Basic Chess [Getting Started | Moving Pieces | Glossary] [Suggested Reading]

Table of Contents

• Getting Started

• Moving Pieces

• Glossary

• Suggested Reading

Introduction

Chess dates back as early as 600 AD as an ancient game called chaturanga.  Chaturanga, like chess, was played with pieces having different powers and games were won by either eliminating all of the opponent's pieces or setting up a potential capture of the opponent's king.  After 700 AD, the game evolved into shatranj, and into Chinese Chess before becoming modern chess.  The table below shows the components of shatranj, Chinese Chess, and modern chess for comparisons.

Getting Started

Objective

Force the opponent's king into checkmate.  There are two other possible outcomes in the game called stalemate and draw.  A stalemate happens when the opponent's king no longer has a legal move, but is not in check by another piece.  A draw results when:

• Both players agree on that outcome
• Stalemate occurs
• Repetition of movement (same piece moving back and forth)
• No pieces captured within 50 moves
• Lack of pieces for checkmate (King and Bishop, King and Knight, against opponent's King)

Equipment

Chess is played using one board of 64 checker squares of two different colors and two sets of identical pieces, also of different colors.  The horizontal rows on the board are called ranks, designated by numbers 1-8, and the vertical rows are files, designated by letters A-H.  Traditionally, the two sets of pieces are black and white.

Board Setup

With the board positioned so that a white square is in the lower right-hand corner, the picture on the left is what the board should look like with all its pieces.  White moves first and players alternate moving their own pieces and capturing the opponent's pieces until a checkmate, stalemate, or draw happens.  Below is a key for the symbols in the picture:

R=Rook        K=King
Kn=Knight    P=Pawn
B=Bishop
Q=Queen

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Basic Chess [Getting Started | Moving Pieces | Glossary] [Suggested Reading]
**All pictures were taken with my web cam and are free to the public, but please link back to this page.**
by Bobby Kuechenmeister
originally written as a term project for Dr. Dennis G. Jerz's English 309: Writing Electronic Texts course.
first posted December 20, 2001
last updated October 23, 2005