Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a checkerboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. Played by millions of people worldwide, chess is believed to be derived from the Indian game. Chess was also called the "Game of Kings" for a very long time in the past, as the Nobel and Kings played it.
Rules of chess may seem convoluted at first, but they are quite simple. Chess is a board game played between two players– White and Black–who alternate turns. White always moves first, and the players move one piece at a time until one side captures the enemy's king.
It's never too late to learn how to play chess - the most popular game in the world! Learning the rules of chess is easy.
The most important thing that one needs to understand while learning to play the game of chess is the pieces that make up the game. It is after you figure out how each piece moves and what their importance is, you can manage to plan through a game. Good chess players do not even have to think how each piece moves, since they already have that at the back of their minds. What they do is plan, even multiple moves in advance, and excel at changing their gameplay according to a given situation.
The elements of chess are classified into below parts:
Pawns:
"Pawn, the game-changer" – was said by the famous Vishwanath Anand.
It is the smallest but important and effective element of the game. If the pawn is use properly, then it can change the whole game. It's like since small things matter a lot.
The pawn is the most significant piece in the game of chess, and in most circumstances, also the weakest. Each player begins a game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces.
It is used as a shield in the game for the king. It plays an important role in defense and attacks.
Placement and movement
Unlike the other pieces, pawns cannot move backwards. Normally a pawn moves by advancing a single square, but the first time a pawn moves, it has the option of advancing two squares. Pawns may not use the initial two-square advance to jump over an occupied square or to capture. Any piece immediately in front of a pawn, friend or foe, blocks its advance.
This little element has one special power which can surprise you, and it has the power of occupying other pieces after completing eight squares, even the queen. This is the special power known as "Pawn Power".
Rooks:
There are two rooks in a set of chess. Rooks look like a castle, and in some parts of the world, they are also known as a castle. These are the most versatile pieces of chess.
Visualize the Rook as a tower with archers in it, able to shoot across the land. Similar to this metaphor, the rooks move across the board both up and down & side to side.
Placement and movement
The Rook can move only in 4 directions in the game of chess, up & down, and side to side. Can move as many spaces up & down or side to side until either reaching the other end of the board or coming in contact with another piece.
Capturing
The Rook can capture any piece within its direct line of movement. It makes the very powerful piece on the chessboard. The Rook and king also take part in a special move called castling.
Knights:
There are two knights in every team in chess. A knight is a piece which is represented by the head and neck of a horse. It is located between the rooks and bishops.
The knight is the trickiest piece in chess! It moves very differently than other pieces and can deliver the dreaded fork or even a smothered mate.
Placement and movement
Compared to other chess pieces, movement is unique: it may move two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically.
It moves in an L pattern, two squares in one direction and then one square in another. It is the only piece in chess to be able to jump over other pieces. It is also the only piece that can be in a position to attack a king, queen, bishop, or Rook without also being attacked by that piece. Because of this, the Knight plays forks well in a game of chess.
Capturing
Knights capture in the same way, replacing the enemy piece on the square and removing it from the board. Knight and pawn are the only pieces that can be moved in the initial position
Queen:
The queen is the second-most piece in the whole set. Unlike the king, it does not have a cross on the top. The queen can move any number of spaces in any direction until it reaches the end of the board or tills it kills a piece of the opponent army. It makes the Queen one of the most lethal pieces in the set. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. Because the queen is the strongest piece, a pawn is promoted to a queen in the vast majority of cases
King:
The king is less powerful than almost every chess piece, but it is also unique: the king is the only piece that can never be captured! Players cannot make any move that places their king in check.
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