Understanding the game

In chess, two players take command of armies with the object of capturing the opponent's king. Each army has 16 pieces of 6 different types: pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, a queen and a king.

Movement

Pawns may move one space forward, but they may not capture when doing so. They may also move forward diagonally one space, but only when doing so results in a capture.

Rooks may move as many spaces as they wish orthogonally (forward, backward or to the sides). They cannot jump over other pieces.

Knights may move two spaces orthogonally and then make a 90° turn and move one more space. This movement is said to resemble an 'L'. Knights, and only them, may jump over other pieces, be them enemy or ally.

Bishops may move as many spaces as they wish diagonally. They cannot jump over other pieces.

The queen can move both as a bishop and as a rook. This means moving as many spaces as she wishes either orthogonally or diagonally, but may not jump over other pieces.

The king may move one space in any direction, orthogonally or diagonally.

Special movements

In his first move, any pawn may move two spaces forward, although they cannot capture when doing so.

If a pawn has just moved two spaces in his first move and ended up by the side of an opponent's pawn, the opponent may capture it with a move called 'en passant'. To do it, he moves his pawn forward and diagonally, ending his turn in the empty space the captured pawn just rushed through.

When it reaches that last row of the board, a pawn may be promoted. It is removed from the game and any other piece, except for a new king, may be put in its place. This way it is possible for a player to control 2 or more queens or more than 3 knights, for example.

'Castling', the last of the special moves, involves moving the king two spaces towards a rook and, at the same time, moving the rook towards the king, jumping over him and landing one space beyond. It may only be done if some conditions are met: neither the king or the rook may have previously moved; there may not be any pieces between the two; the king may not be in check; and the king may not move through a space under enemy attack (a space that an enemy piece could reach in one move).

How to Play

Players must set their pieces on the spaces indicated on the board. A pla yer will control the white pieces and start the game. In his turn he must move one of his pieces to an empty space or to a space occupied by a n adversary – in this case causing a capture (see below). After his move, each player must pass the turn to his opponent.

Captures, check and checkmate

When you move a piece to a space occupied by an opponent's piece, you capture it and removed it from the game.

When a piece moves to a position where it could capture the opponent's king in one m ove, that king is said to be 'in check', and his controller must be warned about it.

When a player's king is in check, his next movement must be to free him. He may move the king from danger, for example, capture the threatening piece or place a third piece as obstacle.

A player may not move one of his own pieces if it causes his own king to be in check. If a player checks the opponent's king in a way that it has no possibility of e scape, then a 'check-mate' occurred. The game ends and the player that caused the check-mate is the winner.

Ties

Although a draw in chess is a rare event, it can occur under five conditions: