How To Play Chess: Rules For Pieces And Step-By-Step Guide

Chess is one of the old indoor games and people have been playing it for few thousand years now. The earlier forms were originated in India during the sixth century, which is known as Chaturanga. The game became popular after the Kings started betting during the tournaments. Although the exact rules of Chaturanga are not to know many, it is somewhat similar to the modern-day board game of Chess. This ancient Indian game spread to Persia to become Chatrang during the 10th and 11th centuries. From Persia, it was passed on to the Arabs and other regions. As the game became more popular, it got different names and new rules. During the medieval period, this game was slow, which would last for hours and sometimes even days. By the year 1500, the Europeans have added few new rules to the game and made the pawns more powerful. Here in this article, we take you through a step-by-step guide on how to play chess, identifying the pieces and other interesting facts about the game.

Step-by-step guide on how to play Chess:

Chess Elements:

There are 32 pieces placed on the Chessboard. 16 on each side representing each player’s armed forces. These 16 pieces include – Eight pawns, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, one queen, and one king. Here are a few crucial elements in the game. Here are the key elements of the Chess game:

1. Space- The number of squares you control
2. Time -Number of pieces you have developed
3. Force- Number of Pieces or Pawns you have
4. Harmony- How well you strengthen your tactics
5. Position- Your King and Pawn set-ups
6. Dynamics- The strategy

Chess Rules:

• Kings Moves: A King’s movement is limited to only one square, but it can move in any direction. It also has a special move, castling, wherein you are allowed to move the king to two spaces to its right or left, while the rook on that side moves to the opposite side of the King

• Queens Moves: The Queen can move diagonally, horizontally, or vertically any number of squares. However, they can’t jump the pieces.

• Rooks Moves: These can move horizontally or vertically to any number of squares. They too can’t jump over the pieces. Rocks usually move when the king castles

• Bishops Moves: These can move diagonally to any number of squares, however, they too can’t jump over the pieces

• Knights Moves: These can move in L shape only i.e two squares in the horizontal or vertical direction and then one square in the horizontal or vertical direction. These are the only pieces on Chess that can jump over the other pieces

• Pawns Moves: These can only move forward one square, with two exceptions. They can move two squares on their first move only and they diagonally forward when capturing an opponent’s chess piece. Pawns can’t move backward.

How to play chess:

Lay the chessboard correctly and place all the 16: 16 pieces correctly on each side of the chessboard. Each chess piece has a specific name, moves, capabilities and it should be placed in its correct square before starting to play.
Each player should have a dark square on their lower-left corner. Here below is a correct display of placing the pieces before starting the game.

Players can mutually decide who can go first. Players from each team move their pieces in alternate turns and follow the rules of each piece’s moves. The goal is to capture the maximum pieces from the opponent team and checkmate the King in the end. A player cannot move their king into check, also all the other pieces are to be placed in a way that either protects the King and or captures opponents’ pieces. Once the pieces get captured, the player has to remove that piece from the chessboard. 

When building defenses, remember to look at the board and gauge how strong you are in certain areas of the board. Try to keep power distributed evenly, and bring pieces over to add strength if you see an attack coming. Queens is strongest, followed by Rook, Bishop, Knight, and Pawns to the weakest positions.

How to checkmate the King?

The queen cannot checkmate enemy King by herself. Instead, the king and queen must work together to finish the game. Usually, players opt for the Firing Squad strategy to checkmate the King. It includes two Rooks and a Queen. Each piece takes it in turns to attack the King, thereby living no option for the King to escape. The one who checkmates the King first wins the game.

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