Chess History:

Many believe that chess began in Persia (It is called as Iran Now) and they strongly believe that it was found in seventh century A.D. Muslims are believed to be the originators of this game in India and a question arises that how then it went to Persia?. Some believe that chess originated in the North India slowly went to Persia through the Muslims who had business with Persia. It is believed that they brought chess to Western Europe in the 900’s. They called chess as Shatranj (Arabic word). During c 450-c 1500 playing chess was considered to be a sign of cultivation in Europe. Chess now is included in Olympics and today Chess is one of the world’s popular games and it is played by millions of people.

Setup:

Chess board is divided into 8 rows and 8 columns. Rows are called as RANKS and denoted with the numbers 1 to 8 and columns are called as FILES and denoted with letters a to h. Alternate squares are called as “Dark squares” and “light squares”. Always white moves first and that moved piece is moved to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an opponent’s piece. The game doesn’t end even white or black players conquer the opponent pieces fully, this game ends only when checkmate happens.

Pieces and its values:

Pieces are designed using certain specifications like height and diameter. The height of the king should be between 85 mm and 105 mm (3.35 to 4.13 inches). The diameter of the king should be 40 to 50 percent of its height. Sizes of other pieces are determined by the height of the king, it should be in certain proportions. 57mm is the approximate size of a square. Taking the pawn as the unit, the knight is worth 3; the bishop 3; the rook 5; and the queen 9.Thus we see that two minor piece gives better value than a rook and two rooks better than a queen and so on. The queen is considered to be the strongest. It controls 27 squares from the centre and 21 squares from a corner. It can make diagonal moves as well. The rook moves horizontally and vertically and controls 14 squares from wherever it is on the board. The bishop with its diagonal strikes controls 13 squares from the centre and only 3 from a corner. The knights with its jumping ability and L shaped attacks controls 8 from the centre and only 2 squares from a corner. The bishop can attack only the nearby enemies but the knights can attack enemies on both colored squares. The knights and bishops are both given the same value. The bishop is weaker than the rook because it can move only on squares of one color and cannot threaten enemies on the other color. The pawns with their forward only movements are assigned low value. The king has not been valued by any authority on account of his not being liable to capture or exchange. The king controls 8 squares from the centre where as from the corner it controls only 3 squares. The value of the king is not determined by its strength .The king must be safe guarded in the opening of the game. The king gains power at the end of the game when it is not in the danger of being checkmated by the opponent. A player gains advantage when the value of the enemy pieces captured by him is more than the pieces surrendered in exchange.

Moves:

Each piece has its own style and there are some limitations in the moves as well. We can see all possible moves for pieces, A pawn can move 1 or 2 square before its position and it can only move 1 square diagonally if there is an opponent’s piece. A Knight moves in the capital L shape manner. Knight can jump pieces. A queen has all possible movements i.e. it can move any number of squares front, back, side or diagonally. A bishop can move any number of squares only in diagonal direction, no straight path movements. A rook can move any number of squares to its front, back or side, no diagonal movement. A king can move to all possible immediate squares.

Opening:

Opening is an important aspect in all games and the same applies in chess too. Fate of a game is going to be decided by the opening or initial moves. Recognized sequences of moves are generally referred as Openings. There are number of openings starting from quiet play to aggressive play. There are certain things which must be carefully noted about the opening. First important aspect is to place the pieces on useful squares particularly when you place bishops and knights correctly then your going is on the right way. Take control of the square, this allows pieces to be moved to any part of the chess board. Right from the opening keep an eye on your king safety; always play safe with your king. Right from the opening move make a structure for pawn and play. Generally speaking, a player should aim to achieve the following goals in the opening: 1. The quick development of pieces particularly the knights and the bishops. 2. Mobilization of pieces to the centre 3. Safety of the king. Castling at the right time helps this.

Strategy:

Chess is a mind game and it needs good strategies to defend opponent and to beat him/her. Here are some ways for strategy, Work as if you are the coach. Master all the pieces as if like you’re the master for all. Know the value of your pieces. Player with most pieces in board has a better chance to win always. Keep a watchful eye on opponents move never take any of their moves easily. Ask yourself questions so many times, when you do a move. Always play safe with your king, do not take any risk that will affect your king safety. Never relax. Don’t relax even your hand is slightly in an upper height than your opponent’s. Think about the end game. Always think about the end game when you are playing.

Chess Strategies and Chess Tactics are different.

Tactics:

In chess tactics refers to short sequence moves which makes a great impact on opponent’s next move and leaves him in pain. Tactics generally are two move sequences; first move poses a double threat. So the opponent is unable to respond and the first player can take advantage of this.

• Fork:

A Fork is a move in which two or more pieces are attacked with one piece. Opponent piece is clueless about the attack and since it can encounter only one attack a time it is left clueless. Knights are often used for forks because of their jumping capability. Pawns are also used sometimes for forks; by moving a pawn forward it may attack 2 pieces. Queens are also used as forking pieces because it can move to all squares.

• Discovered Attack:

A Discovered Check results when a piece is removed that has been standing in between an attacking piece or a checking piece and the opponent’s king. Pin: A pin move usually done to force the opponents pieces to stay put because moving that piece would expose a piece behind it. It acts like a wall. If a pinned piece is protecting king then it cannot move at all. Only bishops, queen and rooks can pin other pieces.

• Skewer:

Skewer is almost same like Pin; this move attacks two pieces in a line. More valuable piece is in front of the less valuable piece.

• Zugzwang:

Zugzwang occurs when a player is forced to move a piece. Mostly this kind of forced moves makes the players position weaker.

• Zwischenzug:

Zwischenzug is a counter tactic. Attack on queen or king are generally called as Zwischenzug, at this time opponent has to move his/her queen or king which is under threat and this will change the situation of the game.

Chess Notations:

We start the notation from the side of White. The first square from white’s side is noted as ‘a1’ and the last square of the same row is ‘h1’. Next the notation of pieces is so easy and they have exclusive notation for each. The notation for the pieces is as follows ‘K’ for King, ‘Q’ for Queen, ‘R’ for Rook, ‘B’ for Bishop which are the first letters of the name of the pieces. It slightly changes in case of Knight as K already notes king, Knight is denoted by N. As Pawns do not have any notations they are denoted by the name of the square they move. The diagonals of the squares in the chess board cover the squares of same colors ether black or white. There are two long diagonals which run across eight squares in the board. The diagonals are named by the starting and ending square of the diagonal. One of the long diagonal is denoted as a1-h8. The movement of the pieces are noted by the combination of the symbol for the piece and the square to which they move. For example if the Knight moves to the square f6 it is denoted by Nf6.

Special Moves:

• Castling:

Castling was introduced in a chess game in fourteenth century. It is considered to be the most important move than all. It is a special defensive movement to win a game. It is the only time when a player can move more than a piece. Both the king and the rook can be moved at the same time. The king can be moved to a safer position and also the rook to the active position. Castling can be done by a player only once during a game and the following rules should be taken into account: The king and the chosen rook have not been moved before. There squares in between the chosen rook and the king should not contain pieces. The king should not be in check and should not end up in check also. The king should not also pass through a square that is under the attack of enemy. The rook may be under attack. Castling has to be done usually on a kingside. It is generally safer also. The king is moved to the edge of the board and all the pawns on the castled side are being defended. It is common for both players to perform kingside castling and very rarely queenside castling. Queenside castling takes longer time than the kingside castling.

• En Passant:

Enpassant is a French word which means PASSING. If you move your pawn two positions forward and there is a pawn on the adjacent file next to your pawn’s square after moving two squares, then opponent pawn can capture yours and move your pawn to the square which the pawn passed over.

Example:

For example, if the black pawn has just advanced two squares from f7 to f5, then the white pawn on e5 can take it via en passant on f6.

• Promotion:

Promotion is a special move in chess and it happens when a pawn reaches 8th rank. That pawn is replaced by any piece of player’s choice, that piece must be of same color. The replaced piece is kept at the same position of that pawn. Piece replaced can be queen, knight and rook. In variants such as suicide chess it is also replaced with KING. Promotion to queen is called as QUEENING and other pieces is called as UNDER PROMOTION.

End Game:

When there are few pieces left in the board then that stage is called as an end game or ending. Between the start and the game there are 3 main differences in the strategy. They are:

• During end game pawns are important. Generally end game revolves around the promotion of pawns to 8th rank.

• King becomes an important part in the end game. During this stage i.e. end game king is brought to the center of the board so that it can protect the valuable pawns and also it can attack the opposite pawns.

• The special move Zugzwang is a disadvantage because in end game player has to move a piece often.

Common types of endings:

Basic Checkmate:

Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only kings and the other side has one or two pieces and these pieces are used to attack the King. Any piece remaining can enforce checkmate on the king. But two knights cannot force checkmate but still if the side has pawns checkmate is possible.

King and Pawn Endings:

“Pawn endings are to chess as putting is to golf.”-Cecil Purdy, International Master

This type of endings involves only kings and pawns on one or both sides. In this type of ending pawns are decisive.

King and pawn versus king:

This is one of the basic end games. Result becomes draw if the defending king can reach the square in front of the pawn or the square in front of that. The king will assist the pawn in being promoted to a rook or queen.

Knight and pawn endings:

This type of endgames features clever attack by the knights to capture the opposite pawns.  Knight is the ideal piece to block a passed pawn.

Bishop and pawn Endings:

Mobility of the bishops becomes a factor if the opposing bishops go on the same color of the square. A bad bishop has the burden of defending pawns. This game ends in two different variants:

• Bishop and pawn versus bishop on the same color

• Bishops on opposite colors

Rook and pawn Endings:

This is a type of endgame in which one side has an extra pawn. This type of endgames is probably the deepest of endgames. In this type of end games most important position is called as lucena position. The side with the pawn in this position then that side wins.

Queen and Pawn Endings:

In this type of end game passed pawns have importance because the queen can escort it. These endings are extremely long affairs.

Endings with no pawns:

Besides all above methods ending also happens without pawn. This type is very rare in practice. Two most common endgames without pawns are:

• A queen versus a rook and

• A rook and bishop versus a rook

Endgame classification:

Endgames are classified according to the material on the board. Standard classification lists pieces in the following order king, queen, bishops, knights, rooks, pawn. Each piece is given an algebraic symbol. Following are the symbols given:

• a = number of White light-squared bishops

• b = number of White dark-squared bishops

• c = number of Black light squared bishops

• d = number of Black dark-squared bishops

Chess Philosophy:

Chess is an art; every move in chess is an art. Marcel Duchamp, a French artist stopped drawing and concentrated on chess because he strongly had a belief that chess is an art. How chess is related to art? Mainly an art is for solving problems which can be done using chess too. Playing chess requires a clear and steady mind and you have to be pro-active. You have to guess your opponent’s next like what it would be? Where he/she will place the piece? Etc. Another exciting feature about chess is that it teaches you to get solution to a problem. Art gets fame because of its beauty; problem solving in chess is also a beauty. Chess is an art by itself.

Chess psychology:

Chess is considered to be the game of strategy and imagination. It paves way for an individual to learn intellectual things. Playing chess improves many aspects in our brain no doubt about it. What are all the things it will improve? Those are the following, Improving Memory. -chess players generally think to improve their memory. Playing chess continuously improves memory. Improving Concentration. -basic ask from a player in this game is concentration; by continuous games it gets improved. Developing Logical Thinking. -In chess each and every move by your opponent has logic. When you play chess continuously you get those logical thinking easily. Self-Confidence. -When playing chess you become the master and you decide upon the movement of the pieces. So this attitude increases the self-confidence in you. Improving over all mental abilities. – All the chess games will test your mental strength and power. This will gradually increase your over all mental abilities. Improving ability to plan. Enhances the capacity to learn. Increases imagination and creativity.

• If you open all the games like your first game you can never win a game. You have to imagine and inject some creativity in your approach and new opening must be given to each and every game.

Valid Reasons to Play Chess:

Chess is like a battle field in which people need more analytical power than intelligence to fight and win. Playing chess needs excellent problem solving skills and there are reasons why one should play chess. Following are the reasons:

• Playing chess will increase your IQ and that is a valid and important reason for one to play chess.
• Playing chess enhances your decision making skills.
• Logical reasoning is very important in day to day activities and playing chess definitely increases it.
• It helps in improving your concentration.
• It will show path to socialization.
• Playing chess improves your creative thinking and it enriches your creativity.
• Playing chess increases your memory related skills which ultimately increases your comprehension skills.
• In chess you need to take lot of quick good decisions these will help you for corporate meeting decisions.
• Chess helps you to analyze situation and then take decision and it changes you into a pro-active person.
• Chess is the real fun.

Chess Fun Facts

Chess is a game of patience and skill. Chess is believed to come from India. The first chess board to have the black and white squares appeared in Europe in 1090. The first mention of chess in America occurred in 1641 in Esther Singletons history of Dutch settlers. The longest chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves! The number of ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000. In a chess match between Britton and Crouch in 1984, the Black player checked his opponent a whopping forty three times!

The 12th and last Emperor of Peru, Atahualpa was imprisoned by Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish in 1533 in Peru. He learned to play Chess by watching his guards play and then he started to beat them! The youngest player was Jordy Mont-Reynaud at 10 years old and 7mts. The oldest player was Oscar Shapiro at age 74. A Chinese Emperor Wen-ti was so upset that one of the pieces was called “Emperor,” that he executed two foreign players and forbade the game!

The famous Ray Charles learned the game of chess when he was hospitalized for heroin addiction. He ended up kicking the drug completely! The word “Checkmate” is used a lot in chess. The word comes from the phrase “Shah Mat”, which means “the King is dead.” At one time the church actually forbade priests from playing chess. In 1125, a chest playing monk invented the folding chess board. This way they could hide the board and it would look like books. Chess has even been played in space!

The first game was played between space and earth in 1970 by the Soyez-9 crew and ended in a draw. Chess is considered a learning tool for students and is part of the curriculum in 30 countries. One of the greatest and well known chess players was the now deceased Bobby Fischer. There