ABSTRACT

Chess is a board game

for two players. It is
played on a square
board, made up of 64
smaller squares, with 8
squares in each row and
column. Each player
starts with sixteen
pieces: 8 pawn, two
knights, two bishops,
two rooks, one queen
and one king. The goal
of the game is for each
player to checkmate the
king of the opponent.
Chess, Chess Rules & it’s History
Baheerullah Wardak
 (Chess History)
Most historians agree that the game of chess was first played in northern India during the Gupta Empire
in the 6th century AD. This early type of chess was known as Chaturanga, a Sanskrit word for the
military. The Gupta chess pieces were divided, like their military, into the infantry, cavalry, elephants,
and chariots. Over time, these pieces became the pawn, knight, bishop, and rook. The English words
chess and check both come from the Persian word shah meaning king and mat meaning mate.

The earliest written evidence of chess is found in three epic stories written in Sassanid Persia around
600AD. The game was known as chatrang or Shatranj. When Persia was taken over by Muslims (633-
644) the game spread to all parts of the Muslim world. Muslim traders carried the game to Russia and
Western Europe. By the year 1000, it had spread all across Europe. In 13th century, a Spanish
manuscript called Libro de los Ju egos described the games of shatranj (chess), backgammon and dice.

The game changed greatly between about 1470 to 1495. The rules of the older game were changed in
the West so that some pieces (queen, bishop) had more scope, piece development was faster, and the
game was more exciting. The new game formed the basis of modern international chess. Chess
historians consider this to be the most important change since the game’s invention.

(Painting by Libro de los Ju egos, a Muslim playing with a Christian)

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We mentioned before, the goal of the game is for each player to checkmate the king of the opponent.
Checkmate is a threat (‘check’) to the opposing king which no move can stop it. It ends the game.

During the game, the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the
board. One player has pieces of a light color; the other player has pieces of a dark color.

(Rules of Chess)
There are rules about how pieces move, and about taking opponent’s pieces off the board. The player
with white pieces always makes the first move. Because of this, white has a small advantage, and wins
more often than black in tournament games.

The rules of chess are governed by the World Chess Federation.

(Setup)
Chess is played on a square board divided into eight rows of squares called ranks and eight columns
called files, with a dark square in each player’s lower left corner. There are 64 squares on a chess board.
The colors of the squares are laid out in a checker pattern with light and dark squares. To make speaking
and writing about chess easy, each square has a name. Ranks are numbered from 1 to 8, and each file is
lettered from a to h. The letter assigned to a file comes before the number assigned to a rank in chess
notation. Every square on the board has its own label, such as g1 or f5. The pieces are in white and black
sets. The players are called White and Black, and at the start of a game each player has 16 pieces: one
king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.

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 (Movement)
Definitions: Vertical lines are files; horizontal lines are ranks; lines at 45 degrees are diagonals. Each
piece has its own way of moving around the board.

 The knight is the only piece that can jump over another piece.
 No piece may move to a square occupied by a piece of the same color.
 All pieces capture the same way they move, except pawns.

 The king (K for short) can move one square in any direction. The king may not move to any
square where it is threatened by an opposing piece. However, the king can move to a square
that is occupied by an opponent's piece and capture the piece, taking it off the board.
 The queen (Q) can move any distance in any direction on the ranks, files and diagonals.
 The rooks (R) move any distance on the ranks or files.
 The bishops (B) move diagonally on the board. Since a bishop can only move diagonally, it will
always be on the same color square.
 The knights (Kt or N) move in an "L" shape. Each move must be either two squares along a rank
and one square along a file, or two squares along a file and one square along a rank. It is the
only piece that can jump over other pieces. Like the other pieces, it captures an opposing piece
by landing on its square.

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  The pawns can only move up the board. On its first move a pawn may move either one or two
squares forward. A pawn captures one square diagonally, not as it moves: see white circles on
its diagram. In some situations, pawns can capture opponent's pawns in a special way called en
passant, which means in passing in French.

(Capturing)
Most pieces capture as they move. If a piece lands on an opponent's piece, the opposing piece is taken
off the board. There are three special cases:

1. The king cannot be taken (see check and checkmate).

2. No piece can be taken while castling.
3. Pawns take one square diagonally.

(Check & Checkmate)

If a move that attacks the opposing king is made, the king is said to be 'in check'. The player whose king
is in check must make a move that escapes the check. A player can't move into check. The options when
a player is in check are moving the king, capturing the threatening piece, or moving another piece
between the threatening piece and the king.

To win the game one player must checkmate the other player. Checkmate happens when the other
player's king is in check and there is no way to get out of check. The word checkmate is often shorted to
"mate". Most games end with one of the players resigning (giving up) when their position is so bad that
defeat seems inevitable.

(Special Moves)
Castling: Once in every game, each king can make a special move, known as castling. When the king
castles, it moves two squares to the left or right. When this happens, the rook is moved to stand on the
opposite side of the King. Castling is only allowed if all of these rules are kept:

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  Neither piece doing the castling may have been moved during the game.
 There must be no pieces between the squares the king and the rook.
 The king may not be currently in check. The king can't pass through any square attacked by the
opponent as well. As with any move, castling is not allowed if it would place the king in check.

En passant: En passant ('in passing' in French) is a special capture. It is only available when a pawn
moves forward two squares past an opposing pawn on an adjacent file. The opposing pawn must be on
the 5th rank from its own side. Then the opponent's pawn can capture the double-mover as if it had
only moved one square forward. This option is open on the next move only.[4]

For example, if the black pawn has just moved up two squares from g7 to g5, then the white pawn on f5
can take it by en passant on g6. The en passant rule was developed when pawns were allowed to make
their double move. The rule made it more difficult for players to avoid pawn exchanges and blockade
the position. It kept the game more open.

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Promotion: When a pawn moves to its eighth rank, it must be changed for a piece: a queen, rook,
bishop, or knight of the same color (player's choice). Normally, the pawn is queened, but in some cases
another piece is chosen to get an advantage. This is called 'under-promotion'.

(Ways a game may end)

Wins:
 Checkmate. When a king is in check, and cannot get out of it.
 Resignation. A player may resign at any time, usually because their position is hopeless. A losing
player is able to resign by placing their king on its side on the chessboard.
 Out of time. If player's clock time is over (exceeding the time control). Strictly speaking, this is
not part of the rules of the game, but part of the rules of tournament and match chess where
chess clocks are used.
 Forfeit: A player who cheats, doesn't follow the rules, or doesn't follow the rules of conduct for
a tournament can be forfeited. Sometimes, both players are forfeited.

Draws:
 Draw agreed. A game may end in a draw at any time if one player offers a draw and the other
accepts.
 Insufficient material or dead position. A position where no series of legal moves could lead to a
mate (example: K+B vs K). The game is drawn.
 Stalemate. If a player cannot make a move, and the player's king is not in check, this is also a
draw. This kind of draw is called a stalemate, and is rare.
 50-move rule. A game will also end in a draw if no piece is captured and no pawn has moved
after fifty moves. This is called the fifty-move rule, and happens late in the game.
 Threefold repetition. If the exactly same position is repeated three times during a game with the
same player to move each time, the player next to move may claim a draw. The game is now
drawn. This is called a draw by threefold repetition.

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