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How I Started

When I was young(er), my dad watched a movie with me called the Life of a King, it was a story about a former con who was let out of prison and found a job as a janitor and he was filling in for a detention and he started teaching some of the kids how to play chess. one of the kids that ran drugs was naturally good at looking at how to win the competition at hand. He knew how the strategies of the moves went as he use to play a little with his dad before he left him and his mother. The kid was so good that he was enrolled into a tournament and he almost beat the Champion of the World. He lost and was placed second and given a trophy for his efforts. The Champion was really impressed with the kid. The kid was offered help form the Urban's League which offered to help him achieve getting into and graduating from college and going forward in his life of chess or just a regular job, afterwards.

The movie showed me about how sometimes you just have to sacrafice a few pieces to get to your main goal. It taught me that losing a couple things was alright and that it happens in life and that it always will. This movie got me heavily into chess and I started almost immediately, my dad bought me a "no stress" chess board which showed you how the pieces moved and attacked. From then I got into online chess, where I played people around the world, and then I moved on to a traditional wooden chess board and I have been playing with it ever since.

He always said I could be good enough to be World Champion of Chess. Which I never really believed. That seems way to good to be true. I still play online and even against computers, it is always a good way to practice strategies and see if there are flaws that the computer can pick out so you can fix them in later games so you won't make the same mistake. I played in my first tournament on March 19th, 2016. I didn't place but it was fun and I learned a lot.

Starting Off as a Beginner

I suggest that you start off playing with your parent(s), friends, or even just on an app on your phone. (You might prefer online chess apps because you get to know how other people around the world would move their pieces instead of what seems like a super computer when you first start, don't worry if you have trouble as you beocme good at the game, it happens to a lot of people who play against computers, even advanced players.) Then you start going to chess club once you know how the pieces move and then you gain experience by the wins and losses that happens throughout the time that you play. Experience is the best way to become the best Chess player you can be.'

Of course many of the champions today (not all) started at a very young age, probably younger than most of you reading this. And so they learned over a longer period of time, giving them more experience in the game than most people. Which is indeed why, they themselves hads the experience to make it into big chess tournaments. Although it is not all about experience, you can always beat the master if you really pay attention, because everyone has flaws in the way they play, and even the most unexperienced players (theoretical) can pick up on the smallest of flaws made by the opponent. It's a mind game, nothing more and nothing less. You just gotta go out and try, and for those of you who are actually listening to this advice, I wish you luck on your journey into the chess world.

Movement of Pieces

The pawn (which doesn't much seem like it) is a vital part of the chess game, they are the very front line of your defense or offensive strategy, and one wrong move with a pawn can destroy your entire defense, or, it can destory theres, just one simple move of a pawn can screw up even the best players. it can move two spaces of the starting block but can only move one afterwards. If the player chooses to move it one space off the starting block, than the pawn cannot move two spaces any longer. People usually choose tomove the pawn first. The pawn is also used as a shield of sorts, either covering the player by being directlly diagonal form them so you can take the piece that takes them, or being in the bath of another player so they take the pawn instead of the better piece. The circles are where the piece moves and the x's are where the piece attacks.

The knight (oftenly called a horse) can move two spaces up and one to the left or right, the knight can also move one space up and two spaces to the left or right. If a player is on the space I which the horse can land on, the horse can take that piece.

 

The bishop, can move diagonally left or right as many spaces as it likes, as long as not blocked by the opposite players piece.

 

The rook, (or castle) can move left or right as many spaces as it likes, as long as not blocked by the opposite players piece.

 

The Queen can move diagonally, forwards, and horizontally as many spaces as it wants to, unless blocked by another player.

 

The most important piece (per say) is the King, it most in any direction, but only one space at a time, unless blocked by another players movement. If you trap the king into checkmate or stalemate, you win, which is why it is the most important player on the board.

 

Now, a piece can be taken if it is in the line of movement of another piece, of course the horse is not a line but a jump, so if a piece is in the jump square of the horse, then it can be taken, just as if you were in the line of its movement.

 

Strategies

Now, the lighter colored pieces always make the first move. (Also the same rule in checkers, where red is lighter than black so therefore red would move first.) Subsequently, white would be the offense because they had the first oppurtunity to attack the opponent. Therefore black would be defense. For the time being. I say that because you can always switch later in the game, here, put this into perspective. You're being attacked but you have the open space to attack the king, you're gonna take it right? It stalls the opponents offense and also allows you to take the upper hand of the game, and because you went onto offense, your opponent would have to become defense, which takes his players back from your king and gives you a little space to either set up your defenses again or take on the offensive role.

 

Alternate Rules/Moves

When you play chess, like any other game, there are rules you have to follow, although there are exceptions in the game of chess. Some rules are only played in tournament style games (unless amateurs like to play with the tournament rules) like the En passent rule, which is explained below.

 

There is also a move called castling, when you castle, the king moves two spaces towards either castle, and the rook takes the spot to the left or right of the king. You may not castle when the king is in check, and you may not castle, if your king or the rook you want to castle with, has moved at all. You can castle on both sides of the king, so you can move one rook and still castle with the other one. But by rule, if you move your king you may not castle. You also may not catle if the squares that the king must travel through, are in the path of another piece on the board.

 

There is also an alternate pawn rule, if you can get the pawn all the way down to the other end of the board you can "promote it," meaning that you can exchange that piece for any other piece besides a pawn and a king. The Pawn is usually promoted into a queen because it is the best attacking and defending player (usually) on the board. You do not have to promote it into a piece that was already taken, if you have not lost your queen, you can still promote another peice into a second queen giving you two on the board, which is a major advantage in most cases.

 

If you move to the same place three times the match will be claimed a draw, but only if the opponent claims so. These three moves do not have to be in repition of each other, although some times they post a limit on how many moves you can do before you can mvove back to that space without a draw. Other games do not and you may not go there three times with any piece at all.

 

The touch rule, which instates that if you touch a piece on the board, even if you are just adjusting it, you must move it, if it can make a legal move, but if it cannot, you are resulted in a a loss. If you touch a piece of the other players, you must capture that piece, if you cannot you are resulted in a loss and if you must touch another piece to adjust it, you must tell your opponent that you would like to adjust the piece, by simply saying "adjust," or "adjustment" of course they can always say no, it is the rules after all.

 

There is an ancient rule that was played in India that I found kinda intresting though, it's called the Severe Indian Chess rule. This rule instates that if you place another player into stalemate,the player can use his king to take out on of the opponent's players that would put him into check if he had moved, thus giving him an escape. There is also another version, that the player that is in stalemate wins because the opponent failed to get the player into checkmate, or draw. Which is also called the Severe Indian Chess Rule, but they are two different rules, just called the same thing, you cannot use both in the same game and if you choose to use it you must ask your opponent if they would like to, if declined, the rule will not be inforced, of course the rule is hardly ever used anymore, but it is still used between players that like to explore the alternate or old rules of chess that they used when it was first forming and gaining popularity.

 

If you would like to explore the alternate or old rules, you just have to find a partner that would like to go along with the old rules. Ask someone that has been playing for a long time, it would be good for them to experience new ways to play.

 

Time Control

Let's say you're one move from placing your opponent into checkmate or stale mate and claiming victory, but your time runs out before you can, therefore ginving the other player the victory over you. This rule is usually enforced in tournaments, when they use timers. If your time runs out you are resulted in a loss.

 

The Mates of Chess

There are actually a lot of names for Checkmate, which invloves the different pieces that you use. But there are way to many to say so let's just start with checkmate, the most common nickname used, which is when you trap the king in check into which he cannot move without taking himself out of check and that he cannot take another piece and put it infront of yours to block the path of check. This results in a a win for the player who is not in checkmate.

 

Then there is Stalemate, which is when you trap the king into a spot in which he cannot move without being in check. This is similiar to checkmate but the king is not actually in check, he is just trapped, unable to move the king or another piece on the board. Stalemate usually happens when one player has no other pieces besides the king, although you can get him into checkmate there is always stalemate as well. Stalemate results in a win for the player not in stalemate. This is just one of the many ways you can place a player into stalemate.

 

There is a lot of variations or nicknames for Checkmate but really they are all the same in context. Although there is a honorable mention which is Fool's Mate, which is the shortest checkmate possible, this is when you move two pawns which opens up a narrow passageway to the king, in which the queen can move into and result the king into checkmate. This checkmate is resulted in 3 moves, depending on what color is putting the other color into Fool's Mate.