Understanding The Game of Chess

Understanding The Game of Chess

Chess is an interesting game and learning it is not difficult. There are three phases of the game. The first ten to fifteen moves make the opening phase, then there's middle game and lastly the end game. However it is not necessary that the game lasts through the three phases. It can end before hand also if someone makes big blunders initially. All the three phases are played differently. One needs to develop the forces in the opening phase. This is done so that the player becomes ready for the middle game. To make yourself perfect in the game, you need to follow some basic steps. These steps are offered by the world class chess players. Of course you need a lot of experience to master the art of playing chess.

When you move a piece from one position to another, it is said to have developed. So, development is the most essential principle that is applied initially. When a piece is developed, its mobility as well as the number of squares it controls increases. You must complete the development before you put any plan to work. Development is essential as it may also develop pressure on your opponent by threatening one of his pieces. Complete the development for it can lead to bad times ahead!

Controlling the centre is very important as this is the place where most of the strategic battles take place. A piece which is placed in the centre exerts big pressure as it controls a number of squares, so it has to be nicely placed. Central pawn moves are preferred in comparison to side pawn moves because the centre is controlled by the movement of the pawn. Regular piece development may also help in controlling the centre.

You should never postpone castling because king safety is very important. It increases the safety of the king and also helps in development of the rook. To be on the safer side, you should go for short castling. You are giving an opportunity to your opponent to attack your king in case you don't castle. However there are cases, when you should not castle.

Planning is the most important step. Make a plan in your mind and play accordingly. You plan should include where the development of pieces will take place. How the pawn moves should also be included in your plan. Importance should also be given to Move Order. Usually, the pawn moves first, so that the centre is controlled properly. The knight moves next as they have a less number of squares to develop. Bishop moves last as they can be developed at a number of squares. Castling should not be postponed. Do not move your queen initially. By doing this, you are actually giving a chance to your opponent to threaten your queen. Develop the heavy pieces also.

When playing the opening game, you should keep certain things in your mind. Let's take an example if White moves first. In total there are 8 pawns, and they can advance up to 2 squares. Other than the two knights, the rest of the pieces cannot be moved. The knights can advance to two squares each. White needs to remember the basic principles- first the development, then controlling the centre and finally formulating a plan. To start the development one may also move the knight. 1.Nc3 and 1.Nf3 are also good moves. However do not place your knight on h3 or a3 as it is far away from the centre. Move the pawns first, so1.e4, 1 .d4 and 1.c4 is good choices. Though 1.f4 move is suitable but it weakens the king slightly. Don't move the pawns a, b, g or h as they do not control the centre. Moves like 1.d3 and 1.e3 are acceptable but they should not be usually made.

White has more options if white plays with 1.e4 and BLACK respond with 1.e5. The White's queen and its bishop that is placed at f1 can also move now. Next, White should include all the basic moves like 2.d4, 2.Nf3, 2.Nc3, 2.Bc4. though there are some other good moves also; these are considered the best ones! White should not move 2.Bd3 as it has some limitations. It prevents the pawns from making advances and bishop's mobility is not increased. The pawn needs to move so 2.Bd3 should not be moved. This is just an example to show as to how you can play chess by following some basic rules and using your own logic and judgment. These basic principles are not universal but you can use them to be on the safer side!

George Wood is a successful webmaster of many popular sites including niche and coaching site. If you want to read more about chess, click over to George's chess site.

Win At Chess With These Special Moves

The game of chess has many interesting moves and some that can only happen under certain circumstances. In order to play the best game you can, it is wise to know about all the moves so that you can best outwit your opponent.

In order to effectively talk about chess a special method of notation has been devised. This helps identify the squares and positions without having to have a board and pieces always in front of you to illustrate. In this notation the columns (or files as they are called in chess) are identified with a letter and the rows (or ranks) are identified with a number. If you are looking at a chessboard from the perspective of the white player, the leftmost file is 'a', the one next to it 'b' and so on until the last file which is 'h'. The back or closest rank for white is 'rank 1', the next one (the one the pawns are on) is 'rank 2' and so on until the last rank, which is the back row for black and is 'rank 8'. So the when using chess notation, the leftmost back square for white would be called 'a1', the square directly above 'a2' an so on. See how easy that is?

Now that you know how chess notation works and you have a chess board visualized in your head, we can talk about some of the special chess moves.

En Passant

If you have played even only 1 game of chess you know that pawns have some special rules. For example, they can only capture a piece that is placed diagonally in front of them. Also, on it's initial move, a pawn can move up two squares instead of just one. However, there is a special case for this - if an enemy pawn could have captured it had it only moved 1 square, the enemy is still able to capture.

This move is called 'en passant' and can only be used on the very next move after the pawn is advanced 2 spaces - if you do not capture then, you cannot do it at a later move.

Here's an example - BLACK has a pawn at d4; WHITE moves his e2-pawn to e4; had WHITE moved to e3m the BLACK d4 pawn would have been able to capture so now he can capture en-passant on his next move. But if BLACK decides to make another move instead, he gives up his right to capture.

Castling

The King can make a special chess move called 'castling' and it is, in fact, recommended that you do this during the opening phase of the game. This is a defensive move which increase thesafety of the King. Castling has two forms - 'short' and 'long'. Here's how it works:

Say the white King is on e1 with the white Rook on h1 (this is the initial setup at the start of the game). You can make the move called short castling by moving the King to g1 and the Rook to f1. This move does have some restrictions - the squares in between the Rook and King must be empty, neither the Kind or Rook can have been moved before and the King cannot be in check. Note that even though you move two pieces, this is considered to be one move.

Long castling has the same rules and is a similar move but uses the Rook on the a file instead. In this scenario, the King ends on c1 and the Rook ends on d1.

Promotion

You might think the pawns are not very useful but if you can get your pawn to the other side of the board he can be promoted. This means the you can replace the pawn with any same colored piece you want with the exception of a king or pawn. Needless to say most people choose to replace the pawn with a queen.

There are some other situations in chess that novice players might not be aware of. For instance, a game can very easily end in a draw. This can happen when neither side has enough material to checkmate the opponent. This would happen if one player had a Bishop and King while another had only a King - no matter how many times you try you cannot get the opponent into checkmate so the game ends in a draw.

The chess game might also end in a draw if you have to repeat the same move 3 times as their are no other choices, if no advance or pawn capture has happened in the last 50 moves or stalemate. Stalemate can happen when a player who is not in check has no valid moves. If a player can continuously checkmate another player any time he wishes then he can claim a draw by "continuous check".

Lee Dobbins writes for many online publications. Visit chess-moves.info to learn more about the game of chess and see this article in more detail and with diagrams of the special moves.