Chess For Dummies®

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Castling is permitted when a player’s king piece and a rook have not yet moved during the game. Castling can be performed with either rook, as long as they haven’t moved - in other words, they are still in their starting corners on the edge closest to the controlling player. If a piece lands on a space with an opponent’s piece, that piece is captured and removed from the board. Pieces cannot be placed on the same square as a piece of the same colour. When a piece captures an opponent’s piece, it must finish its current move action and end the player’s turn. The origins of chess are not exactly clear, though most believe it evolved from earlier chess-like games played in India almost two thousand years ago. The game of chess we know today has been around since the 15th century where it became popular in Europe.

The rooks are particularly powerful pieces when they are protecting each other and working together! Want to know how to play chess for beginners? Here's a basic rundown on how the rules work. In chess, each player takes turns to make a single move. Players cannot choose to skip a turn - they must move a piece. Each chess piece moves in a specific way, and must be moved according to its legal movement.If an opponent’s pawn would have been able to legally capture the moving pawn had it only moved one square instead of two, the opponent can declare en passant on their next turn and move their pawn diagonally onto the square that the pawn passed through - capturing the pawn as if it had only moved one square. You can only move one chess piece at a time when it is your turn to move - with one exception! When you castle, you move both the king and the rook in one move. Over the years, plenty of studies have been carried out looking at the benefits of chess, and researchers have claimed chess may have the ability to help fight off dementia and improve working memory. A pawn may be promoted to a knight, bishop, rook, or queen. A common misconception is that pawns may only be exchanged for a piece that has been captured. That is NOT true. A pawn is usually promoted to a queen. Only pawns may be promoted.

Knights: Move 2 squares horizontally or vertically, then 1 square to the right or left of that second square. Knights are the only pieces that jump over other pieces and only capture an opponent's piece if it's on the final square of the move. There are a number of advanced rules that can be used in chess, along with specific openings and board positions known by a variety of names, from the Double King's Pawn Opening to the famous King’s Gambit and Queen’s Gambit. The king is the most important piece, but is one of the weakest. The king can only move one square in any direction - up, down, to the sides, and diagonally. The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on one color (light or dark) and must always stay on that color. Notation was invented so that we could analyze chess games after playing them. Thanks to it, we can register the whole game in writing and reproduce it as many times as we want. We must only write down our moves and our opponent's moves correctly.Touch-move - If a player touches one of their own pieces they must move that piece as long as it is a legal move. If a player touches an opponent's piece, they must capture that piece. A player who wishes to touch a piece only to adjust it on the board must first announce the intention, usually by saying “adjust”.