Chess is a strategic board game where the goal is to checkmate your opponent’s king. This article explains the most important terms and rules.
The chessboard basics
The chess board consists of 64 squares arranged in 8 rows (from bottom to top) and 8 columns (from left to right). The fields are alternately colored light and dark. Each player has 16 pieces that must be placed on the board.
The figures
There are 6 different pieces in chess:
König: The king is the most important piece in the game and must be protected at all costs. The king can move in any direction, but only one space per move.
Dame: The queen is the strongest character in the game. She can drag horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
Tower: The rook can only move horizontally or vertically.
runner: The bishop can only move diagonally.
Springer: The knight can move in an L-shaped leap that brings him either 2 squares across and 1 square down or 2 squares down and 1 square down.
Bauer: The pawn is the weakest piece in the game. He can only advance one space, except on his first move, when he can advance two spaces. The pawn can only capture diagonally and only if there is an opposing piece there.
Goal setting in chess
The aim of the game is to capture your opponent’s king. If the king can be captured on the next move, it is said to be in check. If the king can no longer be saved, it is called checkmate and the game is over.
The Chess Rules
The game always begins with the white pieces. Each player may move one character per turn.
A player can capture an opponent’s piece by placing his piece on the square occupied by the opponent’s piece.
A pawn that reaches the last rank can be promoted to any other piece (other than a king).
A player who is checkmated has lost.
A tie (draw) occurs when:
The king can no longer be captured because it is in a safe position.
Both players only have their king on the board.
A player can no longer make a legal move.
The same position was repeated 3 times (for this, the pieces on the board must have exactly the same position, the players in turn must have the same opportunity and the right to move must be the same).
A few key terms
Rochade: Castling is a special move in chess where the king and a rook are moved on the same rank. There are two types of castling: short castling, in which the king moves two squares to the right or left and the rook jumps to the square directly to the right or left of the king, and long castling, in which the king moves two squares to the right or moves to the left and the rook jumps to the square to the left or right of the king. The purpose of castling is to get the king to safety by moving him from the center of the board to the corner while being protected by a rook.
By the way: En passant is a special move in chess that is only allowed when an opponent’s pawn has moved two squares from its starting square and has passed the square on which your own pawn is standing. In this case, your own pawn may capture the opponent’s pawn as if it had just made a campaign.
Zugzwang: The move requirement states that a player must make one move each round of the game. He cannot miss or “pass” a move unless there are no more legal moves available. In this case it is called Zugzwang, as the player is forced to make a move even though it may be to their disadvantage.
Patt: A stalemate occurs when a player can no longer make a legal move but their king is not in check. In this case the game ends in a draw.
HOW MUCH: ELO is a system for rating the playing strength of chess players. It was developed by the Hungarian mathematician Arpad Elo and is now used worldwide. Every chess player has an ELO rating that represents their skill level. The ELO rating is calculated based on the results of matches and tournaments: if a player wins against a stronger player, his ELO rating increases, if he loses against a weaker player, his ELO rating decreases.