Game rules

The first thing you need to play chess is a chessboard. You can see a chessboard in figure 1, please note that the lower left square is always a black square! As you can see, a chess board is 8 squares long and 8 squares wide, so in total 64 fields. All fields participate in chess! All those spaces have a first name and a last name.
Around the chess board there are letters and numbers. Each field has as its first name a letter and as surname a rating. For example, the lower left field is called a1, and the field at the top right h8.

The 4 squares in the centre of the board on which the pieces (pawns) stand (d4, d5, e4 and e5) are called the centre. These squares are important because they are often contested there. In chess, we call a horizontal line (with the numbers) a row (so, for example, the 2nd row), and the vertical line (with the letters) a line (so, for example, the c-line). We call an oblique line a diagonal.

The king may one field in all directions (forward, backward, left, right or oblique) run and hit. There is something special about the king, though. The king must never stand attacked (attacking is when you can capture the piece you are attacking next turn). So if an opponent's piece attacks your king, you must walk away with your king or put a piece between your king and the attacker (or capture the attacking piece), so that your king is no longer under attack.

If the king is under attack and can no longer flee, you stand checkmate and you lose. This makes the king a vulnerable and important piece. So you have to protect it well!

The lady (aka queen) may multiple fields in all directions (though via a straight line, i.e. horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) run and hit. So this makes the lady a very strong piece. However, you only have 1, so always be careful with it.

The tower is allowed multiple spaces forward, backwards, left or right walk and strike. So the tower may only straight move. This makes the rook a strong piece, just slightly stronger than the bishop and knight that come next.

The bishop is allowed to move and hit several squares diagonally. It thus runs over diagonals. So a bishop standing on a black square will always remain on a black square, the same goes for a bishop on a white square.

The horse is an interesting piece. Unlike other pieces, it does not run but makes a jump. So he can jump over other pieces. The horse always jumps 1 field straight and 1 field diagonally.

Pawns can only 1 step move forward. There is 1 exception to this. As you can see immediately in the starting position will see, the pawns start on the 2nd (or for black on the 7th) row.

The first time that you move with the pawn you may also 2 spaces forward. So you can choose to play your pawn 1 space forward to the 3rd row, or 2 spaces to the 4th row. Pawns can striking forward only diagonally. So they can only hit the pitch to the left or right oblique in front of them.

The pieces all have a value, which you can see in the table below. Remember that this value is relative. Indeed, you can imagine that a tower built into a corner is not as strong as one that is very active (i.e. 'looking' at many other fields).

I don't have the king in this table. When your king mates, you have lost. So your king is actually worth infinity.

In chess, you always start with the same line-up you see in figure 8. So you start with 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 horses, a queen and a king. Note again that the square bottom left always a black field is. You can see that black's pieces are exactly opposite to white's.

What you still need to pay attention to are the position of the king and queen. One way to remember these well is to say that the lady always chooses her own colour (After all, her shoes should match her dress!).
So the white queen starts on a white square and the black queen on a black square (you can also remember that the queen always starts on the d-line).

The castling is an important move for completing development in the opening. This is because it brings the king more or less to safety while bringing a rook into play. It is the only move that involves two pieces of the same colour.

One distinguishes the short and the long castling. In both cases, the king moves from its initial position (on the e-line) two squares to the side and the rook moves from its initial position over the king to the square immediately next to it.

So in the short castling, the king moves to the g-line and the rook moves from the h-line to the f-line. The rook jumps over the king, as it were.

In long castling, the king moves to the c-line and the rook moves from the a-line to the d-line.

This one relates to the pawn. We know that it only moves forward, hitting forward diagonally. So it will always move further forward and never back. When the pawn reaches the other side, this would cause a problem. Therefore, when your pawn reaches the other side, you may promote it into a piece of your choice. You can choose from a queen, rook, bishop or knight. Obviously, the choice will almost always be a queen, but there are exceptions where you would prefer another piece.

If you already have a queen, it doesn't matter, just grab another queen from another chess game (in friendly games, you can also use a rook upside down as a queen, or even put a pawn on its side provided it doesn't roll away).

A pawn may in the beginning these two pitches ahead. En-passant in French means something like "in passing". When a pawn attacks a square that is passed by the first move of a pawn that advances two squares, the attacking pawn may capture the other as if it had advanced only one square.

Note that this must be done immediately on the next move. So you only get 1 chance to do this.

The most important thing in chess is checkmate. With that, you win the party.

IT IS CHECKMATE IF THE KING IS IN CHECK AND IF YOU CANNOT CANCEL THE CHECK.

Mate is the same as checkmate. Whoever mates the opponent's king has won. The winner gets a point. The loser gets no points.

It can be matted in thousands of ways. You can matt give with one piece, with two pieces, or sometimes even more pieces are needed to prevent the king from fleeing. The fields of flight must be guarded.

Black is always on the ball.

Example 1: mate with 1 rook and 1 bishop

It is matt. Black is in check and cannot enter the air hole because of the white bishop.

Example 2: mate with 2 rooks

With two rooks you can conveniently mate. Note that the tower on the right prevents the black king from going down. That rook is a 'guard' and stays put. The left tower is the 'hunter'. This rook gives check:

The black king can no longer go to a safe field. Check for yourself. This mate with two rooks often occurs in real games.

In checkmate, the king is in check and there is nothing you can do against it. Whoever is mated has lost. But what is pat? Also at pat you cannot make any more moves, just like with mate. The difference is that with pat NOT chess state. If it pat becomes, then the party is over. But the result is now draw, draw. Both players get half a point: ½-½. So there is no winner.

Below are five examples of pat, and one example in which another move can be made. Look at the pictures carefully.

Black is always on the ball.

Example 1:

The king has nowhere to go. The king is not in check. It is pat. The party ended.

Example 2:

The king has nowhere to go. Here the black pawn is fixed. So it is pat.

Example 3:

The king is fixed but the pawn can still move. It is NO pat. The game continues. Black plays up his pawn.

Example 4:

The king has nowhere to go and is not in check. Pat.

Example 5:

The king has nowhere to go. Nor can the knight leave because of check. It is pat.

Example 6:

The king has nowhere to go. Pat.