Learn to Play Chess – Chess Rules Explanation

When you learn to play chess, you are also learning about strategy. These strategies are governed by the rules that make up how the entire game works. 

The Chess Board

Familiarizing yourself with the chessboard can help you navigate it when you are learning to play chess. There is a total of 64 squares, and you can easily track your movements through the use of coordinates composed of letters and numbers.

 The Goal

 In this two-player game (black vs. white), both players have 16 equal pieces. Their attacks and moves of defense are anchored on the ultimate goal of capturing the opponent’s king. To begin the game, the white player moves first, and then both players take turns. There is no option to ‘pass’ when it is your turn to move, so it is a good strategy to plan your possible moves well in advance.

 The Endgame

 Chess is a balance of attack and defense. In most cases, when you are too focused on aggressively attacking the opponent, your king is vulnerable. Therefore, it’s important to find ways to protect the king and get the king out of a dangerous situation. Otherwise, it’s a “checkmate,” and you lose. 

Another situation called “stalemate” can also happen. It is a type of draw when you don’t have any legal moves left, but your king is not “checked.”  

Learning to play chess is a journey of discovery and discipline. It is also a way to teach children with special needs how to follow the rules and set their goals. With these rules, a player can fully understand the challenge and the feeling of being immersed in the world inside the board. Similarly, chess reflects the importance of abiding by the rules in everyday life, making it a good game for children.

Chess Tutor – Important Chess Tactics That Every Chess Player Must Know

Learning chess can be fun and rewarding, as it can help you play better and improve your chance of winning more games. With the right chess tutor, the learning experience can be much better, especially when they are able to increase your confidence in applying and mastering critical tactics and strategies used by every seasoned player. Here are some of the important chess tactics you should know:

• Castle the king – This is one of the tactics a chess tutor will teach you. Castling will keep the king safe, and in some cases, it may allow you to create weaknesses on opponent’s king. Most action happens in the center of the board, and castling moves the king away from that. This will enable you to bring the rooks quickly to the center, too.
  
• Have an escape square – Create this if your king is castled and there are no pieces protecting the back rank. That way, you can prevent your opponent from checkmating you on the back rank.

• Skewer – To skewer is a combination of moves where a single piece attacks two of the pieces from the opponent and lined up on one rank, diagonal, or file. The way the pieces are lined up allows you to attack the more valuable piece, and it is likely to retreat and expose a piece that is less valuable, which can be captured in the move.

• Pin – Your chess tutor can teach you how to pin. It may seem like a skewer, but it attacks the less important piece first. This should temporarily disable that piece, and because it cannot move, a more important piece is likely to get exposed and easier to capture.
  

Develop your chess strategy and learn important tactics by signing up for chess lessons. A chess tutor can help you learn advanced tactics and teach you how to apply them more effectively. Online lessons are available, in case you want more flexibility in your learning, while having more chances to play with other people from around the world.

Beginner Steps to Learn Chess

These days, these are so many ways to learn to play chess. Players can choose a technique according to their learning style. Some of them stick to the old technique of face-to-face instruction and memorizing. Others have moved towards online chess, which is more convenient and more interactive way of learning. 

Whether you prefer the former or the latter doesn’t matter. The delivery method is not a huge issue for someone with zero knowledge and wants to learn to play chess. After all, beginners always follow the same steps:

• Set up a chessboard

This involves placing the pieces in their right positions. All pawns are on the second row or ranks, creating a wall or barrier between you and the opponent. Each rook is on both ends of the first row. Next to them are the knights, which are the horse-shaped pieces. Beside them are the bishops. As for the queen, it should always be on a square that matches her color. This is how all chess games should begin. 

• Learn how to move each piece

Each piece moves differently over the board. You cannot move a piece through or jump over other pieces except for the knight. You cannot also move onto a square where one of its own pieces occupies it. You can only take the place of an opponent piece if you are going to capture it. 

• Understand how to win a chess game

Chess is a game of intelligence and strategy. If you want to learn to play chesswell, you need to understand those strategies to win. Two of them are to checkmate the king and to drive your opponent to resign. Your first goal is to checkmate the opponent’s king or to trap him so that he doesn’t have safe spaces to go. If you are a strong opponent, the other player may raise the white flag and resign, which is unlikely to happen in a match between beginners.