“Every chess master was once a beginner.” (Irving Chernev)
Chess is a sequential move (one move at a time), asymmetric (players have different strategies), zero-sum game (one player’s win is the other player’s loss). It involves dimensions of space, time, “economic” value, and often personality. Space refers to how well one controls the playing area and how much of it is under control. Time is about how quickly goals can be achieved. Value pertains to the perceived or virtual worth of pieces and which pieces hold more importance on the board. These values are interchangeable; for instance, material value can be converted into space or time, and vice versa. Personality also plays a crucial role in the game: some players thrive in open and combinative situations, while others prefer strategies that focus on managing space, time, and value. According to Judit Polgár, at the highest level, chess is 40% psychology.
Chess is the most inclusive game of all: age, gender, nationality, or even impairments or disabilities do not matter. Chess is still your game, and you can learn to play at a very high level. Moreover, chess terms and expressions are universal and not dependent on language: anyone with some knowledge of how to play chess can understand a score sheet. The internationally used chess glossary is rich with mixed-language references, as you will see. For instance, we use terms like “j’adoube” (I adjust), “en passant” (“in passing”) from French, “zugzwang” or “blitz” from German, “tempo” (means time or number of moves) or “nomen nescio” (for unknown players) from Latin, “fianchetto” from Italian, “priyome” from Russian. Many openings and defenses named after the nations or places where they were first popularized: e.g., Old Indian, Brazilian, Polish, Dutch, Sicilian, Catalan, Vienna, Budapest, etc., just to name a few. Yes, there is even an Irish Gambit, too, but I do not recommend to play. Even the motto of the international chess organization emphasizes inclusion: “gens una sumus” (“we are one family”). We organize our club and training sessions with that philosophy in mind.
The Chess Board
The chessboard is an 8×8 square grid with alternating colours. The colouring helps you to correctly orient the board even if there are no markings on it. The bottom left corner of a properly oriented chessboard is always black. While the game itself remains the same, this setup is standard, and not following it might cause confusion later on.
At the beginning of the game, each player has 16 pieces: 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen, and 1 king, all placed on the board in a specific order. When facing the board, the horizontal lines are called ranks, while the vertical lines are called files. The files are labelled A to H from left to right, and the ranks are numbered from 1 to 8. White occupies ranks 1 and 2, while black occupies ranks 7 and 8. Pawns fill ranks 2 and 7 for white and black, respectively.
The correct arrangement of pieces on rank 1 for white, from left to right, is: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king(!), bishop, knight, rook. Black’s position is mirrored; from black’s perspective, the order on rank 8 from left to right is rook, knight, bishop, king(!), queen, bishop, knight, rook. For white, the king is positioned to the right of the centre file, while for black, the king is positioned to the left. The general rule is that the queen must start on her own colour: white queen on a light square and black queen on a dark square. This setup is correct only if the board is oriented properly, with the bottom left corner being a black square.
About the pieces
Every piece and their names have a story. Originally, chess was a reflection on how the (Indian) army was organised and they have some special flavours. For instance,
- Pawns (Irish: fichillín) were and still are the infantry, or the foot soldiers. The English word comes from French “paon” which also means foot soldier. Sometimes, like in Irish, the piece is called by its low value.
- Knights (Irish: ridire) were the cavalry. They operate under specific conditions and have a limited range, but they are fast. In modern terms, you might compare them to helicopters, which have similar operational patterns. The knight’s movement is unique: it is allowed to move only in an L-shaped pattern – two squares in one direction and one square in an orthogonal direction.
- Bishops (Irish: espeag) were the (war) elephants which are really hard to change direction with, and you must have kept under control. Originally they could move two squares diagonally. In certain archaic, and now hardly used translations from 19th century they were also called sharpshooters, or marksman.
- Rooks (Irish: caisel) were the chariots, a kind of early heavy cavalry. Their general behaviour and how we use them in chess similar to how the artillery is used today, but one consider them as tanks, too.
- The modern queen (Irish: banríon) was originally the advisor (Wazir – advisor or commander in chief) to the king, and it could move one square diagonally only. Later on, in the 15th century the Queen replaced the Wazir (according to source they honoured Queen Isabella of Castille with this change). In many countries, the Chief Commander is used instead of the name ”Queen” which is mostly used in Western Europe.
- The King (Irish: rí) is the most important piece of the game. Basically, the game was named after this piece. Originally, it was called “shah” (means king), and in many languages, this is the name of this game. Then English name comes from the move which threatens the king to be captured.
In Ireland, a similarly designed, but completely different game was played: the Ficheall, and the Tafl (with the arrival of the Vikings). The goal was in these, too, to capture the king.
How to move pieces
In chess, the different pieces each have their own distinct movements, but they are bound by specific rules and etiquette governing how they can move. Just like us, each piece has a certain way to do what it is meant to do. These movements are called legal moves – no illegal move is permitted. The penalties for making an illegal move in a competition will be discussed later, but as a basic rule, if an illegal move is made, the board must be restored to the last correct position. In essence, you simply cannot make an illegal move. The game begins with white making the first move, followed by alternating turns between black and white, with each player moving one piece at a time. Movement is compulsory; there is no “passing,” which is a crucial aspect of the game.
As a general rule, only one chess piece can occupy a square at a time, and it must be placed at the centre of the square. If a piece can legally move to a square occupied by an opponent’s piece, it can capture that piece by removing it from the board and taking its place. This is called capturing. You cannot capture your own pieces—there are no traitors among your ranks. Pieces can capture any of the opponent’s pieces except for the king.
If a piece moves into a position where it can theoretically (since it cannot actually do so) capture the king on the next move, it is called a “check”. A king cannot check another king, nor can it move into a position where it would be in check—these are part of the king’s “etiquette”. When in check, the opponent is obliged to make a move that removes the king from check. In this sense, addressing a check takes priority over any other moves. Note, however, that this does not necessarily mean moving the king; alternatives include capturing the piece that put the king in check, or placing another piece between the king and the threatening piece, like a bodyguard, if that is legal. The objective of the game is to place the opponent’s king in check in such a way that the opponent has no legal moves left. This is called “checkmate”. The term “checkmate” originates from the Old Persian phrase “shah mat“, meaning “the King is helpless (abandoned)” or “the King is dead.”
The Bishop. The bishop may move to any square along a diagonal on which it stands. That is, the bishop can only move on the half of the table, and it is blind to any other colour. However, it cannot move over any intervening pieces.
The Rook. The rook may move to any square along a file or a rank (columns and rows if you like) on which it stands. Similarly to the bishop, it cannot move over any intervening pieces.
The Queen. Basically it is a combination of a rook and a bishop: that is the piece can move like either being a bishop or a rook (diagonally, or along the file, or the rank on which it stands).
The Knight. The knight may move one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands, but not on the same rank, file, or diagonal. In other words, it is only allowed to move in a specific pattern: 2 squares in one direction, and 1 orthogonally to this one, i.e. 2 squares vertically and 1 horizontally, or 2 squares horizontally, and 1 vertically, in a shape of an L. While the bishop is bound to stay on the same colour during the whole game, the knight does the opposite: it always alternates the colour while moving.
The King. There are two different ways of moving the king. The most common is by moving the king to an adjoining square. But, as a first move with this piece and under special circumstances, it is allowed to move two squares towards the rook with the same colour, and placing the rook involved on the other side of the king. This move is called castling. There are two rooks, so there are two ways to castle: towards the king or towards the queen side rook. They called king side (or short side), and queen side (or long side) castling, respectively. Castling is considered a single move which involves two pieces.
As we said, there special circumstances when and how one can do castling legally. First and foremost, the castling can only be made as a move as the first move of the pieces involved. If a rook moved in a game before, the castling is not possible any more on that side. If the king moved before, the right to castle is lost for the game. Secondly, castling cannot be made over intervening pieces. Thirdly, the king has no right to castle while in check. Last, but not least, the king shall not pass through, or finish on square that is attacked by an enemy piece. In other words, the king cannot move through or into a check.
The pawn. The moving of a pawn is the more complex of all pieces. Firstly, this is the only piece in chess which only allowed to go forward. Forward means that to the side of the table toward the ranks where the adverse king started the game. It can advance one square straight ahead in general. In general, because there are several special rules which applies to pawns and pawns only. For instance, as a first and only for the first move of a pawn it is allowed to move two squares ahead. It cannot move over other intervening pieces.
It is easy to see, that a pawn eventually can advance to the “other side” to the rank where the adverse king started the game. If gets there then the pawn can be “promoted”. Promotion is a complex move involving at least two pieces, and it is considered a single move. When the pawn is promoted, one shall remove the pawn from the board, and on the square of promotion a piece other than a king or a pawn shall be placed instead. Well, in this tale, no pawn will become a king, sorry. The wonder of transformation (well, promotion) is dedicated to the pawns.
Moreover, like no other piece in chess, it cannot capture an opponent piece on a square it normally moves to, so the “capturing” rules for a pawn are quite different from the “advancing” rules. Pawns are allowed to capture pieces diagonally one square ahead, and diagonally only. Note that, they cannot move that way at all only if they capture “something”. And just to horrify any beginner, there is a special rule even for that. If you paid attention, you noticed that the pawn as a first can move two squares ahead as a single move. Look at the following situation. The circles next to the board indicates who is move.
If a pawn as a first move moves over a square that a pawn of an opposite colour attacks then the pawn which leaped over a capture zone can be captured only in the following move. This capturing method is called “en passant” (on the move) capture. In the diagrams above, there were two pawns which can capture the “escaping” white pawn, but obviously only one can capture it. If immediate after the first move of a pawn is not captured by en passant, then the right for this move is lost.