Chess: Chapter 1.

Greetings, bloggers. One of the great pursuits of the mind is a little game called Chess. However, many people are not good at this game because they fail to grasp the principles of the game. About two years ago, I posted this guide on www.globalgamenetwork.com. It was meant to be a 12-part series, but I never finished it. The first six sections are completed, and I intend to finish this guide now, by posting it, one chapter each week, on this blog! However the 12th section was to be a group of annotated games, which have since been lost, so this guide will only be 11 sections.

If my writing style seems very different, this is because I was 2 years younger at the time. (Brackets) indicate changes I have now made to the guide. Without further ado:

A Novice's Guide To Chess

If you do not know the moves of Chess this guide is not for you. This guide assumes that you have a working knowledge of Chess, and may or may not have played a few times. I may not be an expert, but have been playing for 6 (8) years, and have read a lot of chess books, and played a lot of new players. This guide will not make you a chess master, but hopefully each section will improve your playing skill.

Before I continue, I would like to point out that this guide is a long way from finished. When I can, whether once a day or once a month (once per week on this blog), I will update this guide with the next section, helping you improve your skills and building on the foundations of the previous parts. Now, on with the guide!

I will be using chess notation in this guide, a form of shorthand used to record chess moves. Before I give you the first section on Chess itself, you need to understand me! I use the most common chess notation, which goes by the following symbols.

a-h. The column (known as file) the move is on. The very left hand column of the board is the a-file. The queen is on the d-file, and the king is on the e-file.

1-8. The row (known as rank) the move is on. Row 1 is ALWAYS the bottom row as seen by WHITE, not black (even if the move is played by black). Thus the square e1 is the fifth square of the first row: the square where the white king starts.

x. This is capture. e4xd5 indicates the piece on e4 has moved to d5, capturing this piece. Q, N, B, R, K. The pieces. N = Knight, B = Bishop, R = Rook, Q = Queen and K = King. The pawn has no letter, as a pawn move just says the square. Eg, the move e4 means a pawn moved to e4. The move Nf6 says a knight has moved to f6.

+. This is check (when you threaten the king). No more to say here.

++ or #. This indicates checkmate, and the game is over.

0-0 or O-O. This indicated a kingside castle (when the king moves to the right). If you do not know what castling is, never fear: the end of this section will tell you how to.

0-0-0 or O-O-O. This indicates a queenside castle (much less common). Piece Values. Each piece in chess is worth a certain amount of pawns, roughly. This is a way to calculate whether you should exchange (trade your piece for an opponent's by taking their piece with yours even if your piece will be taken) or not. Pawn = 1 pawn. Knight = 3 pawns. Bishop = 3 pawns. Rook = 5 pawns. Queen = 9 pawns. King = 1 King. The King is worth 1 King because he is priceless, you cannot lose him.

Castling.

Well I did promise you. Castling is the only legal move in chess that allows you to move MORE THAN ONE PIECE. I'll explain it through a diagram.

K . . R

The . is an empty square (which must be empty, or else you cannot castle.) After the castling (a kingside) it looks like this.

. R K .

Queenside, which is far less common, looks like this.

R . . . K

The King still moves only two squares, so the Rook must move three:

. . K R .

Castling kingside allows protection of the King and the development of the rook. That's it for now: in the next couple of days (next week) most likely, I'll post the next section.

Next section: Developing your Pieces
What Not to Do in the Opening.

Now for the dailies!

Daily Quote: "Make a wise comment and your name will be remembered forever." -Anonymous

Daily Website: www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net. A bit rude, but I found much of the stuff on this page hilarious. There's a nice big backlog to catch up on, and most of it is funny, if a bit offensive at points.

Until next time, may you take the time to learn the fundamentals.

-Callanthae