Welcome to the Palamede site.

Palamede referrs to Palamedes, the son of Nauplius and Clymene or Philyra.

He is said to be the inventor of many things including currency, counting, military ranks and a game known as the forerunner of Chess called pessoi.

Within this site you will discover the basic concepts and strategy of chess, the psychology of chess and the known history of the game.

Rules of Chess

Chess is a board game pitting 2 players against one another on an 8 by 8 squared board with 32 pieces where each player possesses a set of 16 pieces. The technical term for the rows is “ranks” and referred to via numbers (1 to 8). The columns are referred to as “files” and denoted with letters (a to h). These sixty-four squares alternate colors between what are called “light squares” and “dark squares.” The traditional positioning of the squares requires that a “light square” be located on the player’s right hand end of the “rank” and the pieces are laid out as detailed in the next paragraph, with each queen on its matching color.

Convention dictates that the chess pieces be divided into white (light) and black (dark) sets. The two players are therefore referred to as “White” and “Black”, and each player starts off the game with pieces of the matching color. There are eight pawn pieces that line up on opposite ends on “ranks” 2 and 7. The remaining eight pieces, consisting of a king, a queen, 2 bishops, 2 knights and 2 rooks (or castles) line up on rows 1 and 8. The 2 rooks bookend the other pieces. Next come the knights, then the bishops, with the king and queen situated in between.