How to: Chess [Part 1]

Good day Amazing Steemians! Hope we are all doing great and having great days.

Today I will be teaching us how to play a game I really love, and learned to play when I was very young.
Okay, a little bit of backstory here...

I was taught to play Chess when I was about 5-6 years old, by my mother, who has played chess for over 30 years and is actually really good. Everyone in my family actually plays chess, except my father – who plays checkers instead – and we were all taught by my mom, who was taught by her father, also at a young age.

In my family, my mother remains the family grandmaster. She is getting some heavy competition from my elder brother of recent though, who is also a very strategic thinker, and has polished his chess playing ability over time.

Anyways, back to the tutorial...

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ORIGIN

Chess is a two-player strategy game, actually of unknown origin, although the game has been around for many, many centuries. It is thought, by many scholars, to have originated in India, sometime in the 7th century CE, from which it moved to Persia and eventually to Southern Europe.

Objective of the Game

The game has a simple objective, which is to “checkmate” your opponent. This is done by setting up your pieces within the game, against your opponent, in such a way that their King is threatened and cannot be relieved. According to Wikipedia, “To win the game, you must "checkmate" your opponent by moving your pieces such that the opponent's king faces a threat of capture that can't be eliminated.” ^Source

Another important objective of the game, is the capture of your opponents pieces, until there is none but the king left.

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As with any game, there are a set of rules of playing, and with chess, these are fairly simple and easy to learn and master. However, chess goes beyond playing by the rules, as one has to incorporate strategic and critical thinking, if one wants to have any chance at winning good players (like my mother.)

SETUP

The first thing we would be looking at, as regards the Chess game, is the game setup. The game is played on a setting – most often a wooden or metallic board, sometimes a mat – of 8 x 8 squares of alternating colours - black and white. (Note: This is essentially the same setting for checkers/draught and some other games.)

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These squares form columns and rows, which are labelled vertically, from A to H, which are called the Ranks, and horizontally from 1 to 8, which are called the Files. This means there are horizontal rows 1-8, and vertical columns A-H. This gives each square a specific reference code, or name. For example, the squares may be named a8, or f6, or e1.

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The chess set also consists of 32 pieces; 16 white pieces and 16 black. One color set for each player.

Within each set of 16 pieces, there are 8 pieces called Officials and 8 Pawns.

White Pawn^Source

Black Pawn^Source

The officials consist of 1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights and 2 Rooks (also called Castles.)

White King^Source

Black Queen^Source

White Bishop^Source

Black Knight^Source

Black Rook^Source

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How to set up the Pieces on the Board

• The Board should be positioned towards each player such that the A-H columns face the players directly, and the 1-8 rows are by the side. If this is done correctly, there would be a white square in the right corner of each player’s view of the board, and a black one on the left.

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• On the last rows (the 1 and 8 rows) are where the Officials are placed and the rows in front of them (the 2 and 7 rows) are where the Pawns are placed.

• The Pawns are first lined up on the 8 squares of the 2 and 7 rows.

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• The 2 Rooks are then placed in both corner squares. This would be a1 and h1 on one side, and a8 and h8 on the other side.

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• The Knights are placed beside the rooks, on either side i.e. b1 and g1 on one side, b8 and g8 on the other.

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• The Bishops are then placed beside the Knights, on both sides as well i.e. c1, f1; c8, f8.

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• The Kings and Queens are then placed side by side, beside the Knights. It’s important to note the ways the Kings and Queens are placed, because this can get confusing. The Kings on opposing sides face each other, as do the queens. However, the White Queen stays on a white square, and the Black on black. For the Kings, it is inverted. White King on black square, and Black on white.

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• The Chess Board is now set for playing.

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In the next post, I will explain how the pieces on the Chess board move and how the game is actually played.

Thanks for reading through and for your upvotes.

@whitestallion
@campusconnectng