Historians believe that chess began in India and was brought to Europe via trade-routes into Italy and Spain.  Chess was further disseminated throughout Europe by the Vikings.  During this time, the rules of chess were changed by each culture that inherited the game, and it wasn’t until the middle of the first millennium that the game of chess we play today was well-known throughout Europe.

Some of the changes made during this time included the creation of the Queen, changing the Queen to the strongest piece, and making the Bishop a more mobile piece.  Prior to these changes, chess games played in the middle ages were laboriously slow.  These changes sped up play and made challenging the opponent much more entertaining.  Other changes made to speed play during this time period including giving pawns the ability to move two spaces forward on their first move, and the creation of the castling move between a King and Rook.  In response to the two-space pawn move, another move was created—en passant.   The en passant move was created solely to keep the two-space move from allowing pawns too much power.

In addition to providing us with the rule set for the game we play today, the Europeans of the medieval period also provided the names and designs of the pieces.  Each piece on the board represents a part of life in the middle ages.  Clearly, the queen and king represent royalty.  The queen is the most powerful piece on the board, and the king is the most important.  During the middle ages, royal families were both supremely powerful and very important to life in their countries.

Knights represent the noble class of lord and ladies, while bishops represent the church.  During the middle ages, the church was a powerful and driving force, and the bishop is a very powerful piece.  Rooks obviously represent castles – the primary living quarters and refuge of many people during these times.  Finally, there are the pawns.  The lowly peasants, easily sacrificed for the greater good of the game.  Of course, when the pawn’s rise up, they can become the most powerful player on the board.  Perhaps this is a coincidence, or perhaps it is a comment on the ability of the peasants to control their fate in numbers…

Variation 1: Begin with Checkers

To play this variation, first set the pawns up as seen in the diagram.  Begin play using pawns just as you would checkers in a game of checkers.  Pawns can move diagonally and can jump each other.  When a pawn is jumped, it is removed.

When pawns reach the other end of the board, they are promoted.  You must promote pawns in the following fashion:  At least one Rook, one Knight, and one Bishop must be promoted before promoting a Queen, then a King.  Your last pawn must be promoted to King and no other piece can be promoted to King.  If all your pawns make it across the board, you would end up with all the other chess pieces.  If five pawns make it across the board, you would end up with a Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, and King.  If only three make it across the board, you would end up with two pieces chosen from Rook, Knight, and Bishop, and the third piece would be a King.

Once pawns are promoted, they new pieces move following standard chess rules and the game ends in the standard checkmate.

Variation 2:  All in the Corners

Arrange all pieces as shown in diagram.

All standard rules of chess apply except for pawn movement and pawn promotion.  No pawn may ever move two spaces, and a pawn can only be promoted by reaching the opponents white corner square (the square guarded by all the chess pieces in the diagram).

This variation is very hard, because the pieces begin so clustered and you have limited move options at first.  In addition, it is almost impossible to promote pawns.

Variation 3:  Choose Your Favorites

In this variation, each player flanks a King by two pawns.  They are each allowed three more pieces, none of which can be a Queen.  These three pieces can be any combination of pieces the player wishes to choose.

Pawns can be promoted only to Queens in this variation, so they become much more valuable.

Since there are few pieces on the board with this variation, you must develop early, and strike fast.  You need to wipe out your opponents pieces, including his pawns as fast as possible in order to keep him from overtaking your King!

Some chess variations actually center upon medieval situations!  For example, there is a variation of chess called Peasant’s revolt. In this game, white begins with a King and eight pawns.  These represent the peasants.  The black pieces are King, four knights, and a pawn (knights represent the nobles).

If you researched, you could discover thousands of variations of chess that had already been thought of, and come up with thousands more on your own!

Online Chess

There are many websites devoted solely to online chess playing.  These websites offer round the clock options for players of all skills and locations.  With millions of players worldwide, you will always be able to find a willing opponent.  In addition, you can visit with other players via chats and forums, and can compete in tournaments.  For more information about online chess, and for a list of suggested websites, see the article on Online Chess.

Chess Against the Computer

Many sites also offer chess games that you play against a computer.  Sites such as Yahoo offer computer based chess games, and some computers even come with a chess game in the startup menu.  These computer games can be adjusted for easy to difficult play.  The quality of the games may differ from site to site, and truly advanced players may not find these games challenging after a while.

Electronic Chess Boards

If you are more traditional and prefer your chess pieces to be tangible, you may want to invest in an electronic chess board.   An electronic chess board looks very much like a traditional chess board, except they contain circuits and a small computer.  The circuits respond to the position of the pieces on the board, and the computer calculates moves from that information.  The program works very much like a computer game you play on your actual PC, but you have actual pieces to move.  Of course, you will have to move the computer’s pieces.  There are generally light or voice systems that tell you which move the computer is making.

These games range from about $50 all the way up to a couple hundred dollars. The difference in price has to do just as much with the design and technology of the board as it does with the difficulty of the programming.   When shopping for an electronic chess board, you should pay attention to the features offered.  Choose a game with the option and features you need, not the most stylish looking board out there.  You may find that the lower priced games work just fine.

Chess Video Games

Of course, you can always purchase a chess game for your video game console.  Since you can play chess easily online, many people do not opt to purchase chess games for their Nintendo or PlayStation.  But, for the true chess lover, these options do exist.  In fact, Nintendo recently released Wii Chess for its most current game console, although the game is currently only available in Europe.

ChessCube.com

This online chess site offers a wide variety of chess playing opportunities for free.  Not only can you play chess against millions of other people worldwide, you can also socialize in the ChessCube forums.  The website allows you to maintain a record of your game statistics, and even receive training for playing chess!  There are chess related training courses you can watch via the website’s “Chess Cube Cinema.”  You can even personalize your chess playing experience by inviting friends and setting up your own social chess network.

Chessmaniac.com

Another social chess site, this site offers the change to compete in tournaments, form teams, and join clubs.  The site also offers some extensive articles on strategy and developing your games for all playing levels.  The articles are illustrated with detailed diagrams to help beginning players follow the technical chess terms.  Like ChessCube.com, Chessmania.com is free and offers an extensive library, game playing network, and videos.

Chess.com

Like the other websites listed, Chess.com offers free online chess playing and tutorials.  However, Chess.com is also devoted to anything chess related, and offers news, blogs, articles and event listings all related to chess.

Chessclub.com

Chessclub.com bills itself as the website where Grandmasters play, which may be why they can charge for their services when there are so many free chess websites out there.   You can visit and play on the site as a guest, but must pay to become an ICC member.  Membership benefits include unlimited play, access to events such as tournaments and lectures, ability to watch live chess events worldwide, ability to listen to or view chess related radio and television shows, and interaction with ICC’s chess help desk. If you are unsure if you’ll get your money’s worth, Chessclub.com does offer a free trial to their new members.

Chess.about.com

This website covers just about everything chess related. Chess basics, chess games, chess organizations, chess history, and important people related to chess. If there is ever anything you wanted to learn about chess, this is the place to start.

Chess.com/articles

There are almost a thousand chess related articles located here. Articles cover topics ranging from beginning chess and strategy to fun and trivia! There are even articles that give a blow-by-blow account of some of the best chess games played. You can learn chess tricks almost first-hand from reviewing these game accounts.

www.geocities.com/rookknightrook/ChessArticlesDavidCohen.htm

This website contains many small articles related to chess. The articles are primarily devoted to chronicling various chess achievements.

chessproblem.my-free-games.com/chess/games/ChessArticles.php

Not only does this website have a selection of chess related articles, Bruno also updates each day with a “Chess problem of the day”. If you don’t have time to read a lot of articles, you may want to drop in occasionally for this quick, mini-lesson in chess.

Chesskids.com

Children can learn to play chess and become active in online chess with this colorful, fun site designed specifically for them.

ChessVideos.tv

Not big on reading? Instead of learning to play chess with articles online or through reading a book, you can learn to play while watching videos online! In addition to training videos from master level chess players, this site also offers a variety of chess tools, including a diagram generator.

The Basics of Chess Notation

There are 8 rows running in either direction on any chess board.  In chess notation, horizontal rows are given numerical names, and vertical rows are given letter names.  In the diagram to the left, the horizontal row beginning with the rook would be row 1.  Above it would be row 2, all the way up to row 8, which begins with the black rook.

The vertical rows would be labeled beginning A and moving to H from left to right.  Thus, in the diagram to the left, the white queen is on square D1, and the black king is on square E8.

If you have trouble remembering which rows are labeled which, you can write small numbers and letters on the edge of your board, or tape small, temporary labels on the outside of each row.

In addition to row and space names, each piece is also abbreviated.  K for Kings, Q for Queens, N for Knights, B for Bishops, and R for Rooks.  Pawns are not named.

When each piece is moved, you can name the move with a combination of the abbreviation for the piece and the destination cell.  For example, the notation NH3 would look like:

If you record each move as it is made in a numbered list, you will have a complete history of the game!  Since pawns are not named, their moves are written only using the destination cell.  For example, if you were to move the pawn in front of the king two spaces forward, you would write e4.

There are some special notations for special moves.  Castling the rook that starts on the king’s side is notated as 0-0, while castling with the rook that starts on the queen’s side is 0-0-0.  When a move involves a capture, and x is used to denote the capture.  For example, if a Rook was to capture an opponent piece on square B7, the notation would read Rxb7.

To notate the en passant move,  an (ep) is included behind the notation. If there is a confusion regarding which piece you might be indication, you can include extra notation.  For example, if two knights could take the same space on a move, you need to indicate which knight.  You would do this by indicating which row the knight is in.  For example:  aNc1.   This moves the knight in row a to space c1.

Check

A King is considered to be in check anytime an opponent, on the next move, could take the King if nothing is done to protect the King.  For example, if a King is in the same row as an opponents Rook and there are no pieces between the King and the Rook.  When the King is in check, you are required to make a move that will protect him.  This move could be any of the following:

1. Move the King out of harm’s way.
2. Move another piece into harm’s way between the King and the Rook.  The downside to this is that the opponent may use the Rook to take that piece and your King will be in check again.  A way to get around this is to protect the King with a piece placed directly next to him.  This will allow the King to capture any opponent’s piece attempting to capture the protection.
3. Capture the Rook with another of your pieces, ending the threat against the King.

A King in check cannot be ignored.  In addition, the move you make to remove the King from check cannot place the King into another check.  Also, during play, a player is never allowed to deliberately place the King in check.

Checkmate

When a King is placed into a check that is impossible to resolve, then it is considered checkmate.  Consider the above instance.  If you were unable to move the King without placing it in check from another opponent piece, and you had not pieces that could be moved between the King and Rook or be used to capture the Rook, then the situation would no longer be a check, but would be checkmate.  Checkmate signals the end of the game.  The player with the King in checkmate loses the game, and the player performing the checkmate wins.

Stalemate

A stalemate occurs in chess when one player has no available move without putting the King into check, but the King is actually not in check yet.  This usually means that only the King remains on the board, and any move of the King puts him in line to be captured by an opponent piece.  When a stalemate occurs, the game is considered to be a draw.  If you are playing for points, each player would be awarded half a point for a stalemate game.

Other Types of Draws

There are several other ways for a game of chess to end in a draw.  They include:

1. Fifty Moves:  Either player may choose to end the game in a draw if each player has made fifty sequential moves without any piece being captured and without any pawn being moved.  The fifty move rule does not constitute an automatic draw.  A player must recognize that the requirements for the draw have been met and claim it.
2. Impossibility of Checkmate.  This occurs when there is no possible way, using legal moves of the game, for either play to place the opponent’s king in checkmate.  This rule is also referred to as the rule of insufficient material, because the most common reason checkmate becomes impossible is that there are not the right pieces on the board.  For example, a lone king versus a lone king on the board cannot result in a checkmate of either king.
3. Threefold repetition.  A draw can be claimed by a player when he is about to make a move that will cause an exact replica of a move that has already occurred twice.  For the move to be considered repeating, all of the pieces on the board must occupy the same positions as the previous two moves.  If two of the same type of piece have “switched” places, the threefold repetition rule still stands, because the move opportunities for each piece are still the same.
4. Draw by agreement.  This type of draw is also called draw by mutual agreement.  Generally, advanced players can tell toward the end of a game that neither will be able to win.  Many times,  it is obvious that the game will end with Impossibility of Checkmate or Fifty Moves, and a mutual draw is declared to save time.
5. Perpetual check.  This occurs when one side has unlimited opportunity to put his opponent in check, but can never managed to achieve checkmate.  This means that the game could go on perpetually with one opponent checking the king, and the other opponent using his move to uncheck the king.  If a player does not claim the perpetual check draw, then the game will likely end with the fifty move rule anyway.

While there are many ways to involve strategy in a game of chess, there are some basic guidelines for developing your strategy. By beginning with these guidelines and practicing, you can develop advanced strategies as your skills increase.

Strategy Tip One: There Are No Give Away Pieces

Many beginning chess players make the mistake of underestimating their pawns. Chess is certainly a game of give and take, and there are times when pieces are sacrificed in order to gain an advantage over the opponent. However, no piece should ever be given away. No piece is so invaluable that you should waste it, and every sacrifice should be carefully considered before hand. For example, pawns are the weakest piece on the board, but you should not sacrifice them unnecessarily. After all, if a pawn travels the entire length of the board, it can be promoted. A pawn promoted to Queen becomes the most powerful piece on the board.

Strategy Tip Two: Start With A Bang

When you first state playing chess, a board full of pieces needing to be moved may seem daunting. Many new chess players begin games in a reserved manner, holding back stronger pieces in order to “save” them for later in the game. While this may seem like a good plan, in reality, it weakens your position and allows your opponent to take the offensive. Due to the nature of chess piece movement, most pieces are weakened by being on the edge of the board. With the exception of pawns, all chess pieces can move in a variety of directions. By keeping your pieces penned against the edge, you limit their movement, and subsequently, their strength. One exception to this is the King. Sometimes, you may want to use your first row to protect the King. Getting your pieces all into play early in the game is called developing your pieces early.

Strategy Tip Three: White Plays Aggressively, Black Doubly So

Since white always starts a game of chess, this means that the player playing white begins with an advantage. Effectually, he begins the game one move ahead of his opponent. Starting out ahead does not mean white can take it easy. He should work to develop his pieces early and aggressively in order to keep the advantage.

The person playing black begins on the defensive. In order to gain the offense, he must play more aggressively than his opponent, positioning his pieces well and capturing opponent pieces without giving up many of his own.

Strategy Tip Four: Make Good Trades

You cannot play a game of chess without loosing pieces to your opponent. The key in developing good chess strategy and skills is to never give up a piece unintentionally. Each capture your opponent is allowed to make should be planned and set into motion by you. You should gain something from the loss of your piece.

The most common example of how this strategy can be used is when players “trade” pieces. This occurs when one player captures and opponent’s pieces, and the capturing piece is immediately captured as well. You can use strategy with this move to entice your opponent into capturing your piece with amore valuable piece of his own that you would then be in place to capture. Perhaps you sacrifice your Knight to gain his Bishop. Perhaps the trade is your Bishop for his Queen.

A good thing to remember with any strategy, and this tip in particular, is that even while you are strategizing against your opponent, he is strategizing against you. Each time you move to capture an opponent’s piece, always make sure he is not about to capture yours!

Several pieces in chess have special moves, or  moves they can perform under the right circumstances.   One of these special moves is castling, which is a useful move with strict rules.  The castling move can only be used when neither the king nor the rook has been moved during the game.  This means that both pieces being used in the casting move are in their original locations.  In order to complete the move, there can be no other piece between the king and the rook.  The king also cannot be in check either at the beginning of the move or as a result of the move.

If all of the conditions for castling are met, the move is completed by moving the king and rook toward each other.   The king is moved two spaces toward the rook.  The rook is moved to the space the king just moved through, or to the first space on the side of the king opposite the original position of the rook.

En- Passant

The en-passant is one of the lesser known moves in chess, and thus can be used to outwit opponents.  En-passant is a move wherein a pawn is used to capture another pawn. This capture move can only be used when the opponent chooses to move a pawn two squares forward from its original position.  If you have a pawn in position that could have captured the opponent’s pawn had the pawn only been moved one space, you can use the standard capture move just like the pawn was in that space.   The opponent’s pawn is captured en-passant, even though it was not actually in the square your pawn now occupies.

Some restrictions apply to the en-passant move.  This move can only be used to capture a pawn moved two spaces from its original position.  En-passant can only be used on the move directly following your opponent moving the pawn two spaces forward.  No other chess piece can make the en-passant move.

Promotion

Just as pieces which make it across a checker board are promoted to kings, pawns which make it across a chess board can be promoted as well.   Once a pawn reaches the other end of the board, it can be promoted, or replaced, with any other piece except a King.  Generally, pawns are promoted to queens, because queens are the most powerful piece on the board.  You can promote a pawn to queen even if you still have your queen in play.  Many people turn a captured rook upside down to act as a second queen.

Since pawns can be promoted to the most valuable piece on the board, pawns are more valuable than they seem!