chess (thing)

Perhaps the greatest game ever created, Chess involves two players with Sixteen pieces each trying to capture their opponents king with their pieces.

The starting position

To set up the board, each player should be facing a white square in the right corner of his side of the chessboard. Black has his pieces at the 'top' of the board (the 7th and 8th ranks - or horizontal rows), (if you are looking at a chess diagram.) and White has his Pieces at the 'bottom'. (the 1st and 2nd ranks) Whites eight pawn peices (usually the shortest peices in the chess set.) go on the 2nd rank, and blacks eight pawn peices go on the 7th rank. The rooks, (Which look like castles in most sets.) go in the corners of the board. Adjacent to the rooks are knights, (which often look like horses.) and the third file in are bishops (which look like they have a bishops hat for a 'head'.) in the middle, the queen (usually the second tallest piece.) always goes on her color, and the king sits next to her, (remember how I told you to check for the white square in the right corner? thats why.)

How The Pieces Move

1. The Pawn
   The pawn has the option of moving two spaces forward or one space forward on it's first move. The extra space it moves through must be empty. On all later moves the pawn can only move one space forward. When pawns move to capture, (or remove a piece from the board.) they must always move diagonally forward into the piece they capture. When a pawn reaches the end of the board, it must be promoted (or morphed) into a Queen, Rook, Bishiop, or Knight, and act as that piece.
   
2. The rook
   The rook moves vertically and Horizontally and can go as far as it wants to, but not thru a piece; it has to capture or stop short.
3. The Bishop
   The Bishop moves Diagonally as far as it wants to go, but like the rook, it cannot go thru pieces, it must capture or stop short..
   
4. The Queen
   The queen can move vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. She is the most powerful piece on the board. However, she cannot move thru pieces.
   
5. The King
   The King can move like the Queen however he can only move one space at a time. However, the king cannot step into a square where he could be captured by an opponent on the next turn, and also has the ability to castle with a rook. When the king is captured, (or checkmated.) the game is over.
   
6. The Knight
   The Knight is another complicated piece, the Knight moves in an L direction, and can move thru pieces, that is he can't be blocked or interposed. He always moves one square in one direction and then 2 squares in another, except back from where the knight came, if this is confusing, just imagine a domino with six dots on the chess board, quite simply, the knight moves from one corner of the domino to the other, no matter what is inbetween the two points.

1. Check and checkmate (also known as the objective.):
   
   When a player attacks the opponents king, that is can capture it on the next move if no intervention is done, the player whos king is threatened is considered 'in check', that player must then get the king out of check, by interposing (putting a piece between the king and the attacking piece), moving the king, or capturing the piece that is attacking the king. If the king cannot escape check, then he is Checkmated, and the player who has been checkmated loses.
   
2. Capturing en passant:
   
   When a players pawn passes another players pawn, if the first pawn moved two squares as it is allowed to do on it's first move, and the second pawn could have captured the pawn had it moved only one square, the second pawn may move to the square it could have captured the pawn in, and remove the first pawn from the board. This may only be done on the move directly following the first pawns move.
   
3. Castling:
   
   If the king and the rook with which the king wants to castle have not moved, the king may castle with that rook. The king moves two squares towards the rook, (this is the only move in which the king can move two squares) and the rook moves to the oppsite side of the king from which he was on. The King cannot castle thru check, that is, thru squares that are attacked by the opposing pieces.
   
4. Draw and Stalemate:
   
   Checkmate is of course not the only way a game can end, two players can opt to call the game a draw by mutual agreement, and if the players repeat the same series of moves 3 times in a row, or fifty turns pass without a piece being captured, either player can declare the game a draw. There is also the not-often-invoked 50 move rule, which ends a game in a draw after each side has made 50 consecutive moves without capturing a piece. Perpetual Check is a situation in which one player continually puts his opponent in check, and his opponent can do nothing but continually interpose the check. While this is usually a variation of the Three Fold Repetition rule, there are some instances in which it can be minipulated into not repeating itself in the same patterns.