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How to Play Chess
By blksheep (/member/blksheep/) in Living (/living/) > Toys & Games (/living/toys-and-games/projects/) 3,138,857 95 109 Featured

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(https://cdn instructables com/FVA/FWCE/FD80BVWN/FVAFWCEFD80BVWN LARGE jpg?auto=webp&fit=bounds)

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About: In a past life I was a scenic designer, living in New York and building plays and fashion shows. Now, life has slowed
down a bit and I'm figuring out how to be a good husband and dad. More About blksheep » (/member/blksheep/)

This is an explanation of the rules of chess. I love the game, and I wanted to do my own
illustrated tutorial. I know that there are other Chess Instructables, and I hope that this will
add to the growing Instructables chess community.

I tried to explain as much as I could using illustrations. If the written directions are
confusing, take a look at the pictures. For the more complicated rules, I illustrated them in
sequence.

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 Teacher Notes

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Step 1: Setup, Turns, and Taking Pieces

(https://cdn instructables com/FPI/EUBU/FD80BVW8/FPIEUBUFD80BVW8

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Setup:
The board is setup as shown. There should always be a white square at the closest right-
hand side for both players. Remember that the queen must be on a square that matches
her color.

Turns:
White always moves rst, and players alternate turns. Players can only move one piece at a
time, except when castling (explained later).

Taking Pieces:
Players take pieces when they encounter an opponent in their movement path. Only pawns
take differently than they move (explained later). Players cannot take or move through their
own pieces.

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Step 2: Pawn Movement

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Pawns only move forward. On the rst move a pawn can move one or two spaces, every
subsequent move can only be one space. Pawns move diagonally to take opponents.

Pawn Promotion:
If a pawn reaches the opposite side of the board, it is promoted to a higher piece (except
king). There is no limit to how many pawns can be promoted.

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Step 3: Rook

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 (https://cdn instructables com/FD2/2QAF/FD80BVW9/FD22QAFFD80BVW9
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Rooks move in a continuous line forwards, backwards and side-to-side.

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Step 4: Knight

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(https://cdn instructables com/FCD/CIZR/FD80BVWC/FCDCIZRFD80BVWC
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Knights are the only pieces that "jump" off the board. Unlike other pieces they are not
blocked if there are pieces between them and their destination square.

To make it easier to remember how a knight moves think of an L. Two spaces in a direction
forward, backward or side-to-side, and one space at a right turn.

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Step 5: Bishop

(https://cdn instructables com/F6K/KO40/FD80BVW6/F6KKO40FD80BVW6

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Bishops move in continuous diagonal lines in any direction.

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Step 6: Queen

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 (https://cdn instructables com/F6H/BZ4B/FD80BVWA/F6HBZ4BFD80BVWA
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The queen moves in continuous diagonal and straight lines. Forward, backward and side-
to-side.

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Step 7: King

(https://cdn instructables com/FLR/GB1U/FD80BVWD/FLRGB1UFD80BVWD

auto=webp&fit=bounds) LARGE jpg? (https://cdn instructables com/FDX/XW0L/FD80BW5L/FDXXW0LFD80BW5L
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 The king can move in any direction, one square at a time.

A king cannot move to a square that is under attack by the opponent.

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Step 8: Special Move: Castling

(https://cdn instructables com/F7N/PKYZ/FD80BVW3/F7NPKYZFD80BVW3

auto=webp&fit=bounds) LARGE jp

(https://cdn instructables com/FK5/5VQ2/FD80BVW4/FK55VQ2FD80BVW4

auto=webp&fit=bounds) LARGE jpg? (https://cdn instructables com/FUG/B87U/FD80BVW2/FUGB87UFD80BVW2
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Castling is the only move that allows two pieces to move during the same turn.

During castling a king moves two spaces towards the rook that it will castle with, and the
rook jumps to the other side. The king can castle to either side as long as:

1. The king has not moved.

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2. The king is not in check.
3. The king does not move through or into check.
4. There are no pieces between the king and castling-side rook.
5. The castling-side rook has not moved.

It does not matter:

A. If the king was in check, but is no longer.

B. If the rook can be attacked by an opponent's piece before castling.

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Step 9: Special Move: En Passant

(https://cdn instructables com/FXF/02W2/FD80BVWF/FXF02W2FD80BVWF

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En passant is a special movement for pawns attacking pawns. It only applies if your
opponent moves a pawn two spaces, and its destination space is next to your pawn. You
can take the opposing piece by moving forward-diagonal to your pawn's attacked square.

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Step 10: Check

(https://cdn instructables com/FCX/FHWQ/FD80BVW1/FCXFHWQFD80BVW1

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A king is in check when an opponent's piece is in a position that can attack the king. A
player must move their king out of check, block the check or capture the attacking piece.

A player cannot move their king into check.

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Step 11: Checkmate

(https://cdn instructables com/F2B/P9DD/FD80BVW0/F2BP9DDFD80BVW0

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Putting an opponent's king in "checkmate" is the only way to win the game.

A king is in checkmate if it is in check, the opponent's piece that has the king in check
cannot be captured, the check cannot be blocked, and the king cannot move to a square
that is not under attack.

In the illustration the white queen has the black king in check, and all of the spaces where
the king can move can be attacked by the queen. The king cannot take the queen, because
the knight is protecting the queen. The black bishop cannot block the queen. This is
checkmate.

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Step 12: Stalemate

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 (https://cdn instructables com/FGW/8I51/FD80BVW7/FGW8I51FD80BVW7 LARGE jpg?auto=webp&fit=bounds)

Simply put, a "Stalemate" is a tie. It is achieved if there are no legal moves for a player to
make.

In this illustration it is white's turn. All spaces around the king are being attacked, but the
king is not in check, therefore it cannot move. The only other white piece, the pawn, is
blocked by the king. Because movement is impossible, the game is a stalemate.

If white had another piece somewhere on the board that was not blocked, it would have to
move. The game would continue.

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Step 13: Basic Strategy

Chess is an incredibly complex strategic game, and it is impossible to go into all of the
possible tactics one could use to win. However, I wanted to leave the new player with a
few hints that will hopefully aid in victory.

Piece Value:
Obviously you want to protect your pieces from capture, but it helps to know which pieces
are the strongest so you can decide who to save if you must choose between two. A good
explanation of piece value is available on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piec
e_point_value)

Queen: Strongest = Most Value

Rook
Bishop, Knight
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Pawn: Weakest = Least Value

The bishop and the knight are commonly considered equal on the value scale, however
many feel (myself included) that the bishop has a slight edge over the knight.

Pawns become more valuable as they near promotion.

Pawn Promotion:
Although a pawn can be promoted to a variety of pieces, the strongest choice is almost
always to promote to queen.

Board Control:
When building defenses, remember to look at the board and gauge how strong you are in
certain areas of the board. Try an keep power distributed fairly evenly, and bring pieces
over to add strength if you see an attack coming.

When attacking, it's a bad idea to let any of your pieces become cut off from your main
force. I nd it helpful to have a support piece in mind when making an attack. Using pieces
in tandem almost always yields a better result than using one piece alone.

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Step 14: Go Play

(https://cdn instructables com/FH6/UIJX/FD80OXRB/FH6UIJXFD80OXRB

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So now you know the basics. Go get a board an play! No one around?

Natwarlal (http://www.ironcode.com/chess-game.html) is a good, free chess program.

Chessclub.com (http://www.chessclub.com) is an online club you can join, but it has a fee.
However, there are tournaments where you can win cash prizes. You can even watch
grandmasters play.

Enjoy!

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109 Discussions

(/member/nirmalajakhar5/) nirmalajakhar5 (/member/nirmalajakhar5/) Question 4 months ago on Step 2

Answer / Upvote
Can the pawn be promoted to queen if queen is already alive (two queens at a team,possible?)?
4 answers F

(/member/BMCG90/) BMCG90 (/member/BMCG90/) Question 13 days ago on Step 9

Answer / Upvote
Can u explain en passant

(/member/innocentogodie/) innocentogodie (/member/innocentogodie/) Question 4 weeks ago on Step 2

Answer / Upvote
In a first move of the pawn taking two steps and thereby encounter and opponent, could it kill it

(/member/KonguR1/) KonguR1 (/member/KonguR1/) Question 5 weeks ago on Step 9

Answer / Upvote
Where should the count is placed

(/member/drfraz/) drfraz (/member/drfraz/) 2 months ago

Reply / Upvote
Is it the first move of the first pawn on each side that can move 2 spaces forward OR can each pawn
on both sides move 2 spaces on their first move?
2 replies F

/1 (/member/sharma20072002/)
sharma20072002 (/member/sharma20072002/)
Question 2 months ago on Step 12

Answer / Upvote
I didn't got stalemate. Why this move is not considered checkmate ? Please explain it a bit more.
1 answer F

kadijacamara1275 (/member/kadijacamara1275/)
(/member/kadijacamara1275/)
Question 2 months ago on Step 2

Answer / Upvote
When say a pond is moving forward can it still capture the opponents piece, or can a pond only
capture a piece diagonally? Also when a pond reaches the other side what is it promoted to?
2 answers F

smitabhavsar77 (/member/smitabhavsar77/)
(/member/smitabhavsar77/)
Question 2 months ago on Step 7

Answer / Upvote
/
 Can king give The king check?
1 answer F

(/member/Neil+negi/) Neil negi (/member/Neil+negi/) Question 2 months ago on Step 9

Answer / Upvote
We can apply this with every pawn to every piece

(/member/SwapnilK44/) SwapnilK44 (/member/SwapnilK44/) Question 2 months ago

Answer / Upvote
Can king move without check

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