Rules of Chess
Chess is played by two people on the standard chess board, with 32 pieces (16 pieces per player) of six different tpyes. Each type of chess piece moves in a distinct way of its own. The goal of Chess is to 'checkmate' your opponent. That is by placing their king in a position where he is unable to be moved from 'check'.
Besides the basic movement of pieces, rules also govern hte equipment used, the time control, the conduct and ethics of players as well as procedures for irregularities that occur during a game.
A chess board consists of 64 squares (8x8) of alternating color, the lighter colored squares are called "light" or "white" and the darker colored squares are called "dark" or "black". 16 "white" and 16 "black" pieces are placed on the board at the start of the game, the board is placed so that a white square is in each players near right corner and a black in the near left.
Each player has control of one of the two sets of colored pieces, the white moves first and as in most board games, the players alternate moves. Making a move in Chess is compulsory, it is not legal to "pass", even when moving is detrimental.
Movement
Each piece in Chess has it's on style of moving, moves are made to vacant squares except when capturing an opponent's piece.
Pieces are unable to jump over each other, other than the knight, which is the only piece allowed to do so. When a piece is captured, the attacking piece replaces the enemy piece on its square. The captured piece is then removed from the game and may not be returned to play for the remainder of the game. The King is the only piece that cannot be captured.
- The King can move exactly one square horizontally, vertically or diagonally. At most once in every game, each king is allowed to make a special move known as 'castling'.
- The Rook moves any number of vacant squares vertically or horizontally, it also is moved while castling.
- The Bishop moves any number of vacant squares in any diagonal direction.
- The Queen can move any number of vacant squares diagonally, horizontally, or vertically.
- The Knight moves to the nearest square not on the same rank, file, or diagonal. In other words, the knight moves two squares like the rook and then one square perpendicular to that. Its move is not blocked by other pieces, i.e. it leaps to the new square.
- Pawns have the most complex rules of movement:
- A pawn can move forward one square, if that square is unoccupied. If it has not yet moved, the pawn has the option of moving two squares forward provided both squares in front of the pawn are unoccupied. A pawn cannot move backward.
- Pawns are the only pieces that capture differently from how they move. They can capture an enemy piece on either of the two spaces adjacent to the space in front of them (i.e., the two squares diagonally in front of them) but cannot move to these spaces if they are vacant.
Check
When a players King piece is placed in a position where it can be captured it is said to be 'in check'. The definition of check is that one or more opposing pieces could theoretically capture the king on the next move. If a players king is in check then the player must make a move that will remove it from check, a player may never leave his king in check at the end of his move. This can be done by moving the king to a square where it is no longer threatened, capture the treatening piece or placing a piece between the king and the opponent's threatening piece.
In the case of double check, when there are two pieces attacking the king, only a king move will get out of check; the king may capture an enemy piece.
In informal games, it is customary to announce check when making a move that puts the opponent's king in check. However, in formal competitions check is rarely announced.
End of the Game: Checkmate
If a player's king is placed in check and there is no legal move that player can make to escape check, then the king is said to be checkmated, the game ends, and that player loses.
Unlike other pieces on the chess board, the king piece is never actually captured or removed from the board because checkmate ends the game.
