CHESS: Rules and Strategies

It’s a game played between two players, each player having 16 pieces. One player has white pieces, who takes the first turn, while the other player has black pieces which are: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.

Aim: The basic objective is to kill the opponent’s king. You don’t actually kill the king but put him in such a position that it’s not possible for him to move in any direction. That’s called Check Mate.

The board: The board has 64 squares in a 8 by 8 grid. Each player initially arranges the 16 pieces in the first two rows in the following order starting from the corner

Rook
Night
Bishop
Queen
King
Bishop
Night
Rook

The pawns are placed in the second row.
NOTE: the two kings should not be on the same vertical column i.e. the king of one player should be facing the queen of the other and vice versa.

Playing the game: The two players make moves in an alternate fashion. A move means to place one piece on a different square, following the basic rules of movement of chess for that piece. An opponent’s piece can be killed by moving one of your pieces to that square on which the piece to be killed is kept. That piece is eliminated from the game thence.
If a King endangered with capture, there are three ways to escape
1)  Kill the threatening piece
2) Block the path between the threatening piece and the king
3) Move the king from his position

Winning:
You can win either my Check-Mating the opponent or if the opponent chooses to quit

Draw:

The match is considered drawn if the king is not under check but at the same time cannot make any legal move. The situation is termed “Stalemate”.
The match is also considered a draw if any of the following happens:

• Both the players agree to do so.
• Only pieces left on the chess board are the two kings
• King versus king with either bishop or knight;
• One King and one bishop against another king and another bishop, with both bishops on the same colour diagonal.

A player can also claim a draw if he manages to move the same player to the same position three times repeatedly in a game.
OR
There are have been 50 consecutive moves of both white and of black with neither of the following happening

• any piece killed
• any pawn moved

Losing:
You loose the game if your king is under attack and you cannot make any of the three moves stated above. You also loose the game if you do not make a minimum no. of moves is a fixed time unless your opponent only has his king left with him, in such a case the game is considered drawn.

Strategies
Basically a good chess game consists of three parts: The opening, the middle game and the endgame. The opening game is about bringing forth your pieces and preparing them for the battle. The middle game is about the calculations and anticipations of the moves that you have to make and also that your opponent is going to make. Endgame is when you don’t have much of your pieces left on your side and similar is the condition of your opponent. In that case you can think of moving your king forth and even make use of him for the protection of your other pieces.

Apart from those a few other strategies are

• Bringing forth you Queen and your Bishop very early in the game and surprise the opponent by invading his territory and by eliminating a few of his pawns.
• Surrounding the King by pawns and by a few other pieces like the knight or the Rook and taking the rest to the pieces to attack.
• An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Keep eliminating the pieces and get your same pieces eliminated as well unless you feel that its about time I applied some strategy.
• Be very careful as to which piece of the opponent might kill your piece which you intend to move.
• Do not make moves in a haphazard manner, have a plan right from the very beginning as keep changing it as per the opponent’s counter if needed.