chess | game | Britannica.com Chess Learn more about this topic 1 Tbh, I taught myself to play chess by reading Britannica’s article. You can too! Chess, one of the oldest and most popular board games, played by two opponents on a checkered board with specially designed pieces of contrasting colours, commonly white and black. White moves first, after which the players alternate turns in accordance with fixed rules, each player attempting to force the opponent’s principal piece, the King, into checkmate—a position where it is unable to avoid capture. Chess first appeared in India about the 6th century ad and by the 10th century had spread from Asia to the Middle East and Europe . Since at least the 15th century, chess has been known as the “royal game” because of its popularity among the nobility. Rules and set design slowly evolved until both reached today’s standard in the early 19th century. Once an intellectual diversion favoured by the upper classes, chess went through an explosive growth in interest during the 20th century as professional and state-sponsored players competed for an officially recognized world championship title and increasingly lucrative tournament prizes.

Organized chess tournaments, postal correspondence games, and Internet chess now attract men, women, and children around the world. This article provides an in-depth review of the history and the theory of the game by noted author and international grandmaster Andrew Soltis. World chess champions Tarrasch, Siegbert Characteristics of the game Chess is played on a board of 64 squares arranged in eight vertical rows called files and eight horizontal rows called ranks. These squares alternate between two colours: one light, such as white, beige, or yellow; and the other dark, such as black or green. The board is set between the two opponents so that each player has a light-coloured square at the right-hand corner. Algebraic notation Individual moves and entire games can be recorded using one of several forms of notation. By far the most widely used form, algebraic (or coordinate) notation, identifies each square from the point of view of the player with the light-coloured pieces, called White. The eight ranks are numbered 1 through 8 beginning with the rank closest to White. The files are labeled a through h beginning with the file at White’s left hand.

Each square has a name consisting of its letter and number, such as b3 or g8. Additionally, files a through d are referred to as the queenside, and files e through h as the kingside. See Figure 1 . Moves Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Tournament and match chess is distinguished from casual games by the strict provisions for completing a move. Unless preceded by the warning “I adjust” (French: “j’adoube”), a piece touched must be moved or captured (if legally possible), and a completed move may not be retracted. The players also are obligated to record their moves. Only after making a move can they stop their allotted time from elapsing, usually by depressing a device on the chess clock used in competitive play. A player can be penalized in a variety of ways, including forfeiture of the game, for consulting another player or any recorded material during the game, for analyzing the game on another board, or for distracting the opponent. Any player who realizes during a game that an illegal move has been made may demand that the position before the infraction be reinstated and that play proceed from there.

If the illegality is discovered after the game is completed, the result stands without penalty. History Ancient precursors and related games The origin of chess remains a matter of controversy. There is no credible evidence that chess existed in a form approaching the modern game before the 6th century ce. Game pieces found in Russia , China , India , Central Asia , Pakistan , and elsewhere that have been determined to be older than that are now regarded as coming from earlier distantly related board games , often involving dice and sometimes using playing boards of 100 or more squares. One of those earlier games was a war game called chaturanga, a Sanskrit name for a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata. Chaturanga was flourishing in northwestern India by the 7th century and is regarded as the earliest precursor of modern chess because it had two key features found in all later chess variants—different pieces had different powers (unlike checkers and go), and victory was based on one piece, the king of modern chess. How chaturanga evolved is unclear.

Some historians say chaturanga, perhaps played with dice on a 64-square board, gradually transformed into shatranj (or chatrang), a two-player game popular in northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and southern parts of Central Asia after 600 ce. Shatranj resembled chaturanga but added a new piece, a firzān (counselor), which had nothing to do with any troop formation. A game of shatranj could be won either by eliminating all an opponent’s pieces (baring the king) or by ensuring the capture of the king. The initial positions of the pawns and knights have not changed, but there were considerable regional and temporal variations for the other pieces. The game spread to the east, north, and west, taking on sharply different characteristics. In the East, carried by Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders, and others, it was transformed into a game with inscribed disks that were often placed on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares. About 750 ce chess reached China, and by the 11th century it had come to Japan and Korea.

Chinese chess , the most popular version of the Eastern game, has 9 files and 10 ranks as well as a boundary—the river, between the 5th and 6th ranks—that limits access to the enemy camp and makes the game slower than its Western cousin. Introduction to Europe A form of chaturanga or shatranj made its way to Europe by way of Persia, the Byzantine Empire , and, perhaps most important of all, the expanding Arabian empire. The oldest recorded game, found in a 10th-century manuscript, was played between a Baghdad historian, believed to be a favourite of three successive caliphs, and a pupil. Muslims brought chess to North Africa , Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century. Eastern Slavs spread it to Kievan Rus about the same time. The Vikings carried the game as far as Iceland and England and are believed responsible for the most famous collection of chessmen , 78 walrus-ivory pieces of various sets that were found on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides in 1831 and date from the 11th or 12th century.

Chess and dice games were periodically banned by kings and religious leaders. For example, King Louis IX forbade the game in France in 1254. However, the game’s popularity was helped by its social cachet: a chess set was often associated with wealth, knowledge, and power. It was a favourite of Kings Henry I, Henry II , John, and Richard I of England, of Philip II and Alfonso X (the Wise) of Spain, and of Ivan IV (the Terrible) of Russia. It was known as the royal game as early as the 15th century. Standardization of rules The modern rules and appearance of pieces evolved slowly, with widespread regional variation. By 1300, for example, the pawn had acquired the ability to move two squares on its first turn, rather than only one at a time as it did in shatranj. But this rule did not win general acceptance throughout Europe for more than 300 years. Chess made its greatest progress after two crucial rule changes that became popular after 1475. Until then the counselor was limited to moving one square diagonally at a time.

And, because a pawn that reached the eighth rank could become only a counselor, pawn promotion was a relatively minor factor in the course of a game. But under the new rules the counselor underwent a sex change and gained vastly increased mobility to become the most powerful piece on the board—the modern queen . This and the increased value of pawn promotion added a dynamic new element to chess. Also, the chaturanga piece called the elephant, which had been limited to a two-square diagonal jump in shatranj, became the bishop , more than doubling its range. Until these changes occurred, checkmate was relatively rare, and more often a game was decided by baring the king. With the new queen and bishop powers, the trench warfare of medieval chess was replaced by a game in which checkmate could be delivered in as few as two moves. The last two major changes in the rules—castling and the en passant capture—took longer to win acceptance. Both rules were known in the 15th century but had limited usage until the 18th century.

Minor variations in other rules continued until the late 19th century; for example, it was not acceptable in many parts of Europe as late as the mid-19th century to promote a pawn to a queen if a player still had the original queen. Set design The appearance of the pieces has alternated between simple and ornate since chaturanga times. The simple design of pieces before 600 ce gradually led to figurative sets depicting animals, warriors, and noblemen. But Muslim sets of the 9th–12th centuries were often nonrepresentational and made of simple clay or carved stone following the Islamic prohibition of images of living creatures. The return to simpler, symbolic shatranj pieces is believed to have spurred the game’s popularity by making sets easier to make and by redirecting the players’ attention from the intricate pieces to the game itself. Stylized sets, often adorned with precious and semi-precious stones, returned to fashion as the game spread to Europe and Russia. Playing boards , which had monochromatic squares in the Muslim world , began to have alternating black and white, or red and white, squares by 1000 ce and were often made of fine wood or marble .

Peter I (the Great) of Russia had special campaign boards made of soft leather that he carried during military efforts. The king became the largest piece and acquired a crown and sometimes an elaborate throne and mace. The knight’s close identification with the horse dates back to chaturanga. The pawn, as the lowest in power and social standing, has traditionally been the smallest and least representational of the pieces. The queen grew in size after 1475, when its powers expanded, and changed from a male counselor to the king’s female consort. The bishop was known by different names—“fool” in French and “elephant” in Russian, for example—and was not universally recognized by a distinctive mitre until the 19th century. Depiction of the rook also varied considerably. In Russia it was usually represented as a sailing ship until the 20th century. Elsewhere it was a warrior in a chariot or a castle turret. The standard for modern sets was established about 1835 with a simple design by an Englishman, Nathaniel Cook.

After it was patented in 1849, the design was endorsed by Howard Staunton , then the world’s best player; because of Staunton’s extensive promotion, it subsequently became known as the Staunton pattern. Only sets based on the Staunton design are allowed in international competition today. The world championship and FIDE The popularity of chess has for the past two centuries been closely tied to competition, usually in the form of two-player matches, for the title of world champion. The title was an unofficial one until 1886, but widespread spectator interest in the game began more than 50 years earlier. The first major international event was a series of six matches held in 1834 between the leading French and British players, Louis-Charles de la Bourdonnais of Paris and Alexander McDonnell of London, which ended with Bourdonnais’s victory. For the first time, a major chess event was reported extensively in newspapers and analyzed in books.

Following Bourdonnais’s death in 1840, he was succeeded by Staunton after another match that gained international attention, Staunton’s defeat of Pierre-Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant of France in 1843. This match also helped introduce the idea of stakes competition, since Staunton won the £100 put up by supporters of the two players. Staunton used his position as unofficial world champion to popularize the Staunton-pattern set, to promote a uniform set of rules, and to organize the first international tournament, held in London in 1851. Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen , a German schoolteacher, was inspired by the Bourdonnais-McDonnell match to turn from problem composing to tournament competition, and he won the London tournament and with it recognition as unofficial champion. The London tournament, in turn, inspired American players to organize the first national championship, the First American Chess Congress, in New York City in 1857, which set off the first chess craze in the Western Hemisphere . The winner, Paul Morphy of New Orleans , was recognized as unofficial world champion after defeating Anderssen in 1858.

The world championship became more formalized after Morphy retired and Anderssen was defeated by Wilhelm Steinitz of Prague in a match in 1866. Steinitz was the first to claim the authority to determine how a title match should be held. He set down a series of rules and financial conditions under which he would defend his status as the world’s foremost player, and in 1886 he agreed to play Johann Zukertort of Austria in the first match specifically designated as being for the world championship. Steinitz reserved the right to determine whose challenge he would accept and when and how often he would defend his title. Steinitz’s successor, Emanuel Lasker of Germany, proved a more demanding champion than Steinitz in arranging matches. He took long periods, from 1897 to 1907 and later from 1910 to 1921, without defending his title. After the leading national chess federations, the British and German, failed to arrange a match between Lasker and any of his leading challengers on the eve of World War I, the momentum for an independent international authority began to grow.

The controversy over the championship was eased when José Raúl Capablanca of Cuba defeated Lasker in 1921 and won the agreement, at a tournament in London in 1922, of the world’s other leading players to a written set of rules for championship challenges. Under those rules, any player who met certain financial conditions (in particular, guaranteeing a $10,000 stake) could challenge the World Champion. While the top players were trying to adhere to the London Rules, representatives of 15 countries met in Paris in 1924 to organize the first permanent international chess federation, known as FIDE, its French acronym for Fédération Internationale des Échecs . The London Rules worked smoothly in 1927 when Capablanca was dethroned by Alexander Alekhine , the first Russian-born champion, but then proved to be a financial obstacle in Capablanca’s bid for a rematch. FIDE’s attempts to intervene failed. Alekhine was widely criticized for manipulating the rules, and when he died in 1946 FIDE assumed the authority to organize world championship matches.

From 1948, when FIDE organized a match tournament to fill the vacancy created by Alekhine’s death, until 1975 the FIDE format worked without major problems. The international federation organized three-year cycles of regional and international competitions to determine the challengers for the World Champion and solicited bids for match sites. The champion no longer had a veto power over opponents and was required to defend the title every three years. FIDE also took over the Women’s World Championship and biennial Olympiad team championships, which originated in the 1920s. In addition, the federation developed new championship titles, particularly for junior players in various age groups. It also created a system for recognizing top players by arithmetic rating and by titles based on tournament performance. The highest title, after World Champion, is International Grandmaster , of whom there are now more than 500 in the world. The easing and eventual end of the Cold War spurred international chess by reducing barriers. By the mid-1990s close to 2,000 tournaments registered with FIDE were held each year—more than 50 times the number during the 1950s. Amateur chess expanded sharply.

Membership in the U.S. Chess Federation jumped from 2,100 in 1957 to more than 70,000 in 1973. All World Champions and challengers from 1951 to 1969 were Soviet citizens, and all the championship matches were held in Moscow with small prizes and limited international publicity. The victory of Robert J. (Bobby) Fischer of the United States in 1972 was an abrupt change. Fischer’s demands spurred an increase in the prize fund to $250,000—a sum greater than all previous title matches combined. After winning the highly publicized match, Fischer insisted on a greater say in match rules than had any previous champion in the FIDE era. In particular, he objected to a rule, used by FIDE since 1951, that limited championship matches to 24 games. FIDE dropped the rule, but Fischer demanded further concessions . In the end he refused to defend his title; in 1975 he became the first champion to lose it by default .

Fischer’s successor, Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union, reigned for 10 years but was dethroned in 1985 by a countryman and bitter rival, Garry Kasparov . Kasparov then clashed repeatedly with FIDE over the rules governing the championship. He reluctantly agreed to defend his title under the federation’s rules three times during 1986–90, winning each time. However, when Nigel Short of England won the right to challenge Kasparov for the championship in 1993, he and Kasparov decided instead to play the match under the auspices of a new organization, the Professional Chess Association (PCA). Before Kasparov defeated Short in London in late 1993 in the first PCA championship, FIDE disqualified Kasparov and organized its own world championship match, won by Karpov. FIDE began holding annual “knockout” tournaments in 1999 to determine its championship. Alexander Khalifman of Russia won the first tournament, which was held in Las Vegas , Nevada.

In 2000 the tournament venue was split between New Delhi , India, and Tehrān, Iran, and was won by Viswanathan Anand of India. Meanwhile, Kasparov lost a title match to Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in 2000. Following negotiations with FIDE, which recognized Kramnik as the “classical” world chess champion, he agreed to a unification match in 2006 with FIDE’s challenger, the Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov , who had won the 2005 FIDE World Championship Tournament. Kramnik won the match. As part of the unification contract, the winner agreed to risk the consolidated title in FIDE’s 2007 World Championship Tournament. Anand won the tournament and successfully defended the title against Kramnik in a 12-game match in 2008. Anand defeated Topalov in 2010 and Israel player Boris Gelfand in 2012 to retain his title.

In 2013 Magnus Carlsen of Norway defeated Anand after only 10 games of a 12-game match to become, at age 22, the youngest-ever world chess champion. Women in chess Separation of the sexes in chess dates from about 1500 with the introduction of the queen. Chess became a much faster, more exciting game and, thus, came to be perceived as a more masculine pursuit. Women were often barred from the coffeehouses and taverns where chess clubs developed in the 19th century. However, women players achieved distinction separately from men by the middle of the century. The first chess clubs specifically for women were organized in the Netherlands in 1847. The first chess book written by a woman, The ABC of Chess, by “A Lady” (H.I. Cooke), appeared in England in 1860 and went into 10 editions. The first women’s tournament was sponsored in 1884 by the Sussex Chess Association. Women also gained distinction in postal and problem chess during this period.

An American woman, Ellen Gilbert, defeated a strong English amateur, George Gossip, twice in an international correspondence match in 1879—announcing checkmate in 21 moves in one game and in 35 moves in the other. Edith Winter-Wood composed more than 2,000 problems, 700 of which appeared in a book published in 1902. The first woman player to gain attention in over-the-board competition with men was Vera Menchik (1906–44) of Great Britain. She won the first Women’s World Championship, a tournament organized by FIDE in 1927, and the next six women’s championship tournaments, in 1930–39. Her good results against men in British events led to invitations to some of the strongest pre-World War II tournaments, including Carlsbad 1929 (tournaments are identified by venue and year) and Moscow 1935. Among the strong male masters who lost to her were the world champion Max Euwe , Samuel Reshevsky, Sultan Khan, Jacques Mieses, Edgar Colle, and Frederick Yates.

She was also one of the first women chess professionals. Women’s chess received a major boost when the Soviet Union endorsed separate women’s tournaments as part of a general encouragement of the game. The 1924 women’s championship of Leningrad was the first women’s tournament sponsored by any government. Massive events, larger than anything open to either sex in the West, followed; nearly 5,000 women took part in the preliminary sections of the 1936 Soviet women’s championship, for example. Improvements in playing strength ensued and led to Soviet domination of women’s chess for more than 30 years. After Menchik’s death, FIDE held a 16-player tournament in Moscow during the winter of 1949–50 to fill the vacancy. Soviet women took the top four places. The Women’s World Championship has been decided by matches or elimination match tournaments organized by FIDE since 1953. After Menchik’s death the next three champions were Ludmilla Rudenko of Ukraine and Elizaveta Bykova and Olga Rubtsova of Russia.

But, with the victory of Nona Gaprindashvili in 1962, an era of supremacy by Georgian players began. Gaprindashvili held the title for 16 years and became the first woman to earn the title of International Grandmaster. (FIDE established separate titles of International Woman Master in 1950 and International Woman Grandmaster in 1977.) Gaprindashvili was succeeded by another Georgian, Maya Chiburdanidze , in 1978. Georgians also won the right to challenge the champions in 1975, 1981, and 1988. Soviet domination of women’s chess ended with the defeat of Chiburdanidze by Xie Jun , of China, in 1991 and the rise of the three Polgár sisters, Susan , Zsófia, and Judit . The Polgárs of Budapest were the most impressive women prodigies ever; each had achieved grandmaster-level performances by age 15.

They also distinguished themselves by generally avoiding women-only competitions, until Susan Polgar defeated Xie for the women’s championship in 1996. (From left) Zsófia, Susan, and Judit Polgár. Courtesy of Susan Polgar In the 1990s a series of men-versus-women events were organized as the difference in playing strength narrowed. In 1995 a team of five senior male grandmasters, including the former world champions Boris Spassky and Vasily Smyslov , was beaten 26 1/2 to 23 1/2 in a match against five leading women. Among the women was Judit Polgár, ranked eighth in the world on the international rating lists issued in July and October 2005 by FIDE, the highest level any woman had ever achieved. Zhu Chen of China won the 2001 FIDE Women’s World Championship Tournament. FIDE had difficulty funding further events in the series, so the next tournament did not take place until 2004.

The 2004 tournament was won by Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria, and the championship went back on a regular two-year cycle. The next champions were Xu Yuhua of China (2006–08), Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia (2008–10), and Hou Yifan of China (2010–12), who at age 16 was the youngest women’s world chess champion. Beginning in 2011, FIDE decided on a new system for determining the woman’s chess championship. In odd years a two-player match would be held, but in even years the title would be determined by a knockout tournament among 64 players. Hou defended her championship in 2011, but the 2012 tournament was won by Anna Ushenina of Ukraine. Hou regained the title in 2013. Women’s world chess champions championship In chess which piece must always stay on the same colour square? : GK In chess which piece must always stay on the same colour square? In chess which piece must always stay on the same colour square? : QUESTION : In chess which piece must always stay on the same colour square?

ANSWER : Bishop Chess Lessons - jagbytes.com Chess Lessons Tag and you will gain! Nutty name, real interests lordnguyenvo 13 ( +1 | -1 ) how come rook>bishop? they both can control the same amount of squares in favor condition.then how come the rook is a better piece? chess_champion 18 ( +1 | -1 ) rooks vs bishops even though both pieces can cover large areas one rook is allowed to go on both colored squares while one bishop remains on the same colored squares... mate_you_in_fifty 17 ( +1 | -1 ) Only in the center The rook controls 14 squares anywhere in the board. The bishop controls 13 in the center and much weaker in the edges/corner. But BB is usually more powerful than one rook. lordnguyenvo 28 ( +1 | -1 ) but the fianchetoed bishop is pretty important yes? the dragon sicilian bishop is just like the best piece of the game.in some situation,people even wish to trade the rook for a bishop.and the rook has no use early because it cant mobilize yet.

--------------------------- a rook is weaker than 2 bishops but 2 rooks are stronger than 4 bishops. especially on the 7th rank caldazar 73 ( +1 | -1 ) You've pretty much hit the nail on the head, lordnguyenvo; it's a question of piece utility. Rooks are clumsy pieces when there are lots of pawns on the board. It's hard to maneuver them around pawns; it's easier to use them if there are open ranks and files available. On the other hand, knights can hop over other pieces and bishops can cross open diagonals that frequently exist because of pawn chains (of course, pawns can block in bishops too leading to 'bad bishops'). Rooks aren't better or worse than bishops; it just depends on the position you're considering as to whether you can get more use out of your bishops or rooks (or any other piece for that matter), both in the short and long term. bartlebie 13 ( +1 | -1 ) Well. Did you ever try to win K+B vs K? It's hard. Really hard. I would prefer K+R vs.

K in nearly 100% of all possible positions in these endgames. Just a hint. jean_marc 3 ( +1 | -1 ) Well K+B vs K is not hard... it's impossible... but K+2B vs K is easy... another example... a simple way to show a rook is stronger than a bishop... white to move: black pawns at a7,b7,c7 white bishop c3 blacks goal is to promote with tempo, in very short order white will discover how to neutralize the pawn no matter how they are played; however add a fourth and black must blunder to lose. white to move: black pawns at a7,b7,c7,d7,e7 white rook at a1 again blacks goal is to promote with tempo, clearly the white rook can easily win this position pretty easy to see how they got 3pts and 5pts caldazar 123 ( +1 | -1 ) Well, since the majority seem to be providing examples where rooks beat bishops, here are a couple of counter-examples where bishops are playing more important roles than rooks: Troianescu - Petrosian, 1953 1.

e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d3 Nc6 4. Nbd2 g6 5. g3 Bg7 6. Bg2 e6 7. O-O Nge7 8. Re1 O-O 9. c3 b6 10. Nf1 Ba6 11. d4 cxd4 12. Nxd4 Ne5 13. Bg5 h6 14. Qa4 Bb7 15. Bxe7 Qxe7 16. Rad1 Rfc8 17. Ne3 Rc5 18. f4 Nc6 19. Nxc6 Bxc6 20. Qc2 Rd8 21. Qe2 Qb7 22. Nc2 b5 23. Rd2 Rc4 24. a3 a5 25. Ne3 Now Petrosian played: 25... Rxe4 26. Bxe4 Bxe4 27. Nc2 d5 28. Nd4 b4 29.

cxb4 axb4 30. a4 and Black's bishops are quite active while White's rooks aren't doing a whole lot. Play continued: 30... Qa7 31. Qf2 Rc8 32. b3 Bf8 33. Nb5 Qa6 34. Qe2 Qb6+ 35. Kf1 and now 35... Rc3 36. Nxc3 bxc3 with a far superior endgame for Black. ----- One of my favorite modern games: Kasparov - Shirov, 1994 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bf4 e5 8. Bg5 a6 9. Na3 b5 10. Nd5 Be7 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. c3 Bb7 13. Nc2 Nb8 14. a4 bxa4 15.

Rxa4 Nd7 16. Rb4 Nc5 Now: 17. Rxb7 (Black's bishop is more useful than White's rook) Nxb7 18. b4 with excellent piece play for White. All his pieces have good homes and the bishop can go to either c4 or d3. Meanwhile, Black has no easy way to activate his rooks. Black eventually tried ...a5 with rook play down the a-file but lost in the end. ----- And since someone mentioned the Dragon: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Nb3 Be6 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. O-O-O Nb6 11. g4 Rc8 12. Bh6 Bh8 13. Bxf8 Qxf8 when Black's dark-squared bishop is as useful as any rook.

shoshin 15 ( +1 | -1 ) caldazar :) I like you....It might really confuse players if I proposed that many times Knights are more valuble than Bishops or Rooks! :) caldazar 27 ( +1 | -1 ) Hehe Then you could talk about all kinds of interesting "sacrifices." Seriously though, my point is that it's not particularly useful to talk about one piece being better than another unless its within at least some general context of a position. olympio 16 ( +1 | -1 ) i see bishops as more mobile than rooks.. but rooks pack a greater punch with their ability to slide. try to see what i mean by slide badjessie 17 ( +1 | -1 ) yep good ole Janowski would roll over in his grave if he heard this talk about rooks better than his two beloved JANS ha ha ha . I hear him rolling now ha ha What's Your Favorite Chess Piece?

- Chess.com Chess.com Sep 22, 2014, 12:00 AM 34,120 Reads 109 Comments Fun & Trivia Before we even play our first game of chess, we learn how the pieces move. The fact that the pieces travel the board in different ways is our first clue that the pieces themselves are not interchangeable. After a while, we find out about the “point values” of the pieces. These values are based on mobility, not power, since every piece can only control a square once. It’s the number of squares a piece can move to that determines its point value. Queens, we’re told, are worth nine points. Rooks are five points. Bishops and knights are about three points each. Pawns are the baseline, worth one point. Kings are assigned a value of infinity, of course, because their loss loses the game. In the endgame, kings are said to have a “fighting value” of about four points. Just as we memorize these point values, we learn about the quality of pieces. A well-posted knight on the sixth rank can be worth much more than a rook on the first.

A pawn on the seventh rank could be worth as much as a queen. A bishop with free rein on a long diagonal is exponentially more valuable than one hemmed in by its own pawns. As chess players, it’s our job to incorporate quality, mobility, and point value when we evaluate material. But none of the above answers the question of which chess piece is your favorite? Which piece is the most fun? The rankings below, of course, are subjective and are written from the viewpoints of beginning and intermediate players. Every chess player is going to have his favorite and least favorite pieces. Let us know the pieces you love and hate in the comments and on Facebook. 6. Bishop By Angelo DeSantis Bobby Fischer loved attacking as White with his light-squared bishop. Many beautiful combinations have either been initiated by bishop sacrifices or finished off with bishop mates. No competent chess player will dispute the awesome power of the bishop pair . Chess.com’s FM Mike Klein even made a video series about stunning bishop moves that you absolutely should watch before judging this piece. Despite all these good things, the fact remains that the bishop is the only piece restricted to a single color, and can move to just half the squares on the board. 5.

Knight By Chris Overcash The stronger a chess player you are, the more you appreciate the knight. The knight is perhaps the most aptly named chess piece, as it’s perfectly suited for brutal close combat. Unlike the long-range bishop or the heavy artillery of the queen and rook, the knight is not afraid to get up-close-and-personal in doing its job. The knight pairs particularly well with the queen , working together to control almost every important square in the attack. But it’s not all accolades for the knight, either. Almost as soon as beginning players learn to stop calling their knights “horses,” they find themselves getting forked and mated by the tricky piece when employed by more experienced players. Even for the strongest players, the knight is not the best piece, as illustrated by GM Dejan Bojkov’s video series on the weaknesses of the knight . 4. King By Richard Paterson It’s a little silly even ranking the king, of course, since it’s the most important piece and you have to be serious about keeping it safe. But can you have fun using a king? Sure you can. While kings must often stay hidden away in the opening and middlegame, in the endgame they can become juggernaut attacking pieces .

Rarely, you can have fun with a king much earlier in the game. You haven’t lived as a chess player until you’ve castled for checkmate . 3. Pawn By Alan Cleaver Maybe you’re surprised to see the lowly pawn ranked so well on this list. But no less an authority than Francois Philidor said “pawns are the soul of chess.” Pawns have lots of unique powers that make them fun to play with. They are the only piece that captures differently from how they move. Pawns also cannot go backward, which makes them fun to charge forward. Finally, pawns can “score a touchdown” by reaching the eighth rank and promoting into a queen — or even more fun — underpromoting . 2. Queen By Matt Zhang There’s no disputing that the queen is the most mobile and therefore most powerful piece on the board. Combining the movements of the bishop and the rook, the queen can reach almost any square on the board very quickly, often by multiple routes. Beginners love using their queens — often too much — bringing them out too early, and making them vulnerable to attack.

Once players begin to realize how careful they must protect their queens, almost like a second king, much of the fun is taken out of using the piece. GM Mikhail Tal clearly did not have this problem, as he loved sacrificing his queen to achieve checkmate or otherwise winning positions. 1. Rook By Christopher Irwin The rook is my favorite chess piece, and I suspect many players agree with me. The rook has a simple, almost minimalist movement: as far as it wants, in a straight line. Rooks are the most difficult piece to develop in the opening, but nothing beats the satisfaction of completing your development by finally castling, connecting rooks, and moving them to their ideal files. In the middlegame, rooks are continually threatening to blast open the castled king’s position, sacrifice themselves for a bishop or knight, or support the queen or another rook in a deadly battery . It’s in the endgame, though, where rooks really rule . Often the only survivors left with a few straggling pawns and the kings, rooks control huge swaths of the board, swinging the game’s result at their whim. Which piece do you think is the most fun? Let us know your favorites in the comments.

GET THE MOST OUT OF CHESS.COM Chess in 30 minutes - Lokasoft - Home of ChessPartner Lokasoft - Home of ChessPartner Introduction Chess is a fascinating game. It originated very long ago and is played nowadays by millions of players. Almost everybody has played a few games in his or her life and knows about the basic rules of chess. In case you don't or want to refresh your basic knowledge, we offer you a small course about chess. Maybe you will be fascinated by the tactics and strategies involved and chess will become your greatest pleasure. The board The playing field consists of 64 squares, with 32 black and 32 white squares. It consists of 8 rows, labeled 1 to 8, and 8 columns labeled a to h. The rows are called ranks and the columns are called files. The squares are given names: a1, b1, c1, d1, e1, f1, g1 and h1 on the first row. b1. b2, b3, b4, b5, b6. b7 and b8 on the second row and so on..

The field�s a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, a7 and a8 form the a-file. h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, h7 and h8 is the h-file. These names are used to make it possible to explain where the pieces are standing. Notation In order to record your games there is a special chess notation. In the notation the following symbols are used: K for King, Q for Queen, R for Rook, B for Bishop and the N for Knight (The K is already used for the King). For pawns no symbol are used. To describe a move first record the symbol for the piece, then the square it stands on, followed by the square it is going to. e.g. Qh3-e6. The Queen moves from h3 to e6. e2-e4. The pawn moves from e2 two squares ahead to square e4. Note that this is the long notation, there is also a shorter form in where only the destination square is given. The starting position Place the board in front of you and make sure the is a white square (h1) on your right hand.

Place the white pieces on the first row on the board: The King on square e1, the Queen on d1, Rooks on a1 and h1, Knights on b1 and g1 and the Bishops on c1 and f1. Place the white pawns on the second row in front of the pieces on the squares a2 to h2. Place the black pieces symmetrical at the opposite site at the 8th row and the black pawns at the 7th row. - Observe the white Queen is on a white square, and the black Queen on a black square. The pieces The King This piece is the most important piece in the game. The King can move in any direction one square per move. For example: Kg4-g3, Kg3-f3 or Kf3-e4 - Observe that a King in the middle of an empty board can move to 8 squares The Queen The Queen is the most powerful piece. She can move horizontally, vertically and also diagonally, as many squares as she likes. For example: Qh5-a5. Qa5-c3 or Qc3-c6. - Note that a Queen in the middle of an empty board can reach 27 squares.

The Rook The Rook can move horizontally or vertically as far as it likes. For example: Ra3-a6, Ra6-g6 or Rg6-g3 - Check that a Rook on an empty board can go to 14 squares. - Notice that in the starting position, the Rook is not allowed to move. The Bishop The Bishop moves diagonally. It always remains on the same colored square. For example: Bf3-c6 or Bc6-a4. - Check that we have a white white squared Bishop, a white black squared Bishop, a black white squared Bishop, and a black black squared Bishop. The Knight The Knight moves in an L-shape. 2 squares horizontally and 1 vertically or 2 squares vertically and 1 horizontally. A Knight is not obstructed by own or opponent's pieces. It jumps over them. For example: Ng1-f3, Nf3-e5, Ne5-d4 - Check that a Knight in the middle of an empty board can move to 8 squares. - Notice that a Knight in the starting position is only looking to 3 squares. All Pieces can move forward and backward.

None of the pieces except the knights can jump over other pieces standing in their way. The value of the pieces is considered to be: pawn 1, Rook 5, Knight 3, Bishop 3, Queen 9. A good player is expected to win if he is 2 points ahead in a favorable position. The Pawn In general a pawn moves forward one square. But when a pawn has not yet moved, it may also move two squares forward. The pawn can go only forward. Not as the other pieces go backward. For example: d2-d4, d4-d5 and d5-d6. - Check that in the starting position White can choose between 16 pawn moves. Pawn promotion If a pawn reaches the other side, the pawn promotes. The player can choose if it promotes to a Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight. Logically mostly a queen is preferred. A pawn promotion is an important goal to play for. An important difference between a pawn and the other pieces is, that the moving is different from capturing. The pawn moves forward vertically, but capture diagonally forward. For example: Put a white pawn on b2 and a black pawn on c3.

The white pawn can move to b3 or b4, or take the black pawn on c3. En Passant The 'En passant' (French for 'passing by') move is a special rule about a pawn capturing another pawn. If a pawn moves 2 squares forward and it stops next to an opponent's pawn on an adjacent line, then the opponent's pawn is allowed to take that pawn. It seems the pawn has moved only one square forward. This en passant taking is only allowed for the move, immediately following the previous pawn move.For example: put a black pawn on a4, and a white pawn on b2. The white pawn moves two squares ahead and goes to b4. Only now, the black pawn can take the white pawn. The white pawn is removed and the black pawn ends on b3. In notation: a4xb3 e.p. Attacking and capture If a piece can move to a square on which an opposite colored piece is standing, then the piece is attacking the opponent's piece. It is possible to move the first piece to the occupied square and remove the opposite colored piece from the board: the piece captures another piece.

In the notation the symbol 'x' means capture.For example: If we have a white Rook on b3 and a black knight on b6. We can do the move Rb3xb6. The Rook moves from the square b3 and takes the piece on b6. A piece can not take a piece of its own color. In that case, the piece defends its own piece. Note: Capture is optional and not forced. In the starting position the pawns shield off the attacking possibilities of their own pieces. � Check that in the starting position, not a single piece is attacked. Check and Checkmate When a piece attacks the opposite colored King, that King is in check. On the next move the king must be taken out of check. In notation the symbol '+' means check.For example: Ra1-a7+. The Rook moves from square a1 to a7 and gives check. There are three ways to move the king out of check: 1) Move the King to a safe square 2) Capture the attacking giving piece 3) Move a piece between the King and the attacker. The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent's King.

When a King is in check and connot be taken out of check, the King is in checkmate and the game has ended. � Can you find the check possibility for White after the starting moves 1) e2-e4 f7-f5 ? � Can you find the mate possibility for Black after 1) f2-f4 e7-e6 2) g2-g4 ? This mate is called Fool's mate, and is the shortest mate possible. Castling This is the only move when two pieces are moving: the King and the Rook. The king moves two (normally 1) squares to the Rook, and the Rook is placed at the other side (jumping) of the King.There are two kinds of castling: long castling and short castling. Often both players castle in a game. It puts the King in a safe(r) position, and it activates the Rook.For example: Start from the initial position: 1) d2-d4, e7-e6 2) Nb1-c3 Ng8-f6 3) Bc1-g5 Bf8-e7 4) Qd1-d2. Now Black is allowed to short castling: 4) ...

0-0. The King goes to square g8. The rook to square f8. Now White is allowed to long castling: 5) 0-0-0. The King goes to square c1 and the Rook to square d1. Castling is only allowed when: a) The King and the specific Rook have not moved. b) The squares between the King and the specific Rook are empty. c) The King is not in check (on e1). d) None of the squares the King, passes (on d1 or f1), are attacked. e) The King does not end in check (on c1 or g1). The Beginning Always White starts moving 1 piece, then Black on piece, then White, then Black, etc. until the game ends. Note that a move has to be made. There is no "pass" possibility. - Check that in the starting position White can choose between 20 moves. - Notice that White after having played the Kings pawn e2-e4, he can choose between 15 pawn moves + 4 Queen moves + 5 Bishop moves = 24 moves.

The End win or draw The goal of the game is to checkmate the other King. When white checkmates the black King, White wins the game: 1-0. When black checkmates the white King, Black wins: 0-1 When neither site is able to checkmate the other King, the result is a draw: 1/2 -1/2 Draw A draw can be reached in different ways: - Stalemate. A player is not in check, but is also not able to move. - No mating potential. There is insufficient material to checkmate the other King. A King and Knight or King and Bishop, can not checkmate the other King. Note that a pawn can often promote to queen. - Perpetual check. A player is able to continuously give check. The motive can be a worse position, or the inability to continue the attack. - Threefold repetition. The same position is reached for the third time with the same player moving and with the same moving possibilities. - 50 move rule. If during 50 moves no pawn has moved AND no pieces have been captured, a draw can be claimed. - Draw agreed.

In more complicated positions, after having done a move, a player can propose a draw. The opponent may accept or decline this offer. Stategy As mentioned before, the goal of the game is to checkmate the opponents king. It obvious this goal not not be reached directly. Therefore there are some subgoals in the different phases of the game. The opening In this phase the goal is to develop your pieces. The middlegame In this phase you will de strengtening your position in order to prepare the attack on the opponents king. The endgame Now it time to go for the king. Ready to play You have just learned all the rules for playing chess and now you are ready to play a game of chess! We hope you enjoyed this course and that the explanations were clear enough for you. If you want to know more about some basic strategies in chess, you will notice your understanding will improve by playing, reading books, visit a chess club, play internet chess and learning with a chess program. Enjoy this royal game and have fun ! Next in this serie we will giving some stategic concepts. To start practising checkout our chess playing applet here...

Question: In chess, which piece always remains on the same coloured squares?
Answer: Bishop