RULES OF CHESS
The goal of the chess is to mat the king of the opponent. This means that the square of which the opponents’ king is in is under threat and that there is no move left which enables the escape to another square that is not under threat or to avoid the threat. This abides with the principle of weakining the opponent by taking its man.
Fast progress is important for chess. Most important step taken to show fast progress is gambit, meaning sacrifice of a pawn. This enables more chess pieces to move to the center. If the king of a player is in a square that is not under the threat and only the king of this player is left and no other square is left without being under threat that the player can make a move than the game finishes with pat, meaning deuce. Also the game can end in any moment with one of the players’ acceptance of defeat or with offer of a duece by a player and by acceptance of the other player.
It is essential in the game to limit the opponents ability to move and weaken the opponent by taking its pieces by moving one’s pieces to adventageous squares. Every piece has the power to disqualify every piece it has dislocated by getting located in the square where the piece of the opponent stays. That is called taking a piece. The captured piece cannot return to the game, but the pawn which has reached to the last square of its line, whether being outside the game or not, can be changed with another piece that is more valuable than pawn and less valuable than king.
In the beggining of the game there are 32 pieces. 16 of them are white (or light color), 16 of them are black (or dark color). Each player has 16 chess pieces.
Eight figure
King
Army Officers
Heavy Pieces: Queen and two Rooks
Light Pieces: Two horses and two knights and two Bishops
Eight Pawns
Chess board is put between the players with its white corner square is placed to the right of the player according to the perspective of the players. Pawns are placed to the line before the last line. The figures are place to the last line.
The order of the figures are from left to right for white (it is the opposite for the black) and are ordered as follows: Rook, Knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, Knight and rook. Queen, stays in the square of the color given to the each player.
White starts to the game and players make one move with one piece every time. Move of two players with one of the chess pieces consequently is called move. There is an obligation for the players to make a move when their turn comes.
There can be only one piece in each square. The piece blocks that square for its own pieces as long as it stays there. It is not the same for the pieces of the opponent. If a piece of the opponent stays in a target square where the other player wants to make a move then this piece is firstly disqualified by the player who targets that square and then moves his/her piece to this empty square. This is called taking the piece of the opponent.
If one chess piece is in a location where it can be hit with the next move then this piece is called under threat. If it is possible to capture the piece which has captured that piece with the next half move then this piece is protected.
If one of the kings falls under a threat with a move, then the player causing this threat warns the opponent with saying “Check” Even though there had been an obligation to warn the other side, it is no longer conventional in our today’s tournaments and it is no longer amongst the rules of FIDE. When king is checked the opponent should take the precaution. The goal of the game is to create a position where the king of the opponent can be captured and no chance to escape from this situation should have been left. (check-mate)
Moves
Chess pieces can only move in the frame of some rules.
Pieces can not jump over each other principally. There are two exceptions for these. The first one is for kinght and the second one is called castling. The players can only make moves in unoccupied areas or can only move till the square occupied by opponent’s pieces. In the second situation the player firstly captures the piece of the opponent and removes from the board and them makes his move to that square and places his/her piece to that square.
If a king gets threathened by the piece of an opponent then this king falls under a king threat. It is forbiden to avoid such a king threat. In this case the player should whether capture the threatening piece or move a piece between the king and threatening piece (Knight is not possible when king is given) or move his king to an area which is not threathened. Castling is also forbidden for a captured king.
King
King can move on square in any direction. Because it is forbidden for the kings to move to a threatened area and because the kings will threaten each other, the kings can not stand side-by-side.
Castling is the only move type where the two pieces, king and rook, are allowed to move in a half move in chess. To make a castling move, the two pieces should not have been moved before. For the castling; king moves to the side where the rook stays and that rook comes to the square of the king with jumping over it.
Queen
Queen can move to any empty square in any direction (horizontal, vertical or crosswise) without jumping over any pieces. Accodingly, it gathers the features of Knight and Bishop upon herself. Thus queen is a very active piece. Queen is as strong as two rooks in similar positions.
Rook
Rook is the second strong piece in chess. Even though a rook can move as far as it wants on lines and columns , it is not allowed for them to jump over other pieces. Only exception is castling. In this same half move, king and rook move thus this is the only move where two pieces can move in a halk move. The squares which rook can reach can only be limited by the sides of the board. They can reach every square of the board. With only a rook and a king, opponent’s king can be captured. The rook which is under the same conditions by other aspects is quite powerful than a bishop or a knight for this reason. But because it does not have much of an opportunity to move in the beggining, it is not that effective in the beggining of the game. Even tough it is quite strong, it is a litle bit weaker than the total of a bishop and a knight. The value difference between a rook and a piece like knight and bishop is called quality. Taking a rook with sacrificing a knight or a bishop is called quality increase and knowingly sacrificing a valuable piece against a benefit is called sacrifice of a quality.
The rook always threatens 14 squares on an empty board free of its position on the board compared to kngiht or bishop.
Bishop
In the beggining of the party, each player has two bishops moving on white and black areas. These are also called queen side bishop and king side bishop. Bishops can freely move on the crosses of the color it stands on. They are not allowed to jump over other pieces. Bishops, are effective if they can control the center with threatening many squares.
Knight
Knight can move two straight and one cross, as a “L” in symbol. The most distinguished feature of the knight is its ability to jump over other pieces. Its starting point is just by the side of the rook. Knight gains so much strength at the four center squares.
Pawn
Every player owns eight pawns at the beggining of the party. These pieces built a Wall against other pieces. Because of its limited movement opportunity, pawn is the weakest piece of chess. It cannot move backwards as other pieces. But as the party continues, its importance increases step by step as it can be transformed into another valuable piece except king if it reaches to the final line of the opponent.
In the starting point pawn can move one or more squares according to the situation of the lines infront of it. If the pawn is not in the starting position (2. and 7. Line) in its every move ( except for taking a piece of the opponent) it can only move one square on the line it stands. Pawn captures the piece of the opponent diagonally. It is the only piece which moves differently than its actual movement when taking a piece. Pawn, can only move forward when it makes a move. Thus it is only chess piece which can not return to the area it stands.
When a pawn reaches to the bottom line of the opponent (8. For the white pawn and 1. for the black pawn) it has be changed into a queen, rook , bishop or a knight. If it is transformed into apiece rather than a queen, then there occurs a value decrease. In this situation pawn is disqualified and the new piece is put on to that square. The features of the new piece immediately shows its effect and it can immediately realize check-mat. This transformation is not limited with the disqualification of the new piece. So a player can have more of a piece than the beggining position. In general the transformation results with queen. To put a rook upside down to replace a queen is forbidded In some matches and is against the rules of tournaments. If required a queen from another chess piece set can be taken. It is common to measure the value of the pieces with so-called pawn unit in chess literature. Accordingly, a value of a pawn is described as a pawn unit.
Pawns are strong in these situations:
When its active especially when not blocked by the pawns of the opponent and when there is no danger of being captured by the opponent’s pawns on the side lines.
When they protect each other and chase one of the opponent’s piece in groups. (doube pawn or a pawn chain)
When it has an opportunity to get transformed and has a high transformation potantial.
Promotion
Promotion is the transformation of a pawn to a desired piece (queen, rook, Knight or bishop) after reaching to the other side of the chess board (last line). A common misunderstood rule is that the pawn can only transform into lost pieces. In theory a player can have 9 queens.
Notation
The locations and move of the chess pieces are commonly shown with algebra. Every vertical line on the chess board is shown with a letter (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h) and every horizontal line is shwon with a number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).
Exceptions
If a pawn moves out two squares on its first move, and by doing so lands to the side of an opponent’s pawn, that other pawn has the option of capturing the first pawn as it passes by. This special move must be done immediately after the first pawn has moved past, otherwise the option to capture it is no longer available. This is called “en passant”