LESSON 9: THE KING

The King is the most important piece on the chess board. In fact chess is about the King. A wise man from India decided to explain to his King that his subordinates are very important for his kingdom and came up with the game of chess to demonstrate his idea. Ever since chess has evolve to the modern mind game it is today. Back to the lesson. The King can move in any direction but only one square at a time. The King may also capture any unprotected piece that is attacking it. The king may not move into check. It can get out of check by moving out of check, capture the attacker or place one of its pieces in between to cut of the enemy's attack. In the diagram position the King on d4 may move to c4,c3,d3,e3,e4. If the Black King on d6 was placed on g8 instead of d6 the White King on d4 could have moved to c5, d5 and e5. However, in the diagram position the king may not move to these squares as it is attacked by the Black King on d6. The same is true for the Black King as it may also not move to c5, d5 and e5. The only time the king may move more than one square, is when it castles with the rook. This is a special move made by the King and the rook to get the King into safety. Castling will be discussed in a future lesson.

LESSON 8: THE KNIGHT

The knight is the most cunning piece as it can jump in the thick of things and cause havoc in the enemy camp. The knight moves in a "L" shape and can reach or target 8 squares at a time. It may however only move to one of the eight squares at a time. In the Diagram position the knight on d4 can move to c2, e2, f3, f5, e6, c6, b5 and b3. The knight on b1 can jump over friend (b2) and foe (b3) and move to c3 from b1. The knight is the only piece that can play in the beginning of the game by jumping over the pawns. The knight and the queen are the most deadly combination of pieces around an unprotected king. The knight can also perform a double attack, apply the smothered mate, which we will discuss in a future lesson. Watch out for the knight, as it is a powerful piece in the hands of the master and has won many a victory against stronger opposition.

Lesson 7: THE QUEEN

The Queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. It is equal to 9 pawns and she is loved by the beginner like a precious stone. The Grandmaster will however sacrifice the queen anytime for a beautiful checkmate. The Queen moves along the rows, files and diagonals if the other pieces permit. In the Diagram position the Queen can move to, e1 in one move (Qe1) or h5 (Qh5). The Queen cannot capture the Bishop on a1 as its own pawn is blocking its path to a1. She will have to travel to e1 first before she can capture the Bishop next move. The Queen can also capture the Knight on a5 in one move. Qxa5. The Queen can also capture the Rook on b8 (Qbxb8#) and it will be checkmate. Checkmate is a topic on its own and will be discussed later.

Lesson 6: THE ROOK

The Rook is the second strongest chess piece on the chess board after the Queen. The Rook is also referred to as the Castle. The Rook moves horizontal along the rows and vertical along the files any number of squares. In the Diagram position the Rook on e5 can move to e1(Re1) in one move. It may also capture the Bishop on e8 (Rxe8+). The Rook cannot capture the knight on a5 in one move as its own pawn on c4 restrict its movement to a5. It can however travel to a3 throught e3 and capture the knight on the third move (Rxa5). The Rook can also give check to the black King on g8 by playing Rook to g5 check (Rg5+). The rook can make a special move with the king called castling, which we will discuss in more detail later.

Lesson 5: THE BISHOP

The Bishop moves diagonally on the color it stands in the initial position. Black has two Bishops, a light square Bishop and a dark square Bishop. The light square Bishop starts on c8 and the dark square Bishop starts on f8. White has two Bishops too, a light square Bishop and a dark square Bishop. The light square Bishop starts on c1 and the dark square Bishop starts on f1. The Bishop on c1 can move to h6 in one move. The Bishop on f1 is restricted by the pawn on d3 and may not jump over it. If the player wants to move the Bishop to c4 the pawn has to be moved forward from d3 to d4 (d4). It can thus only move from f1 to e2.

The Bishop on f1 may also capture the black knight on h3. The Bishop on f8 is restricted by the pawn on e7. It can move to either g7 or h6. The Bishop on c8 can move to g4, it attacks the Rook on a6 and protects the Knight on h3. If the Bishop on f1 captures the Knight on h3 (Bxh3) then the Bishop on c8 can capture the Bishop on h3 (Bxh3). The Bishop can move forward and backwards diagonally. In the diagram position the Bishop on c8 can attack the King on h1 by moving to b7 (Bb7+) the + is used to indicate a check which is an attack on the King. The bishop has a restriction and that is any one Bishop can only move on 32 squares (light or dark) of the chess board.

Lesson 4: THE PAWN

The pawn is also referred to as the soul of chess. This is the only unit that may promote to any other chess piece (Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight) on the chess board when it reaches the eight rank - it may not promote to a King as each player is only permitted to have one King on the chess board. The pawn moves forward one or two square(s) at a time. It can only move two squares from it's initial standing position after that it can only move one square at a time. The pawn captures forward diagonally.

The pawn on f2 can move to f3 or to f4. It can capture any enemy piece on e3 or g3 as indicated by the red arrows. The pawn can also make a special move called en passant. In the diagram posistion if the pawn on a2 moves to a4 it can be captured en passant by the b4 pawn as if it moved to a3. The same is true for the c7 pawn, if it moves to c5 it can be captured en passant by the d5 pawn as if it moved to c6.

Lesson3: CHESS NOTATION

Chess notation are being used since 600 A.D. The idea is to record the moves made by both players. You get different types of chess notation but we will only look at the most convenient one - the algebraic system. Here we use the letters a-h for the files and the numbers 1-8 for the rows. Each square is identified by a letter followed by a number. A chess player records his moves by writing down the moves made with the chess pieces. The following method/sequence is use to record the moves 1. the piece symbol, 2. the departure square, 3. type of move (-) for a normal move and (x) for a capture, 4. the destination square. This is referred to as the long algebraic notation the short algebraic notation you only use numbers 1 and 4. In diagram 1 we have the algebraic notation from white’s point of view and in diagram 2 we have the algebraic notation from black's point of view. In the table we have the symbols, names and values of each piece. The pawn symbol is not used in the algebraic notation but the square on which it stands is used. e.g. 1.e2-e4. The pieces are measured in pawns as the pawn is the smallest unit in the army. See table 1 for the details on the chess pieces symbols, names and value. The values should assist you to make good decisions when exchanging off pieces. With chess notation players can play blindfold chess. This is done by putting a blindfold over the eyes of the opponents or one of the opponents. The moves are then announced by the opponents and played on the chessboard by another person. Because of chess notation, nations can play against its other without understanding each others language and the complete visually impaired person can play against a person with eyesight. It is important to note that white always start the game first at this stage. Our next lesson will deal with the pawn and its moves and captures.