Instruction

New: The Rules of Chess

For those who are absolute beginners to the game of chess, please visit Learn to Play Chess at the United States Chess Federation website. You can either use the read-only document, or play through the Java-enabled player.

Chess Notation

After learning the rules of chess, it is necessary for the serious student to learn how to record his or her games. Recording provides you with a means to examine your game by yourself, with your opponent, with a coach, or with chess software to find out what you did well in the game and what you could have done better.

The board:

The board is divided into vertical rows, known as files, and horizontal rows, named ranks. For White, the left-most file is named "a," the second "b," and onto "h." For Black, the left-most file is "h," the next is "g," and so forth to "a."

White sets up on the first and second ranks, while Black sets up on the seventh and eight ranks. So, the White square on White's righthand side is "h1," while Black's righthand square is "a8." Note that the letter always appears before the number.

This system is known as algebraic. (There are other systems of recording, but this is the shortest and most common way of recording today.)

The pieces:

Most of the pieces on the board are given a symbol to identify them. They are:

• K for King
• Q for Queen
• R for Rook
• B for Bishop
• N for Knight (since the K is already being used by the King).

The pawns are the only pieces not given a unique identifier.

The moves:

One of the best first moves for White is to move the Pawn in front of the King from square e2 to e4. This is written as 1. e4.

Black will often push his King pawn two squares forward, and this is known as 1...e5.

2. Nf3. The Kingside Knight moves to f3. Note that the letter appears first, then the square to which the piece moves.

2....Nc6. The Queenside Knight moves to c6.

3. d4. The Queen pawn is pushed two squares.

3...exd4. Here is an example of a capture by a pawn. Since the Pawn has no capital letter designating itself, you use the letter of the square from which the pawn moves, followed by an "x," followed by the square to which the pawn moves.

4. Nxd4. We again use the letter first, followed by an "x," followed by the square to which the Knight moves.

Okay, here are a few more important pieces of notation.

O-O for Kingside castle.

O-O-O for Queenside castle.

+ for check. If a move creates a check, place the plus sign after the move. For example, Qxh7+.

# for checkmate. If a move creates a checkmate, add the pound sign after the move. For example, Qxh7#.

To make each chess move unambiguous, sometimes you need to add an extra letter of number to designate a piece. This happens when two Knights, two Rooks, or two Queens can move to the same square on the board.

For example, if you have two Rooks, one on a1, the other on f1, and you want to move the a1 Rook to c1, you would have to designate this move as Rac1. If you were moving the other Rook, it would be Rfc1.

New! Record the time on your clock, as well as your moves.

It will help you in post mortem analysis to mark the time remaining on the clock. I finished a complex game recently, and by noting the time interval between moves, I have a good idea of which moves required more of my attention. This could also be helpful if you are sharing your score with a chess coach. He or she can advise you where it might be necessary to spend more or less time on a particular move or phase of the game.

Check, Checkmate, and Escape Squares

I was doing an impromptu chess lesson in which I was using Laszlo Polgar's "Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games." (The first chapter contains over 300 mate in one problems.) Before even looking at White's move in one of the mate in one puzzles, my student corrected observed that to checkmate, five different squares (potential escape squares) had to be covered. I was very impressed that she noticed that without prompting!

Play Bughouse!

It is key for any chessplayer to develop a sharp, tactical eye in order to win material and checkmate their opponent. Bughouse is a terrific game to develop those skills. I have introduced this game to a couple of groups of my students, and they have responded by looking for checkmating attacks more quickly. I have a link to this from my links page.

This is a team game in which one member plays White, the other Black. When the White player captures a Black piece, the White player hands that piece to his or her teammate. The Black player, on his or her turn, can make a normal move or place a piece on the board. This game is played under short time controls, so it gets wild!