Thursday, December 11, 2014

Intro to Chess - Lesson No 1

Level - 700 elo points


First of all we should learn the board, the peaces, how they move, what is checkmate e.t.c.
Then we could talk about simple ways to gain material, or even win immediately. Later we could speak about the more difficult aspects of the game, like taking decisions when there is no simple win. Such decisions need a positional approach by the player.

The Chessboard

But there is no need to rush. Let's stare by taking a look at the chessboard:
It's an 8x8 square - that's were all the magic happens. The position is the initial position - every chess game begins from this position!
It's easy to see that we have ranks and files. Every rank is named after a number: ex.the white pieces begin from the 1st rank. Every file is named after a letter: ex. Both kings are on the e-file.

Every square is name after the file and the rank it's on. For example, the black Queen is on d8. Remember, the file goes first. Now you can exercise on naming squares. Point on a random square and try to name it! Do it 10 times. Then you are ready to go to the next paragraph!

The chess peaces

There are 6 types of peaces: The King, the Queen, the Rook, the Bishop, the Night and the Pawn.
The most important of them is the King. If the opponent captures your king you lose the game! It's worth can not be counted.
After the King comes the Queen. The Queen is a powerful peace because it can move both like a rook and a Bishop. It's worth is about 9 pawns.
In third place comes the rook. It can move on the ranks and files that he is on. We will get in more detail later. It is worth about 5 pawns.
The forth place is shared by the Bishop and the Night. It's pretty hard to tell which one is better. A good thing to say here is that it depends on the position. The are worth about 3 pawns.
Last but not least we have the pawns. Although they are not so powerful, if they make it to the 8th rank as white or 1st rank as black the transform in any piece you want, apart from the King! The pawn is the measure to all other pieces!

More on the next lesson next week!

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