All games have rules; they govern how the same game should be played. For the chess rules, they are essential if you want to learn chess. In this article, we will talk about the Chess Moves, Chess Opening Rules and Chess Pieces Set up.

Chess Moves

The following is how chess pieces move:

  • King’s move a square in any direction and can make a special move known as Castling. Castling it’s the only time when more than a piece moves during a turn. In this situation, the King moves two squares towards the Rook, and the Rook moves to the square through which the King passed. Castling can only occur under the following conditions:
  1. Neither the Rook nor the King involved might have moved from the initial position.
  2. There must be no piece between the Rook and the King.
  • Queens move either horizontally, diagonally or vertically on any number of squares. Therefore, they are usually unable to skip over pieces.
  • Bishops only move diagonally to any number of squares, and they cannot be able to jump over other pieces.
  • The Rooks move either vertically or horizontally any number of squares, and they only move when the King castles.
  • Knights move in a ‘7’ or ‘L’ shape: two squares in either a vertical or a horizontal direction. Then move one square either vertically or horizontally. Thus, they are pieces that can jump over other parts.
  • Pawns are the only pieces in Chess to capture diverse to how they move. They charge a square diagonally only in a forward outlook. Therefore, they are unable to make any move backwards during captures.

Chess Opening Rules

The following are the basic opening rules when playing chess:

  1. Open with a centre pawn.
  2. Develop the moves with a threat
  3. Always remember to move Knights before the Bishops
  4. Try as much as possible not to carry the same piece twice
  5. In the opening, make as few Pawn moves as possible.
  6. Don’t use the Queen too early.
  7. It is preferable on the Kingside to Castle as soon as possible
  8. Remember to play to gain control of the centre
  9. At least a Pawn should be maintained in the centre
  10. Don’t sacrifice without an apparent reason.

En Passant Rule

This may only occur when a Pawn is moved two squares on its original movement. If this happens, the opponent has an option to take the moved Pawn as if it had only moved a square ahead. This move was developed to retain restrictions imposed by slow movement and speed up at the same time.

Myths about Playing Chess

Most people say chess is complex, and the players themselves say it is straightforward to play it. Here are some of the myths:

  • Chess is a waste of time – This is classified as an unpopular opinion than a myth. Unlike most games, chess incorporates elements of art. That difference makes it to be seen as a waste of time.
  • One has to be competent to play Chess – Everything starts with a step. One does not need to be capable to play chess. It’s all about learning and putting in hard work.
  • It is hard to learn Chess – It might not be the most straightforward game to learn, but it is not close to being difficult. It is all about understanding the moves of the six pieces, where the piece with the minor movement and the one that has complicated moves. Then you will need to learn the rules about attacking and defending. It all takes patience and passion for learning it.
  • Women can’t play chess and men– Although to date, indeed, women have not performed and men in the Chess events, there can be many reasons for that. The Polgar sisters once went a long way to convince the Chess world that women can play very well. Perhaps, with time, we will discover that women can even play better than men.
  • Computers play chess better than Humans– The best computers in 2006 played chess better than humans. So it should not be looked like computers are trained by specialists who program them in the opening repertoire.

Benefits of Playing Chess

The following are the benefits of playing chess:

  • It elevates creativity
  • Increases your intelligence, both the fluid intelligence and the processing speed.
  • It helps you enter a flow state whereby; one entirely focuses on the task at hand and looking for ways to solve them.
  • Lead to better planning skills, and it is recognized as the cognitive health benefit derived from playing chess.
  • It is considered therapeutic and calms the mind.
  • It offers protection against dementia by challenging memory and visual-spatial skills.
  • It improves the symptoms of ADHD.
  • Improves memory and thinking skills.

Disadvantages of playing chess

Besides its benefits, chess can have its challenges, mainly time-consuming during learning, among others. They are as follows:

  • It is very overwhelming at first before you get used to it
  • It takes time to learn both the moves and the rules.
  • It is selective in that; it is not as exciting as other types of games to many people.
  • Lack of physical exercise that is related to the game game
  • Most people do have unrealistic expectations about the game.

Facts about playing chess

The following are interesting facts about playing chess:

  1. The longest game ever played lasted for 269 moves and ended in a draw.
  2. The longest game that is possible is 5949 moves.
  3. Dr Emanuel retained the champion title for over 26 years.
  4. The modern chessboard first appeared in Europe in 1090.
  5. In 1883, Thomas Wilson invented the first mechanical clock to be used instead of sand glass. Later in 1900, Veenhoff introduced the modern button clock.
  6. In 1125, a chess-playing priest invented the folding chessboard. It was forbidden for priests to play chess, and he used to hide his chessboard by folding it and looking like two books lying together.
  7. Rookies are players in the first year. The name came up from the last pieces of Chess, Rooks.
  8. The second book to be ever printed in English dialect was about chess.
  9. In 1951, Alan Turing was the first developer of the first computer program for playing chess.
  10. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves is 318,979,564,000 ways; that is, for both sides.
  11. It is also called the game of kings since Nobel and Kings only played it in the past.

Conclusion

The article above has shown the significant rules used to play chess and how you can train yourself to play. Additionally, it has explained the rules one could use or follow to succeed in chess.

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