Lesson01

How to Play Chess

The chess pieces are made in two teams, the light team, and the dark team. Usually the pieces are white vs. black. Each player picks their color and then sets up their 16 chessmen on the chessboard. To play the game, we move our chessmen around on the chessboard. When making their move, a chess piece sometimes has the option to capture an enemy piece. All they need to do is make their unique move, land in an enemy pieces square, and then send that player off the board. In fact, any of the chessmen are capable of a capture! With that in mind check out the lessons below. Some of the pictures are links so enjoy your clicking!

Each piece has a value in points. The point value showes the strength of the piece. It is good to be ahead in points, but it does not win the game. The only way to win is to Checkmate the opponents King. The next few pages explain this. Keep an eye on your points though and be careful when trading your pieces for the opponents. Make sure you dont get a bum deal!

The King

The King is invaluable. He is worth INFINITY because your game depends on his safety. Be careful not to let him get checkmated, as that will end the game!

The Queen

The Queen is Worth NINE points. She is a major piece. Remember that she is the most powerful piece on the board, so be careful with her.

The Rook

The Rook is worth FIVE points. He is also a major piece. He is very strong and loves to snatch pawns during the endgame. Mmmmm. Yummy.

The Bishop

The Bishop is worth THREE points. He is considered a Minor Piece. The Bishop and Knight may look to be worth the same in the beginning of the game, but value changes according to positional features in a game.

The Knight

The Knight is worth THREE points. He is also a Minor Piece. The battle between Knight versus Bishop is a very important battle in games.

The Pawn

The Pawn is worth ONE point. He is not the strongest of pieces due to his limited movement, but much strategy is based on the structure of pawns.

Chess Board

Chess is a game played between two players that take turns moving their pieces. The chessboard has squares (64 squares) that the pieces move in. The chess board is also checkered and has alternately colored squares.

You should always arrange your chessboard with a white square on your right hand side. It's the first rule for us to remember.

Your chess board may have letters and numbers on it. This is used to write down our games which we will learn how to do later. Make sure that the rows with the number 1 and 2 is where you set up the white pieces.

Chess Men Setup

All of our players have a place to start the game. When we set up our chessboard, we have to make sure that we follow these two rules:

1.White square on the right hand side
2.Queen on her color to start
(light queen, light square - dark queen, dark square)

The orange arrows show the direction that the teams' pawns move in.