Chess Guide

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Aim of the game

The ultimate aim in the game of chess is to win by trapping your opponent's king. This is called checkmate

White is always first to move and players take turns alternately moving one piece at a time. Movement of a piece is compulsory.

Movement of the pieces

Rook

The rook moves in a straight line, horizontally or vertically. The rook may not jump over other pieces, that is: all squares between the square where the rook starts its move and where the rook ends its move must be empty. (As for all pieces, when the square where the rook ends his move contains a piece of the opponent, then this piece is taken. The square where the rook ends his move may not contain a piece of the player owning this rook.)

Bishop

The bishop moves in a straight diagonal line. The bishop may not jump over other pieces

Queen

The queen has the combined moves of the rook and the bishop, i.e., the queen may move in any straight line, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal

Knight

The knight makes a move that consists of first one step in a horizontal or vertical direction, and then one step diagonally in an outward direction. The knight jumps: it is allowed that the first square that the knight passes over is occupied by an arbitrary piece. The piece that is jumped over is further not affected by the knight: as usual, a knight takes a piece of the opponent by moving to the square that contains that piece.

Pawn

The pawn moves differently regarding whether it moves to an empty square or whether it takes a piece of the opponent. When a pawn does not take, it moves one square straight forward. When this pawn has not moved at all, i.e., the pawn is still at the second row (from the owning players view), the pawn may make a double step straight forward.

When taking, the pawn goes one square diagonally forward.

En passant capture.

En passant capture is a special type of move, with which pawns can take other pawns, under specific rules. It goes as follows:

A player moves his pawn two squares, from his second row to his fourth row.

There is a pawn of the opponent that can capture at the squares that is passed over by the pawn.

In that case, this pawn of the opponent has the right to capture en passant in the directly following move.

To capture en passant, the opponents pawn goes to the square passed over by the pawn (i.e., the square on the third row), thus moving diagonally forwards. The captured pawn is taken from the board. See below.

King

The king moves one square in any direction, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. There is one special type of move, made by a king and rook simultaneously, called castling: see below.

The king is the most important piece of the game, and moves must be made in such a way that the king is never in check:

Castling

Under certain, special rules, a king and rook can move simultaneously in a castling move.

The following conditions must be met:

The king that makes the castling move has not yet moved in the game.
The rook that makes the castling move has not yet moved in the game.
The king is not in check.
The king does not move over a square that is attacked by an enemy piece during the castling move, i.e., when castling, there may not be an enemy piece that can move (in case of pawns: by diagonal movement) to a square that is moved over by the king.
The king does not move to a square that is attacked by an enemy piece during the castling move, i.e., you may not castle and end the move with the king in check.
All squares between the rook and king before the castling move are empty.
The King and rook must occupy the same rank (or row).

When castling, the king moves two squares towards the rook, and the rook moves over the king to the next square.

Check, mate, and stalemate

Check

When the king of a player can be taken by a piece of the opponent, one says that the king is in check. For instance, the white player moves his rook to a position such that it attacks the black king, i.e., if black doesn't do anything about it, the rook could take the black king in the next move: we say that the white rook gives check. It is considered good manners to say check when one checks ones opponent.

It is not allowed to make a move, such that ones king is in check after the move. If a player accidentally tries to make such a move, he must take the move back and make another move (following the rules that one must move with the piece one has touched

Mate

When a player is in check, and he cannot make a move such that after the move, the king is not in check, then he is mated. The player that is mated lost the game, and the player that mated him won the game.

Note that there are three different possible ways to remove a check:

Move the king away to a square where he is not in check.
Take the piece that gives the check.
(In case of a check, given by a rook, bishop or queen: ) move a piece between the checking piece and the king.

Stalemate

When a player cannot make any legal move, but he is not in check, then the player is said to be stalemated. In a case of a stalemate, the game is a draw.

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