Chess is the sport played by masters that is impossible to master.
It is a game of survival through the application of prediction.
It is about finding some clarity among confusion, and some way to organize the chaos by thinking several moves ahead of the threats facing you now.
Chess is generally believed to have originated in India sometime around the 6th century, where it was known by the Sanskrit name chaturanga and consisted of pieces divided into four divisions: infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariotry. The game migrated through Persia, where it assumed the name Shah Mat, and is the origin of the English word "checkmate."
In Europe the pieces were named for the roles of members of the royal courts during the Middle Ages and play was modeled on the way wars were waged. By the 15th century the name chess and the general rules we know today were established.
​A Chess Novice Challenged Magnus Carlsen.
He Had One Month to Train..
The object of the game, as laid down in the rules, is the pursuit and checkmate of the enemy King. If you capture all your opponent’s other pieces and the King still remains and is able to move then you have not won the game. To win, the opposing King must be under threat of immediate capture and your opponent must not be able to capture the attacking piece, block the line of attack, or move the King out of danger. Submission of the King is signaled by the opponent toppling their own King by placing it on its side.
The pawn is the foot soldier. The pawn has two different moves depending upon whether it is advancing or capturing. One type of move is where it advances to the empty square directly in front of it.The other type of move is where it moves to capture a piece diagonally in front on the left, or in front on the right. On its first move only, a pawn may advance two spaces forward instead of one.
The extended first move, if an enemy pawn is in the fourth rank in a file beside the moving pawn has the risk of being taken en passant (French: in passing). The enemy pawn must attack diagonally by moving into the space the advancing pawn passed over; the opposing player must choose to use en passant the very next turn, or the opportunity is lost.
​ The extended first move and the diagonal attack represents the action of foot soldiers on the medieval battlefield; weighted down with armor, a soldier could begin an attack with a swift charge to close the distance with the enemy, like the first move two spaces forward. Because many armies of the age used large shields to form a "shield wall" when facing another battle line, foot soldiers would attack around the edges of their shield, thrusting spears or swords diagonally to the left or right side.
Pawns are special in that they are the only piece on the board that can be promoted. If a pawn advances to the back rank of the opponent's side of the board, it may be exchanged for a queen, bishop, knight, or rook. The promotion of a Pawn to anything other than a Queen is what is known as under promotion. Why would anyone want to under promote? It depends on the position of the other pieces. If there is a tactic the player can take advantage of only if he under promotes (for example, the need for a knight's unique movement), then the player may choose to do so.
Knights are often in a position to threaten more than one piece while being out of the line of attack of the opposing pieces. When they are in a position to attack multiple pieces, those pieces are said to be "forked," because the lines of attack are shaped like the parallel points of the cooking utensil used to turn meat on a grill or in a pan.
The Knight moves in the shape of a letter L. Two squares forwards or backwards then one square left and right, or two cells in a horizontal direction and one in a vertical direction. The Knight is unique in that it "jumps," or move regardless whether there are pieces on the intervening cells, without capturing the pieces it bypasses.
A Knight takes in the same way it moves, capturing only the piece in the cell where it lands. An interesting pattern to notice about the Knight move is that if it is on a white square it can only move to a black square the next turn, and if it is on a black square it can move only to a white square.
New players will often struggle to use Knights effectively because of the curious movement, and will be very concerned about opposing Knights. Once they gain experience, however, they discover Knights are very useful early in the game when the board is crowded with pieces. As the board clears, Knights will often be less effective due to their limited range and difficulty getting into position to attack on a more open board.
The Bishop can move any number of squares in a diagonal direction, but may not jump over occupied squares. Bishops capture in the same way as they move along the diagonals. Because of their diagonal movement and placement flanking the King and Queen, one Bishop will always be on the light squares and the other on the dark squares.
The Bishop is likely to have been an elephant in early versions of the game. Most Europeans were unfamiliar with elephants but saw the placement of the pieces to the right of the King and left of the Queen as similar to the power of church leaders in the European courts.
​In Russia, the Bishop has the standard appearance of the Bishop's pointed mitre cap, but is still referred to in speech and literature as the "slon," or elephant.
The Rook moves any number of cells in a horizontal or vertical direction, but may not jump over occupied cells. Rooks take in the same way as they move. A Rook can be (and often is) blocked from action by a friendly piece early in the game. On a clear board late in the game, the Rook threatens 14 cells. When the board is thinned out, no time should be lost in bringing them into the fight.
Doubling Rooks by placing them on the same file or rank gives them mutual protection and allows them to threaten a Queen or "box in" an enemy King on the run.
In the history of the early game, the Rooks were imagined as war chariots with archers, sweeping up and down and across the battlefield. In Arabic, they are still called "Rukh," chariots. One theory is Italian travelers encountering chess and bringing it back to Italy heard the word as "Rocco," or tower. The placement of castle towers on the four corners of the board gave the board the appearance of a medieval fortress.
In traditional chess the Queen is the most powerful attacking piece and is really a Rook and Bishop combined. The Queen moves any number of squares in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction, but may not jump over occupied squares. The Queen captures in the same way she moves.
Players new to the game often rely upon the power of the Queen to take action. Quick-ending game strategies such as the Fool's or Scholar's Mate are tricks or traps that use the Queen's strength, but more experienced players will not bring out their Queen in the early game, waiting for pawns and other pieces to be thinned out. If an opponent brings their Queen out early you can often use your Knights and Bishops to attack her, or an echelon (diagonal chain) of pawns to limit her movement.
The piece now known as the Queen had a variety of movement rules and names as the game developed in different countries. Historians suggest the Queen's power and name were standardized in European chess in honor of Queen Isabella of Spain between the 1470s and the 1490s.
The King moves one square in any direction. A King may capture opposing pieces within his movement range, so long as he does not move to a square where he could be captured. A King cannot move onto an unoccupied space that is under attack.
A King is strongest in the endgame when there are few pieces remaining and it can help checkmate the opponent’s King by protecting the attacking piece while staying out of line of attack itself. Because the King can only move one cell per move, it is most vulnerable during the early or middle part of the game, especially when allied pieces around it may prevent it from moving out of checkmate.
Castling is somewhat complex, but usually succeeds in placing your King in a more protected position in early or middle points of the game.
If there are no pieces between your King and one of your Rooks, and your King is not under attack, and neither your King or your Rook has moved yet, and none of the spaces in between the two pieces is under threat from an opposing piece, then you can move them both at the same time!
​ The King must move two squares towards the Rook, and the Rook must move to the square next to the king on the opposite side.
The word "check" is an announcement, "shah," or "the King," as in "look to the King," or "the King is in danger" and it demands immediate attention on the next move.
(3) move the King from the line of attack.
If it is not possible to get the King out of check with one of the three above options, then it is called "checkmate," or "shah mat," meaning "the king is undone." Checkmate can be directly delivered by any piece or combination of pieces on the board except for the opposing King.
Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal move. The rules of chess provide that when stalemate occurs, the game ends as a draw.
The King cannot be moved without moving into "Check," or "Checkmate;"
If the conditions are--not in Check, but cannot move without entering into Check or Checkmate--the game is over.
Neither player wins -- it's a tie!
Algebraic notation helps players who follow chess internationally visualize and follow games. To facilitate notation of moves, all squares are given a name.
From the view of the white player, the rows are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; the lowest row has number 1, and the upper row has number 8.
The columns are named, from left to right, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h.
​A square gets a name, consisting of the combination of its column-letter and row-number, e.g., the square in the lower left corner (for white) is a1.
Label the move number first. Each pair of moves is prefaced by a number followed by a period which indicates the ordinal number of the pair of moves - i.e., 1. for the first pair of moves (white, then black0, 2. for the second pair of moves, and so on.
Denoting a move to an open square: Write the capital letter which designates the piece, followed by the coordinate of the destination square. For example, a knight going to the square f3 would be denoted as Nf3; a pawn going to the square e4 would be denoted simply as e4. (Remember that pawns do not get a letter).
Denoting a capture:. Each capture move is denoted by the letter of the piece, followed by a lowercase x, then the coordinate of the destination square. For example, a bishop capturing a piece at c4 would be denoted as Bxc4. Sometimes, the x will be omitted.
When a pawn makes a capture, the file (column) from which the pawn departed is used in place of a piece initial. Thus, a pawn on e4 captures a piece on d5 would be denoted as exd5, or simply ed5 as the x is sometimes omitted.
En passant moves are denoted by the file (column) of departure of the capturing pawn, followed by the square to which it moves, followed, optionally, by the abbreviation "e.p.". Thus, a pawn on e5 capturing en passant a pawn on d5 is denoted as exd6 or exd6 e.p.
both the rank and file if neither alone uniquely defines the piece.
For example, if two knights on d2 and f2 can both reach e4, the move is denoted as Nde4 or Nfd4, as appropriate. If two knights on d2 and d6 can both reach e4, the move would be denoted as N2d4 or N6d4, as appropriate. If three knights on d2, d6, and f2 can all reach e4, with capture, the move would be denoted as Nd2xe4, N6xe4, or Nfxe4, as appropriate.
For pawn promotion, the piece to which it is promoted is written after the destination coordinate. For example, a pawn on e7 moving to e8 and promoting to a knight would be denoted as e8N. Sometimes an equal sign (=) is used, as ine8=N, or parentheses are used, as in e8(N), or a slash (/) is used, as in e8/N.
For castling, O-O denotes king side castle, while O-O-O denotes queen side castle.
A check is noted by + after the move notation.
Checkmate is denoted by # after the move notation. Some older chess literature may denote ++ as checkmate.
A 1-0 is used at the end of the game to denote a white win, 0-1 to denote a black win, and ½-½ (or 0.5-0.5) to denote a draw. The words "White Resigns" or"Black Resigns" may be used to denote a resignation.
Time controls are intended to keep individual games in a tournament moving quickly enough so the event can move forward without waiting on one match-up between two players. Most tournaments follow the guideline of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game. At higher levels of gameplay, or in circumstances where frustration, anxiety, or tension may be created by time limits, different guidelines are acceptable as long as the are agreed upon or announced prior to beginning play. Candidates tournaments for the World Championship, for example, have been played at 120 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 60 minutes for 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game.
A draw is the result of a game ending in a tie. Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.
when neither player has sufficient material to checkmate the opponent or when no sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate (a lone king, king plus knight, king plus bishop).
Unless a tournament's announced rules forbid it, players may agree to a draw at any time. For example, a draw could be called after a move or two by two players anxious to save their energy for later in the tournament, but this would likely be thought unsporting. Draws are usually agreed upon in situations where it appears neither player has a clear opportunity to win.
Tipping over the king traditionally indicates resignation, but it is not frequently used in international tournament play due to differing cultural traditions (and should be distinguished from accidentally knocking the king over).
Stopping both clocks is not an indication of resigning, since clocks can be stopped to call the arbiter.
An offer of a handshake is not necessarily a resignation either, since in international play one player could think they are agreeing to a draw.
Lichess.org is a volunteer international chess organization that supports connections with players of all levels worldwide.
One tool of particular use is a board with algebraic notation to help set up and visualize a series of moves.
This site includes a wide variety of tools and reference materials for beginner through advanced game play.