Playing Chess

The game of chess is thousands of years old. Chess went from being a sport that was enjoyed by only the wealthy and intellectual to a mainstream one that millions people from all countries of the world play. Learning how to play chess is a complicated process but many choose to learn how anyway. Chess is a challenging game that relies heavily on logic and it is even said to increase a child’s ability to problem-solve and perform mathematics.

• Playing chess can be fun or competitive, depending on the individual’s view on the sport. The first step when playing chess is setting up the chess board. There are one opponent on either side of the chess board and each opponent has 16 chess pieces. Each player gets eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, a king and queen. To play chess, one should be aware of what the basic legal movements and functions of each of the these pieces are, since they are all different.

• Some of the chess pieces have much more freedom when it comes to navigating the board while other chess pieces have limited movement. The queen is entitled to move in any direction for as many spaces possible while the king is only allowed one move in any direction. Each person’s chess pieces are set up along the two checkered rows on the board that is closest to the player. One player is the white team and the other is the black team. The white team always moves a chess piece first. The reason to play chess is to capture the king, by cornering the chess piece in a way in which it has no escape.

• No chess piece is allowed to occupy a square that already holds one of its fellow chess pieces. In other words, a chess piece can only land on a square that has an enemy player on it. If a chess piece lands on a square which is occupied by a piece from the other team, then that enemy chess piece is captured and becomes property of the capturing team.

• To play chess and win means to capture the enemy’s king piece. This is accomplished by performing checkmate. A checkmate is situation in which the king cannot avoid being captured because he is surrounded by chess pieces of the opposing team. Once the king is in the checkmate position than the game is over.

The king doesn’t have to actually be captured for a checkmate to occur. A chess game can also end without a winner, if the opponents declare a draw. A draw occurs when there are no more moves that can be made to play chess in the particular game.