Chess in General
Chess is played on a square board with 64 squares normally talked about as white and black although the vinyl boards typically have red squares as the dark ones instead of black. Chess is a game with about 10 to the 120th power or the Shannon number of moves. The pieces are called the Pawns, Bishop, the Knight, the Rook, the Queen, and the King. Although the King is the game and he doesn’t have a real value, I would say he’s worth 2 points as he becomes a powerful weapon in the end game. A Pawn is not considered a valuable piece unless it reaches the 8th rank and promotes to a Queen although in some rare situations it may promote to a Knight which is the most common of the underpromotions as it moves in a unique way.
Chess Origination—————————————-
Chess is believed to have originated in India, at the time called, Chaturanga, meaning “4 divisions[of the military]“, Infantry, Cavalry, Elephantry and Chariotry. This wiki link about the history of chess can tell you more. I’ve played this game several times and it differs greatly from modern chess and I would consider it almost unrelated.
The Setup————————————————–
In the initial position the first row goes, from left to right, as white, Rook, Knight, Bishop Queen, King, Bishop, Knight, Rook. The second row consists of pawns only. A diagram of the initial position is in this link about chess. The first 2 moves can be without moving pawns as the 2 Knights but the next moves are going to have to be pawn moves as no other pieces can jump over pawns friend of foe.
The Play—————————————————-
After the setup you can now begin to play. White goes first and the players alternate moves one at a time. There is however an exception and that is to castling.
Unusual Moves——————————————–
Unusual moves include En passant and Castling. Castling usually comes first as En passant only happens when a white pawn has advanced to the 5th rank or a black pawn has reached the 4th rank (example given here is for white). If a white pawn advances to the 5th rank and the black pawn advances to the 5th rank on the adjacent file, white can En passant by moving diagonally one square to the 6th rank onto the square that the black pawn jumped over. More about En passant in this wiki article.
Castling is easier to describe and can take a minimum of 4 moves to accomplish including the move itself. After 1 Nf3…Nc6 2 g3…d5 3 Bg2…Be6, white can castle Kingside. This is notated as 0-0. Castling is done by moving the KING 2 squares towards the Rook and the ROOK hops over the King. Castling is NOT done by switching the King and Rook. Castling is not permitted under the following conditions: Neither piece involved in castling may have been previously moved, The King may not castle if he is currently in check, There may not be any pieces in between the Rook and King, None of the squares that the King crosses or the one that he lands on may be under attack by an enemy piece for castling to happen.
