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Chess Game Rules

Chess is a strategic game that has been around for centuries. Serious chess players consider chess to be more than a game. To them, chess is a sport of the highest order -one that exercises the mind rather than the body. It isn't necessary to be a genius to play the game, as many people tend to believe. The rules, once mastered, are fairly easy to understand, and the game is fairly easy to play. Here are some of the common rules of chess and tips about playing the game for enjoyment.

Game Pieces
- The pieces in a chess game are the king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, and the pawns. Each player has two of each piece except for the king and queen, one of each. Each player has eight pawns. Rooks can move in a straight line, vertically or horizontally. You can move a rook as far as you want, as long as no other piece blocks your way.
  
  You move a knight in the shape of an L, two spaces up and one left or right. You can also move one space up and two left or right.
  
  The king can move one space in any direction, so long as no other piece blocks him or puts him in danger (check or checkmate). The queen is allowed to move in any direction, straight or diagonal, so long as she isn't blocked by another player.
  
  The bishop is allowed to move as many spaces as possible, diagonally, so long as no other piece stands in the way.
  
  Pawns can move forward one space at a time, except when capturing an opposing piece, where they are only allowed to move diagonally.
Board
- The chess board is made up of ranks and files. Ranks are rows from side to side across the chessboard and are referred to by numbers. A chessboard has eight ranks, numbered from the bottom of the board. Files are columns that go up and down the chessboard. There are eight of them. Letters are used to indicate ranks and are labeled left to right. The board consists of 64 squares made up of 32 light squares and 32 dark squares.
Object of the Game
- Chess is like a war. Players take turns moving their pieces, trying to capture pieces from the opposing side, with the ultimate goal of checkmating the king. Check is a move that puts the opposing player's king in danger, forcing the opposing player to move the king. The opposing player has no choice but to block or capture the threatening piece or to move his king if he is in check. The object is to get the opposing player's king into checkmate, which means your opponent has no safe square to which he can move his king. This ends the game. Another way to end the game is a stalemate. This means that one player has no legal moves available to him. The game is declared a stalemate.
Special Moves
- There are a couple of special moves in chess that some casual players rarely know about. One is the en passant, which is French for "in passing." This is a move by which a pawn on its fifth rank can capture another pawn if the other pawn tries to pass the first pawn on an adjacent square. The first pawn can move one square forward diagonally to capture the opposing pawn. You must make this move immediately when it becomes available or you lose the opportunity.
  
  Castling is another move few casual players know about. This move allows for two pieces to be moved at the same time. Castling is a move that safeguards the king and activates a rook at the same time. You can castle on the king's side or the queen's side, only once per game. The king moves two squares to the right or left, then you bring the rook around the king to occupy the square adjacent to the King. This move is also done to get your rook into play quicker. You can't castle if the king has already moved, if there is a piece between the king and the rook, or your king is in check.

Chess & Checkers