top of page
Writer's pictureaphsmediateam

Chess and why it is good for you♟️



What is it? - Chess is a strategy game where you and your opponent have an army of pawns, king, queen and other special pieces. This is a turn based game that can help improve your thinking outside the box and strategy is key.

Origin - Around two-hundred B.C. A Chinese man called Hán Xin invented chess but was very different from what we know now. Chess was forgotten but resurfaced in the 6th century by the Gupta Empire with the name Chaturanga which actually was a 4 player game at the time. It became what we know now in the year 1600.


The Reasons Chess Is Good For You

  • Helps you think outside the box.

  • Chess is a social game and can help find people that have similar interests.

  • Chess is a universal game and can be played all over the world.

  • Chess has a good and friendly community.

  • Chess can be competitive and casual.

  • Chess has many variants to play.

  • Chess can be played to settle down after a long day.


What Albion Park High School students think about chess:

“I like chess because it is a board game, which is completely social and I can play with others. It also helps me think about what moves I’m going to make, and strategise. Normally when you rush into something, you might accidentally fail. Chess helps you practice these skills. It is the greatest game ever!!”


So, How Does Chess Work Anyway??


The Pieces - We start with the head of the battle. The king. His starting position depends if you are white or black. If white, the king starts on the right side of the middle but if black the king starts on the left side of the middle. Now this tall powerful piece may not actually be what it seems. The king can only move 1 square a turn in any direction and play a move called ‘Castling’ before his first move which in most cases gets the king in a safer position away from the battle. This is important because if an enemy's piece is in an attacking position on the king he would have to move out of danger, this is called ‘Check’. The king doesn’t always have to move because a friendly piece could get in the way or take out the threat. But if the king has no spaces to move or no pieces to block or take the threat then the game is over which is called ‘Checkmate’.



Next is the queen which is quite the opposite of the king. Just like the king, the colour depends on the starting position. If white, the queen starts on the left side of the middle but if black the queen starts on the right side of the middle. The queen can move horizontally, vertically and diagonally in any direction if there is no piece in the way. The queen is powerful but is a threat to you and to the enemy if the queen is used at its full potential. Since the queen can move in long lines the queen can perform a move called a ‘Pin’ which is when the queen gets into an attacking position with a piece that can’t take the queen. The other part is the queen attacking a high value piece behind the piece you were originally attacking so if it moves you can take the remaining piece. But if the king is behind a piece you are attacking the piece can not move because it will be known as an ‘Illegal Move’ which is when you are doing something impossible or putting your king in danger.


We now have the castle-like piece, the rook. Rooks can only move horizontally and vertically if there is no piece in the way. You get two rooks with 1 on each of your a and h files. A special move mentioned with the king was castling which also includes rooks. If the rooks and king have not moved yet and all the backrow pieces are gone except the king and rooks the king can take two steps towards 1 of the two rooks and the rook hops over the king and gets on the other side. You will not be able to castle if an enemy piece is watching a castling spot.


We now have the bishop. Bishops can only move diagonally in 4 directions if there is no piece in the way. You get two bishops with 1 on the c file and other on the f file.


The jumping knight arrives and as described, the knight can jump over other pieces. You get two knights with 1 on the b file and g file. It moves in a ‘L’ shape, two tiles in 1 direction then 1 left or right in that direction. It can not land on friendly pieces but can jump over every piece. A very popular move you can almost do with every piece is called a ‘Fork' which is when two of the enemy’s pieces are attacked in the same move by 1 of your pieces. Could be the other way around but that was just an example. This move is in the knight section because it is the most popular with the knight.


The final piece is the pawn. People say this is the worst piece but some say it is the best. You get 8 pawns all on the second rank (second line up from start) from A - H. This piece has a cool move where it can jump two spaces forward on the pawns first turn opposed to its 1. It takes its enemies by moving diagonally once in the enemies direction. Talking about pawn movement, if a pawn is on 5th rank and if an enemy pawn move two spaces toward the pawn on the 5th rank 1 square to the left or right, the pawn on the 5th rank can go behind that pawn and take them also getting a move forward but only for that 1 turn. This is called ‘En Passant' (on-pas-on). If a pawn gets to the 8th rank it can be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop or knight which could help turn the tides in battle a lot.


Chess Notation - Chess games are recorded with special letters and numbers and each piece has a code name/letter. The board is an 8x8 grid and is lettered a to h along the X axis(➡RIGHT) which are called ‘ranks’ and 1 to 8 along the Y axis (⬆UP) which are called ‘files’. Like normal coordinates the X axis is first then the Y axis, but this is chess so the piece's letter and a special letter if used is used before coordinates. The way the piece takes is represented with a lowercase ‘x’ which would be in between the Chess piece’s name and the X axis letter. Check has a special character which is a ‘+’. Similar to check, checkmate has a ‘#’ sign. To write down who won the code would be ‘1-0’ if white won, but if black won it would just be switched for ‘0-1’. If the game ends in a draw by ‘Stalemate’, ‘Insufficient material’, ‘Agreement’, ‘Threefold repetition’ or ‘fifty-move rule’ it would be written as ‘½-½’. We will go in the same order of the introduction of the pieces, this means the king is first. The king’s chess letter is capital ‘K’ for example; Kxg4. Breaking this down, the ‘K’ means king, the ‘x’ means a capture and g4 is the position it moves to. Castling also has a special code, if you castle kingside (towards the h file) it would be ‘0-0’, meanwhile queenside (towards the a file) would be ‘0-0-0’. Next is the queen which is ‘Q’. Now the rook’s letter is ‘R’ but there are two and what if both of them could get on the same square? Imagine we have a rook on g6 and another on d7. Since there are two rooks we would write something like Reg7. Breaking this down, the ‘R’ means rook, the ‘e’ means the rook that is on the e file and g7 meaning the rook moved to that square. The bishop’s letter is ‘B’. The knight’s letter is a bit different and instead of being K it is ‘N’ because the king has the letter K and also because the knight uses the phonetic starting letter which is kNight. Last one is the pawn which has a really special letter and that letter is… Nothing, the pawn is identified by its file letter which could just be e4 which means e pawn goes to e4. The pawn has special moves and one being En Passant which can be written as cxb6 and has an optional variant which is just like a normal move but adds e.p. to the end, for example; gxh3 e.p.. We also have promotions which can be written as a8Q, a8=Q, a8(Q) or a8/Q. Which this all means the a pawn moves to a8 and promotes to a queen.

The Game - Two sides, white and black pieces on the checkerboard. White plays first then black plays until checkmate. Only if it was that simple, but to play chess you need strategy and traps to capture and destroy the enemy. Normally the game will start out with some pawn movements and develop into an ‘opening’ (the starting of the game with many variants and different ways which is the most important part of a game). One of the most popular openings are e4 with white and a popular responding move is e5 with black (Double King’s Pawn Game). Chess is a big game with lots of friendly people playing this amazing game across the world.

The Reasons Chess Is Good For You

  • Helps you think outside the box.

  • Chess is a social game and can help find people that have similar interests.

  • Chess is a universal game and can be played all over the world.

  • Chess has a good and friendly community.

  • Chess can be competitive and casual.

  • Chess has many variants to play.

  • Chess can be played to settle down after a long day.

Glossary

  • Agreement - When 1 of the players requests a draw and the other player accepts. It is called agreement which ends in a draw.

  • B - The Chess notation for the piece Bishop.

  • Castling - When a player decides to move the king to safety two steps left or right with the rook that the king walked toward next to the king on the open side.

  • Check - When the king is threatened by an opposing piece but can move or get to safety.

  • Checkmate - When the king is threatened by an opposing piece but can not get any safety.

  • En Passant - A French move when an opposing pawn moves two squares forward and moves next to yours which allows a capture on that move.

  • Fifty-Move Rule - When there are no captures or pawn moves within the span of 50 moves. This results in a draw.

  • Files - The columns of a Chess board numbered 1-8.

  • Fork - When two pieces are in danger by the same opposing piece.

  • Illegal Move - A move that can not be performed because of it not being moveable to the pieces moveset or endangers the king.

  • Insufficient Material - When both players do not have enough pieces to checkmate. For example; King and bishop are not able to checkmate the opposing king even if the opposing king has nothing. This results in a draw.

  • K - The Chess notation for the piece King.

  • N - The Chess notation for the piece Knight.

  • Opening - The start of a Chess game. There is more than 1000 openings

  • Pin - When a piece is attacked and has another piece behind it. If the king is behind a queen for example and an opposing rook is attacking the queen and king; the queen is not able to move out of the way.

  • Q - The Chess notation for the piece Queen.

  • R - The Chess notation for the piece Rook.

  • Ranks - The rows of the Chess board lettered a-h

  • Stalemate - When a player has no legal moves on their turn. This results in a draw.

  • Threefold Repetition - Threefold Repetition occurs when the same position is played three times in a game. This results in a draw.

  • x - The Chess notation for a piece capture.

  • + - The Chess notation for Check.

  • # - The Chess notation for Checkmate.

  • 0-0 -The Chess notation for castling Kingside.

  • 0-0-0 -The Chess notation for castling Queenside.

  • 1-0 -The Chess notation for white winning.

  • 0-1 -The Chess notation for black winning.

  • ½-½ - The Chess notation for a draw.

Leyland Strandberg-

8 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page