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How to Play Chess

By blksheep (/member/blksheep/) in Living (/living/) > Toys & Games (/living/toys-and-games/projects/) 4,268,717 193 156 Featured

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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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 Step 1: Setup, Turns, and Taking Pieces

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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
di erently than they move (explained later). Players cannot take or move through their own
pieces.

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Step 2: Pawn Movement

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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Rooks move in a continuous line forwards, backwards and side-to-side.

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Step 4: Knight
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Knights are the only pieces that "jump" o 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
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Bishops move in continuous diagonal lines in any direction.

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Step 6: Queen
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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
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

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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.

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

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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

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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

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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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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_piece_point_value)

Queen: Strongest = Most Value

Rook
Bishop, Knight
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 o 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

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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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156 Comments

(/member/unikitty112124/) unikitty112124 (/member/unikitty112124/) Question 5 days ago on Step 6

Answer / Upvote
how horse can walk in chess

(/member/Goldenfreddycl/) Goldenfreddycl (/member/Goldenfreddycl/) 14 days ago on Step 2

Reply / Upvote
 The pawn is the only pI've with a second objective besides the "help put the king on checkmate". Their
actual main objective is to get to the other side and get a nice big promotion.

(/member/Goldenfreddycl/) Goldenfreddycl (/member/Goldenfreddycl/) 14 days ago on Step 8

Reply / Upvote
In chess, castling while in check is considered "against the law". In this case it's against the law of
chess.

(/member/Goldenfreddycl/) Goldenfreddycl (/member/Goldenfreddycl/) Tip 14 days ago on Step 6

Reply / Upvote
It's like a star. The queen can move infinitely on the star.
Also try not to have a queen go against a queen because you will never get anywhere.

(/member/Goldenfreddycl/) Goldenfreddycl (/member/Goldenfreddycl/) Tip 14 days ago on Step 3

Reply / Upvote
If you think of a Plus sign (+). The knight moves like a plus sign but infinite on every side.

1 reply F

(/member/ranakavita06172/) ranakavita06172 (/member/ranakavita06172/) Question 5 weeks ago

Answer / Upvote
Can we change place with king and elephant

1 answer F

(/member/ranakavita06172/) ranakavita06172 (/member/ranakavita06172/) 5 weeks ago

Reply / Upvote
Can we change place with king and elephant

(/member/KonguR1/) KonguR1 (/member/KonguR1/) Question 1 year ago on Step 9

Answer / Upvote
Where should the count is placed
1 answer F

/4 (/member/JohnA549/) JohnA549 (/member/JohnA549/) Question 1 year ago on Step 2

Answer / Upvote
I want to know if I touch my opponent's piece by picking it up but I'm unable to take it do I got to take it
with another piece or can I continue the game and is there a such thing as touch and move

1 answer F

/2 (/member/alamatemailfikri/)
alamatemailfikri (/member/alamatemailfikri/)
Question 4 months ago on Introduction
Answer / Upvote
 Can a pawn can be promoted to a queen but the queen is still on the chess?

4 answers F

(/member/Leo+Bolt/) Leo Bolt (/member/Leo+Bolt/) 5 weeks ago on Step 14

Reply / Upvote
I actually did the #11 checkmate myself, minus the bishop 🤔

/11 (/member/blessingnwosu29/)
blessingnwosu29 (/member/blessingnwosu29/)
Question 1 year ago on Step 3
Answer / Upvote
Is backward movement allowed in chess?

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