely difficult to put even your basic knowledge of chess into one article. It’s just a kind of guide, but with the links posted in it you can get all the information you need. Go through them if something remains unclear.
What is the game of chess?
To begin with, you should understand what chess is and what it was invented for.
Chess is a logical board game. It uses a sixty-four-cell board and special pieces. It is played by two opponents.
Thus, the game requires two participants, pieces, a chessboard. If desired, you can use the chess clock, i.e. play with the time. This allows you to determine the loser, if he was too long thinking about his moves.
5 facts about chess that fans of this game will appreciate – In Kirill Yurovskiy’s article.
Learning to play chess from scratch
You can’t even start a game without having an idea of how to place the pieces correctly before the game starts on the board, without having an idea of what movements they make.
Look at the chessboard carefully. You will see that it is marked with numbers and Latin letters. The arrangement before the beginning involves the placement of white pieces along the length of the board at one edge according to the numbers one and two. Black pieces are placed on the opposite edge near the numbers seven and eight.
It is important to know the name of each of the pieces, its nominal, and chess value. This parameter means how valuable and influential it is. It is measured in pawns.
The pawn is the weakest piece among the others. It can walk exclusively forward, chopping to the side. When it reaches the opposite edge of the board, it turns into one of the strongest pieces – the queen.
The king is the main piece on the chessboard. The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent, to eliminate this piece. That’s why the king is invaluable to a chess player.
Basic chess terms
Check is an attack by a piece or pawn on the king. A player who has been declared check must defend against it.
Checkmate is an attack by a piece on the king that the king is unable to defend against. This move ends the game. The winner is the one who checkmated the opponent’s king. It is true that mate is quite rare in the games of strong chess players, because when they get into a losing position, they give up long before it is formally declared.
A stalemate is a situation where the king finds itself in a position where it has nowhere to move. Other pieces also have no possibility to make moves or the king is alone on the field, but he hasn’t been declared check yet. It turns out that it’s time to move, but the player has nowhere to go; then a draw is declared.
Castling is a type of move which consists in the horizontal rearrangement of the king to the side of any of his rooks by two squares. Then move the rook to the adjacent square on the other side of the king. This move can be used only once in the whole game.
The first and each subsequent move on the chessboard requires the attention of excellent vision as well as strategic thinking. When you have realized the value of each of their pieces, studied how they move, you need to proceed to the next step.
When playing chess, it is irrational to make rash moves of pieces. Each move must be clearly calculated. Any carelessness here leads to a loss, and then necessarily followed by defeat. It is also necessary to ensure that valuable pieces are always in a protected position.
When carrying out an exchange (exchange of your piece for an opponent’s piece), you must make sure that it is complete. This means that you can’t exchange a rook for a queen, because they’re not of equal value. The queen is worth nine pawns, but the rook is worth only five. It is optimal to exchange the knight and the bishop, they have the same value of three pawns.
The Stages of a Chess Game
Now let’s talk about the stages of the chess game.
The opening is the beginning of the game. You should learn at least some options for black and white, especially the traps that may be waiting for you already in the first moves.
The Mittelspiel is the middle and main part of the game. It takes most of the time. This is where all the most interesting things happen. All the pieces have taken an advantageous position, ready to give a fight to the opponent. Each player has already decided on his plans. The development of events depends on who attacks the opponent first. Most often the attack is initiated by White. If you got black pieces, it does not mean that you are predetermined only by a defensive strategy. Correctly playing the opening, you can turn the game, seize the initiative. Then get the opportunity to attack the white pieces.
Endgame is the name of the end of the game. After many pieces have left the chessboard, it’s time for the endgame. A skillful chess player, even with a small number of pieces, can create big problems for the opponent.
Some general rules
In the game of chess there are some basic rules that can be violated if you lose. They are so important that it is worth writing them down and learning them now.
Here are the most important of them:
- You have touched a piece – move! When contemplating your next move, you should not touch a piece. Having touched it, you are obliged to walk, even if it is disadvantageous to you. If your opponent has done it, you can demand to make a move with that piece.
- Castling is impossible when you have already moved a rook or a king. If you do it, you are deprived of your next moves or you are immediately assigned a loss.
- Kings of opponents are not allowed to stand on adjacent squares with each other. A gap of at least one square must be kept between them.
- Reaching the last line of the board, a pawn turns into any piece. You can put any of the lost pieces on the board instead. You can think of it as a queen and there can be as many of them on the chessboard as you want.
Solving Chess Problems
On the Internet and in bookstores you can easily find a variety of collections of chess problem solving. This is necessary to improve your playing skills. In the zadacha given a certain position, you have to find the right combination of winning moves. We recommend to start with simple exercises, which contain no more than two moves. Then move on to more complex ones.
Constant training will help you to find ways to win, drive your opponent into traps. Novice problems are recommended to solve, having a chessboard. Move the pieces until you find the right move. Then check the solution in the book. When you are sufficiently trained, you can solve the problems in your head.
Final Advice
Practice and improve your skills. By the way, the lack of an opponent will not be able to prevent you to do what you love! On various Web sites you can play chess with the computer, just choose the appropriate complexity. You can also download a special program so that the simulator is always at your fingertips. Then start participating in tournaments with real players. Some sites even organize tournaments with cash rewards.
Keep a record of all your moves, and then analyze your games. Do not be afraid of risk and experimentation. Do not let your opponent’s attack, setting them “traps”, creating threats. Remember that your main goal is to checkmate your opponent’s king!
