The Object Of The Game...

So in the last blog post we learned how the pieces move. If you are just now reading this blog you can find out how the pieces move here. Now that you know the basic moves and rules for how to set the board up and how the pieces move it is time to learn some special moves.

Special Moves:

Castling:

• A move that allows you to place your King on a square that is relatively safe from enemy attack. 
• The only move that involves a move of two pieces on a player's turn.
• Castling is accomplished by moving the King two squares toward the Rook he intends to castle with, then the Rook is placed on the square directly beside the other side of the King.

Castling may NOT be played when:

• The King is in check, i.e, under enemy attack
• Either the King or Rook involved has previously moved.
• Pieces (either side) are between the King and the Rook.
• Squares passed over or landed on by the King are under enemy attack.

Pawn Promotion:

• When a Pawn reaches the eighth rank (the enemy's back rank) it is promoted to a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight of its own color, according to the player's choice.

Capturing En Passant:

• This special capturing power of a Pawn applies only to the capture of a Pawn by a Pawn, in a specific type of situation. That situation occurs when a Pawn on the second row uses its option to advance two squares on its first move and moves beside an enemy Pawn on the row and on either square directly beside it.
• If this situation arises in the game then the opponent has the option to capture as if it had only advanced one square. 
• If the opponent forfeits to capture via en passant the next turn then he cannot do so later on. 

The Object Of Chess:

  

The object of chess it to attack the enemy King in such a way that it cannot escape capture. Once this is done the King is 'checkmated' and the game is over. Therefore, whenever a King is under attack, 'check', it must escape that attack before the game can go on. There are three ways to get out of a check:

1. Capturing the checking piece either with your King or another piece.
2. Blocking the check with another piece by putting one of your pieces between the checking piece and your King.
3. Moving the King to a square that is not being attacked by an enemy piece.

Remember, if a King is in check and has no way of escaping, then that King is 'checkmated'.

Chess Notation:

Now that you know all the moves and the object of the game you must understand chess notation. Chess notation is how people record games so that they can be played back for others to see or even for the players to analyze the game after the fact. The method I will be teaching is considered algebraic notation. Let's look at the board again:

 

Chess notation starts by putting a coordinate grid over the chessboard. The horizontal rows are called ranks and they are numbered 1 to 8. White's first row, the rank containing the White pieces, is number 1. The rank with Black's pieces is now number 8. The vertical rows, or files, are lettered "a" through "h", with "a" starting on White's left and "h" on White's right.

The grid system lets us refer to any square on the board by a unique name. White's King is currently sitting on the square "e." Black's Queen is on square "d8," and so on. In addition to the grid system, we have abbreviations for each of the pieces. Here they are:

King = K

Queen = Q

Rook = R

Bishop = B

Knight = N

Pawn = No abbreviations is given for the pawn. 

To indicated a move, we write down the piece that moved and the square it moved to. However, if a pawn is moving, we don't write anything more than the ending square. We use an "x" if the move was a capture.

Special Notations:

Certain moves in chess have their own special notation.

• Castling King-side is denoted by "0-0." Castling Queen-side is denoted by "0-0-0."
• When promoting a pawn, indicated the promoted piece after the equals sign: for instance "a8 = Q" says that White moved a pawn to the a8 square and promoted it to a Queen.
• A check is denoted by the "+" symbol after a move that threatens a King: for instance "Qd8+" says that White moved his Queen to d8 attacking the Black King. 
• Checkmate is denoted by the "#" symbol: for instance "Qd8#" says that White moved his Queen to d8 and attacked the Black King in a way that he could not escape check.

Capturing en passant is indicated by "ep" after the move: for instance, "dxc6 ep" shows a pawn capturing en passant on the c6 square.

A game is notated with White's move first followed by a comma and then Black's move. The next move is on the next line in the same order. For example,

1. e4, e5

2. Nf3, Nc6

This shows that White's first move was his pawn to e4. Black's first move was his pawn to e5. White's second move was his Knight to f3. Black's second move was his Knight to c6. 

The End

I know this is a lot of material to take in on one blog so feel free to take your time and practice playing a game or two and recording the moves. Please post your games to my comments so I can see how you are moving along. Do not worry if you win or lose. It is all about getting comfortable with how the pieces move and writing your moves down. I am going to leave you with a game of mine with the notation. I want you to play over it to give yourself even more time to fully understand the notation system. If you have any questions please let me know and I will be more than glad to help you the best I can.

In this game I was playing the White pieces from a tournament I played in on May 11 in Charlotte, NC.

1. e4, e6

2. d4, d5

3. e5, c5

4. c3, Nc6

5. Nf3, Qb6

6. a3, c4

7. Be3, Nge7

8. Qd2, Nf5

9. Bf4, Na5

10. Qd1, Bd7

11. b4, cxb3 ep

12. a4, b2

13. Ra2, Rc8

14. Qd2, Nc4

15. Bxc4, Rxc4

16. Rxb2, Qc7

17. Na3, Bxa3

18. Rb3, Be7

19. 0-0, Bxa4

20. Rb2, Rxc3

21. Rfb1, b6

22. Qe2, Rc2

23. Qa6, b5

24. Rxc2, Qxc2

25. Rc1, Qb2

26. Qc6+, K d8

27. Qc8#

The Moves

It is a funny thing, if you speak with someone who knows little about chess other than how the pieces move you will hear something similar to this, "Chess is complicated." Yet if you talk to someone who is well versed in chess you will hear them say to a beginner, "Chess is simple." Both statements are true from what I have seen in my relationship with chess. Is it weird I say relationship with chess?!

So before you even want to think about playing a Grandmaster (GM), or even someone who just learned chess, you must get familiar with how the pieces the move and some of the most basic rules. Now in the next blog, I will be going over algebraic notation so that you can start following along at home with your own chessboard and pieces.

The origins of chess are not that well known so I will not get into the murky waters of who invented chess and where it was invented; they made Google for those curious enough to know (just remember Wikipedia is a site that can be edited from someone like you). Now on to the how of chess...

Chess is played by two players who take turns making moves. Play takes place on a board with 64 squares (8 squares by 8 squares). The squares are alternately colored white and black. The board should be placed so that each player has a white square in the corner at their right (see picture below).

The chess pieces are colored light and dark, and are designated as White and Black. Each side starts off with sixteen chessmen:

1 King
1 Queen
2 Rooks
2 Bishops
2 Knights
8 Pawns

Let us start with a picture of a chess board first:

So this is how the chessboard is first set up. Each side has  their 8 pawns on the second row in front of the rest of the army. The 2 Rooks go on the farthest squares from the center on the first row. The 2 Knights go right next to the Rooks. The 2 Bishops go right next to the Knights. The Queen will always go on her own color (I remembered this because a lady will always match her shoes), thus the white Queen will go on the white square and the black Queen will always go on the black square. The King goes right beside his fair lady. Once you have the pieces set up it is time to learn how they move and capture.

A move is the transfer of one chess piece from one square to another. A capture is the removal of an opposing piece from the board; it is accomplished by actually removing the piece from its square and replacing it with the capturing piece. You cannot capture your own pieces.

How The Pieces Move:

The King:

• Can move or capture one square in any direction.
• The King cannot move to squares where it may be captured by enemy pieces. This would be considered 'Check' or 'Checkmate'.
• The King cannot move to a square already occupied by one of its own pieces. 
• The King can capture any enemy piece within its moving range (one square). The enemy piece must not be protected by another enemy piece. 
• The King is your most important piece. 

The Queen:

• Can move or capture as far as it wants in any direction -horizontally vertically, or diagonally- unless it is obstructed by a piece belonging to either side.
• The Queen combines the power of the Bishops and the Rooks.
• The Queen is your most powerful piece.

The Rook:

• Can move or capture horizontally or vertically like the Queen, but lacks the power to move diagonally.

The Bishop

• Is limited to diagonal moves or captures.
• The Bishop cannot move horizontally or vertically
• The Bishop is confined to the squares of the same color throughout the game that it started on.

The Knight

• Moves differently from any other piece and usually confuses beginners.
• The Knight moves to squares reached by going two squares vertically or horizontally, and one square to the left or right.
• The Knight will always land on the opposite color from where it is moving. If the Knight is on a white square, after moving the Knight will be on a black square.
• The Knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces (either its own or the enemy's) in the course of its move.
• The Knight captures the same way it moves.

The Pawn

• Unlike the other pieces, moves one way and captures in another.
• The Pawn can only move forward; they can never retreat.
• The Pawn moves one square forward unless blocked by enemy piece or its own piece.
• However, when the Pawn is on its original square, it has the option to move one or two squares forward on its first move.
• The Pawn captures diagonally forward to the left or right. After the Pawn captures it then proceeds forward on the new row.

I will leave you here to get familiar with how the pieces move. Feel free to refer back to this post until you are confident in your ability to move all the pieces around the chessboard. In the next blog I will discuss a few special moves, the differences between a check and a checkmate, as well as algebraic notation. You are now closer to being able to play your first game of chess. Don't forget to find me on Chess.com by searching for dblackw2 (it is free to join so no excuses). I am always looking for new opponents and it will be a great way to test your knowledge of ideas as you start learning more chess knowledge. 

Checkmate,

David

A Chess Blog Begins

So you have a chess set, you know how the pieces move and you are itching to play your first game of chess. I remember that day. My dad had an older plastic chess board that folded in half and the pieces were made of plastic. Even the board had a plastic coating on it. The instructions on how the pieces moved were printed on the inside of the top of the box. My dad had me sit down and read the rules of the game of chess for the first time. I finished rather quickly. I enjoyed to read you see. He made me read it a second time because he didn't believe that I could comprehend the information that quickly. I am pretty sure that he was correct.

Now my memory fails me here because I remember reading the rules for the the first time somewhere different from where I remember my first lost to my dad. Anywho, needless to say my dad beat me pretty easily those first few times. After losing several times and being a typical kid, I decided chess was not for me. Then the chess bug bit me when I was in 7th grade. I started studying and reading and playing as much as I could. I got to be pretty decent. Inn 8th grade I joined the school chess club. I was the best in the club except for the instructor. The lessons were great. This was the first time that I actually had someone teaching me chess aside from me reading from a book. I went on to win an in-house tournament with a score of 13 wins, 0 draws, 0 losses. Then I went to high school and I left chess for magic.

Once out of high school I went back to studying chess late at night for awhile. I wanted to play in a rated chess tournament but I lived in Concord and it seemed like too far to go to Charlotte to join a club or play in a tournament. Besides how was I going to afford the USCF to even be able to play anyway. I didn't have anyone to help me along with this process.

Then I met my wife and moved to Charlotte. She got me a membership to the USCF (I think she still regrets it to this day because of how much time I will spend studying and playing chess) and I signed up for my first chess tournament in 2011. It was the NC Open. From there I found a local club that met every night and played speed chess. It was run by Tony Hicks. He held some tournaments every once in awhile but a lot of times it was just playing for fun and playing speed chess.

This is what allowed me to see just how good I really was because I never really played anyone that was way better than myself except for my dad and I was beating him now. My last non-family member opponent was in 8th grade back in 2003 and it was now 2011. So I got beat pretty badly but the guys there knew I had some kind of talent because they could see the moves I made were not beginner moves.

I also felt that I wasn't playing as strong as I used to play and so I started going home and studying more. I got pretty strong. Then I found another club that played a rated game once a week in Charlotte (Queen City Chess Club) and that is where I met a great group of people, adults and kids alike, that really help foster my passion for chess. I was allowed to test my knowledge and skills against people who were rated much more higher than myself.

I continued to study and I continued to learn. I played in more and more tournaments. My very first non-provisional rating was 1240 (08/09/11) and as of 05/11/13 my rating is 1507 while I peaked at 1583 (09/18/2012).

So if you are just starting out in chess and are not sure if you can improve your rating or just have no idea where to begin, I want you to know that you are in good hands. I will show you the steps that I took to get to where I am and what I am doing now to get even better. I am not the best chess player by far. I do not claim to be and I do not even pretend that I am. I do however know, that when looking for that first step. Or even just that one person to hang out and play chess with, it can be difficult to find. Either you find people who are well below your level or the people who are rated higher than you and could help feel that you are only slowing them down.

I want to be that person that gives you the guidance that I never had growing up to find the right path to chess excellence. In this blog I will cover my games, I will post material that I learned from books that I own. I will do a daily chess tactic for your solve. It may be as simple as a mate in one or more complicated where you are only trying to improve your position. I will never give you a hint as to what you are trying to do other than who is to move. The side moving will always be the one winning.

Please feel free to leave feedback on the post and feel free to follow me so you get all the recent updates. Share this with friends and family that are trying to learn chess as well. Together we will get where we want to go.

Come play a game with me at Chess.com by challenging my handle: dblackw2

Checkmate,
David