Chess for Beginners: Know the Rules, Choose Your Strategy, and Start Winning

by Yelizaveta Orlova

Chess has been known to help academic growth,

Every piece in chess (with exception of the King) has a better advantage when placed toward the center.

Pieces have more mobility when they are closer to the center—if they are on the side of the board, on the other hand, they may have access to fewer than half of the squares.

•At the start of the game, move your center Pawns first

•Once your King is castled, move your Pawns on the opposite side

Rooks can’t jump over pieces and can get blocked by the opponent’s pieces or those of their own color.

•Get Rook(s) on the 7th or 8th rank (or 1st or 2nd if you’re playing Black)

Bishops can’t jump over pieces and can get blocked by the opponent’s pieces or those of their own color.

•Move in open positions, that is, positions with mostly open or semi-open files and diagonals

the King can never capture a protected piece—this would be an illegal move.

You are also not allowed to put your King into check or keep it in check.

•At the start of the game, hide the King on either the queenside or kingside (away from the center).

The Queen can’t jump over pieces and can get blocked by the opponent’s pieces or those of its own color.

•Don’t bring out the Queen too early, as it can be attacked or even trapped

•Bring the Queen out in the middle of the game, once the Knight and Bishops are developed

Knights are the only pieces in chess that can jump and never be blocked!

When a Knight moves, it will always land on the opposite-colored square.

•Move in closed positions, that is, positions with mostly blocked files and diagonals

•Place a Knight on an outpost square (a square that can’t be attacked by an enemy Pawn)

When a Pawn advances two squares, it can jump over the square an enemy Pawn is protecting—

If your opponent’s Pawn moves two squares forward (cheating its own death), you can capture it, but only on that move. If you decline the en passant capture, you will not have a chance to capture the Pawn again—unless a new en passant situation arises.

If White wants to keep Black’s pieces a little more passive, capturing en passant isn’t the best idea, since this would allow Black to recapture the Pawn and develop their Knight.

The purpose of castling is to get your King to safety.

The King is never 100 percent safe, but in drawing it away from the center, you can protect it with a fortress of Pawns standing guard.

castling can also help one of your Rooks advance toward the center of the board.

It is extremely important that you move your King first, followed by your Rook.

In the starting position, neither White nor Black can castle.

If the King wants to castle queenside, it will have to move the Knight, Bishop, and Queen out of the way.

If the King has moved, you’ll have no chance to castle because there’s only one King per side.

If one Rook has moved, you will still be able to castle with the other.

The quicker you castle, the fewer obstacles will be in your way!

You are not allowed to castle when you are in check—

If you move your King out of check here, you won’t be able to castle for the rest of the game.

Promotion is the ability of a Pawn to transform into a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight when it reaches the other side of the board.

Writing down a capture is very similar to recording a move, except that we add an x in the middle.

When a Pawn makes a capture, it’s written differently, since we don’t include the letter P for Pawn. Instead, we put down the file of the Pawn’s location, for example, fxe5 = Pawn on the f file captures a piece on e5.

will need to know: Symbol Meaning x Capture + Check ++ Double check # Checkmate e.p. En passant 0-0 Kingside castle 0-0-0 Queenside castle ! Good move ? Bad move !! Excellent move ?? Terrible move !? Interesting move ?! Dubious move .. Starting with Black’s move

to help them improve, I need to be able to see their strengths and weaknesses. Viewing the records of their games on a regular basis shows me the areas in which they’ve been improving and those they struggle with.

The important question: When the King is under attack, what can you or your opponent do? The best way to remember is by using the ABCs.

THE ABCs OF CHECK AWAY: Run away with the King to a square where it can’t be captured. BLOCK: Put a piece in between the attacker and the King. CAPTURE: Capture the piece that is attacking the King.

CAPTURE: Sometimes players get overexcited about a check and don’t notice the whole board. Look at the entire board, and see if any pieces can capture the checking piece.

AWAY: Move that King to a safe square!

BLOCK: This step should be last, because often when you block the check, your piece’s role changes from active to inactive. However, there are always exceptions.

If you are the winning side (whoever has captured more points), you don’t want to tie the game, so you want to be careful not to fall for one of the draws.

If you are the losing side, and you really don’t see any compensation for the loss of points, it’s best to try to trick your opponent into a draw.

You are given 0.5 points for a draw.

There are six types of draws: stalemate, insufficient material, agreement, 50-move rule, perpetual check, and three-time repetition.

Stalemate is when the King is not in check (under attack), but no legal moves or captures can be played.

In chess, you are not allowed to skip a turn.

100 PERCENT DRAW •K versus K •K versus K + B •K versus K + N •K + B versus K + B (Bishops must be on same-colored squares)