Chess Rules

 

Lesson Two: The King: a Real 'Square'.

 

In the first lesson, we discussed the chessboard. In this, and the next 5 lessons, we'll discuss the chess pieces.

 

THE CHESS PIECES AT A GLANCE

There are 6 different pieces in chess. Each player receives one or more of these types of pieces in their own color, to total 16 pieces per player.

The names of the pieces (with their abbreviations) (and quantities) are:

Piece Name

Piece Abbreviation

Quantity

Relative Value

King

K

1

~

Queen

Q

1

9

Bishop

B

2

3

Knight

N

2

3

Rook

R

2

5

Pawn

P (or no abbreviation)

8

1

GENERAL RULES ABOUT MOVING PIECES:

In chess, each player takes a turn by moving one of her pieces. Each piece has a different way of moving, but here are some general rules that apply to the movement of all pieces:

Only one piece can occupy a square at a time.

A piece may move to an empty square or to a square occupied by one of their partner's pieces (in the latter case the partner's piece is "captured" by removing it from the board).

If you touch a piece you must move that piece (if it has any legal moves).

Once you let go of a piece (after moving it) you cannot pick it back up and move it somewhere else on the same turn.

You cannot capture your own pieces. (Don't laugh; sometimes it could be to your advantage to capture your own piece!)

When we write down a move, we give the piece abbreviation followed by the square the piece is moving to. Qd4, for instance means that the Queen moved to the d4 square. When a Pawn is moved, we don't use the P abbreviation, so a Pawn move to d4 is simply written d4.

Now we'll go over each piece in detail one at a time:

 

 

Here is what the King looks like as a physical piece, and in diagrams. His majesty always wears a crown with a cross at the top.

Remember when I said the object of the game is checkmate? Well, the King is the most important piece because he is the only piece that can be checkmated.

You can lose all your other pieces, and the game can continue, but if you were to lose your King that would be checkmate and the end of the game.

The red arrows show all of the possible moves the King could make from the d5 square. The King can move to any of the 8 adjacent squares.

These potential moves look like a square around the King. It is very useful to see this "square of influence" when looking at the King on the board. Thinking of a square when you see the King is also a good way to remember how the King moves.

 

Long ago when I was young the older kids were hippies and they called people "square" if they were old-fashioned. So picture the King as an old-fashioned or "nerdy" sort of guy (notice the bow-tie and pocket-protector). Or, what they called back then "a real square".

The Kings are placed on the e file at the start of the game.

Notice that the White King is at the bottom of the board (the first rank) and the Black King is at the top of the board (the eighth rank).

 

In chess, it is illegal for the King to commit suicide. You cannot move in such a way that your King could be captured by your partner on her move.

Because of this law, the Kings must always stay at least one square away from each other, respecting the square of influence which surrounds each of them.

In this position Black cannot cross into the red square, and White cannot cross into the blue square (since one King would simply be captured by the other on the next turn).

Just remember: It would be death for the King to "invade the space" of the other King!

 

CHECK, CHECKMATE, & STALEMATE

The King is in "check" whenever your partner could capture him on her next move. Luckily, you get to move first, and you must attempt to rescue the King from being captured (it's the law!) If you cannot prevent the King's capture, then it is checkmate and the game is over (the final move of actually capturing the King and removing him from the board is never actually played). We'll go over the three possible ways of getting out of check later.

It is illegal to move into check. (This is just our King's anti-suicide law restated).

A "stalemate" occurs when the player whose turn it is to move has no legal moves and is not in check. A stalemate is considered a draw: both players receive 1/2 a point.

We'll see examples of checkmate and stalemate in our next lesson.

We'll learn one more special power of the King in the 8th lesson.
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