Adapted + Condensed from Master Class

History

The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to Persia. Following the Arab invasion and conquest of Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Spain and the rest of Southern Europe. The game evolved roughly into its current form by about 1500 CE.

"Romantic chess" was the predominant playing style from the late 18th century to the 1880s.[1] Chess games of this period emphasized quick, tactical maneuvers rather than long-term strategic planning.[1] The Romantic era of play was followed by the Scientific, Hypermodern, and New Dynamism eras.[1] In the second half of the 19th century, modern chess tournament play began, and the first official World Chess Championship was held in 1886. The 20th century saw great leaps forward in chess theory and the establishment of the World Chess Federation. In 1997, an IBM supercomputer beat Garry Kasparov, the then world chess champion, in the famous Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov match, ushering the game into an era of computer domination. Since then, computer analysis – which originated in the 1970s with the first programmed chess games on the market – has contributed to much of the development in chess theory and has become an important part of preparation in professional human chess. Later developments in the 21st century made the use of computer analysis far surpassing the ability of any human player accessible to the public. Online gaming, which first appeared in the mid-1990s, also became popular in the 21st century.

Precursors to chess originated in India.[3] There, its early form in the 7th century CE was known as chaturaṅga (Sanskrit: चतुरङ्ग), which translates to "four divisions (of the military)": infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry. These forms are represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.[4]

Chess was introduced to Persia from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility.[5] Around 600 CE in Sassanid Persia, the name for the game became chatrang (Persian: چترنگ), which subsequently evolved to shatranj (Arabic: شطرنج; Persian: شترنج) after the conquest of Persia by the Rashidun Caliphate, due to the lack of native ch and ng sounds in the Arabic language.[6] The rules were developed further during this time; players started calling "Shāh!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shāh Māt!" (Persian for "the king is helpless" – see checkmate) when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands.

Pieces on the Board

Pawn

• Weakest piece
• starts on each players second rank [2 + 7]
• First move. The first time a pawn moves, it has the option of moving one square forward or two squares forward. After a pawn’s first move it may only move one space a time. You do not have to move forward two spaces on your first move though.
• Capturing. The pawn is the only one of the chess pieces that can capture other pieces in a method that’s different from how it normally moves. The pawn captures by moving one square diagonally forward to the left or right.

Knight

• 3 points
• knights move in an “L-shape”—that is, they can move two squares in any direction vertically followed by one square horizontally, or two squares in any direction horizontally followed by one square vertically.
• Only piece that can jump over other pieces
• Knights are most effective in the center of the board

Rook

• A rook may along ranks or files (that is, horizontally or vertically) any number of occupied spaces per move.

Bishop

• The bishop chess piece moves in any direction diagonally. Chess rules state that there is no limit to the number of squares a bishop can travel on the chessboard, as long as there is not another piece obstructing its path.
• seek out open diagnols
• Good bishops vs. bad bishops : Bishops are referred to as “good” and “bad” based on their position relative to their pawns. If the majority of your pawns are on the same color square as your bishop, that bishop is typically regarded as a “bad bishop” because its movement and influence is restricted by the pawns. Conversely, a bishop that occupies the opposite color as the majority of your pawns is considered a “good bishop” as it is able to move freely and exert more influence over the chessboard. Though a good bishop is generally considered to be more advantageous, a bad bishop can often be useful in defending a pawn.

King

• can move in any direction. That said, it can only move one square at a time.
• the king can never move into a square that’s being attacked by an opponent’s piece. (I.e., the king can never place itself in check)

Queen

• queen always begins on her own color
• most valuable piece
• the queen may move any number of unoccupied squares in any direction -- horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, giving her the greatest range of legal moves in the game.

Types of Pawns

• Passed pawn. A passed pawn is a pawn that cannot be stopped by any opposing pawns on its way to promotion. A passed pawn has the potential to be an extremely powerful piece in the endgame, as the threat of promotion creates a major disadvantage for your opponent.
• Connected pawn. Connected pawns are two or more pawns that are diagonally adjacent and therefore are able to protect one another. Connected pawns represent one of the most powerful pawn structures, as they are protected from enemy pieces and can restrict their movement.
• Backward pawn. A backward pawn is a connected pawn that cannot move forward without being captured by an opponent’s pawn. Backward pawns represent a positional disadvantage, as they cannot be safely advanced.
• Isolated pawn. An isolated pawn is a chess pawn that cannot be protected by any of your other friendly pawns. Isolated pawns are particularly susceptible to attacks by an opponent’s piece. When you’re at the beginning of the game or the middlegame, isolated pawns can be protected by other major pieces, but may prove to be a fatal weakness in the endgame.
• Doubled pawns. Doubled pawns are two pawns of the same color that occupy the same file. This pawn structure is one of the weakest, as the pawns are not able to defend each other and can both be blocked by one of your opponent’s pawns.
• Hanging pawns. Hanging pawns are two pawns on adjacent files that are separated from all the other pawns. On the one hand, hanging pawns can be advantageous, as they can control key squares, but they also are vulnerable to attack and must be defended by major pieces.
• Pawn majority. A pawn majority refers to having more pawns than your opponent on one side of the board. For example, if you have three pawns on the kingside compared to your opponent’s two, you have a “kingside majority,” and if you have more pawns than your opponent on the queenside then you have a “queenside majority.” Pawn majorities are valuable, as they can effectively control one side of the board or lead to a passed pawn through a series of exchanges and pawn takes.

Chess Notation

Parts of the Game

Opening: The opening is like in a baseball game when all of the players are warming up before the game starts, people slowly start coming in. Except in a chess game the game has started and the players (pieces) are taking their positions trying to gain positional advantages.

Follow the Opening principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key

Ø Complete your development before moving a piece twice or starting an attack.

Ø Move pieces not pawns.

1. Castle
2. Connect your rooks

Ø By move 12, you should have connected your Rooks, or be about to do so.

Middle Game: The middle game starts once the majority of the minor prices have be captured (knights, bishops, e.c.t). It is when you begin to worry about material advantages as well as positional.

End Game: It is unclear when the end game starts but it is when few pieces are still on the board and you are trying to win that wining point before the other team does.

Castling

Castling is a special rule that allows your king to move two spaces to its right or left, while the rook on that side moves to the opposite side of the king. There must be a number of unoccupied squares between the rook and the king, and, critically, the rook and king cannot have moved from their starting positions.

FIDE, the international organization governing the rules of chess, defines castling this way: “This is a move of the king and either rook of the same color along the player’s first rank, counting as a single move of the king and executed as follows: the king is transferred from its original square two squares towards the rook on its original square, then that rook is transferred to the square the king has just crossed.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcLYgXCkucc

Promotion:

If a pawn reaches the opposite side of the board, it can be promoted to a piece of the player’s choosing—a rook, a bishop, a knight, or a queen—and is immediately replaced by the new piece. In this scenario, it’s rare for anything other than the queen—the most powerful piece—to be chosen as the replacement.

Pawn Promotion | How to Play Chess #shorts

“EN- PASSANT”

En passant —French for “in passing”—is an unusual rule that applies specifically to pawns and involves a special move. Let’s say you’re playing as white and you choose to move your pawn two squares forward on its first move. If on that move, the pawn lands on a square adjacent to a black pawn on its fifth rank, the enemy pawn may still capture the white pawn. The capture must be made immediately on the next move, or the right to capture en passant is forfeit. If an en passant  capture is the only legal move that can be made, it must be played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q7lZilVy04