“White” is always allowed the 1st move of the game. Players then alternate turns, moving only 1 piece at a time. The one exception being castling, where 2 pieces are allowed to be moved. chess pieces can be moved to either an occupied or unoccupied square. When moved to an occupied square, the previous occupant is in a sense ‘captured’ and removed from play. Once captured pieces can no longer be return to play. Every piece is allowed to capture an opponent’s piece by moving to the occupied square. The type of piece does not determine whether or not it can capture a piece, only how that piece moves. The en passant allows players to capture an opponent’s piece without occupying a square. This passing move is described later on.

The movement ability or abilities of each type of piece differs and creates an interesing dynamic that involves a developed chess strategy. The most basic and numerous piece, the pawn, is only allowed to move up the “file” to an unoccupied square. An exception is made for the 1st time on its first move. In this situation, the pawn is allowed to advance up to 2 squares on the same “file” as long as neither square is occupied. Pawns are also able to move diagonally to an advancing square if that square is occupied. They also are given 2 extra moves, pawn promotion and the aforementioned en passant.

The rook can be moved across its currently positioned “rank” or “file,” but it cannot jump over another piece. Rooks can also perform a special move known as castling which also involves the king. The bishop on the other hand can move across any number of squares on the board in a diagonal direction, but it too can’t jump over another piece. Knights are able to move to any of the nearest squares in which they are not on the same rank, file or diagonal. This produces what many refer to as an “L” shape. The “L” shape is 2 squares horizontally and 1 square vertically. The knight is also the only piece that is allowed to hop over another piece or pieces. Queens merge the power of the rook and bishop while (outside of castling) the king is able to move only one square in any direction.

Forfeiting the king results in end game so players cannot make a move that would leave the king vulnerable to capture on the following move. Players typically call out “check” when this situation presents itself. In scenarios where no legal moves can be performed to avoid having the king captured, the game is over. This scenario is typically referred to as “checkmate.” A stalemate can occur if neither king can be checkmated within reason.

Castling

Castling is only allowed once a game for each player. Here, the king is permitted to move 2 squares along the first “rank” towards a rook that is also placed on the first “rank.” The rook is then placed atop the last square that the king had crossed over. Castling is only permissible if all 3 of the following conditions hold. The king cannot be in or be placed in “check” before or after castling. The spaces between the king and rook cannot be occupied, nor can those spaces be threatened by the opposition’s pieces. Only a king and a rook that have yet to be moved in the game are eligible to be castled.

En passant (French for ‘in passing’)

Although not universally accepted until Italian rules were changed in 1880, this rule was introduced shortly after the 15th century rule that gave pawns the ability to move 2 spaces on its initial movement. The rationale or motivation being that it prevented a pawn from passing another pawn and evading capture through a 2 square move.

The conditions for the move are simple. In a scenario where a yet to be moved pawn makes its initial advancement of 2 squares, if there is an opponent’s pawn on the adjacent “file” next to its destination square, that pawn of the opponent has the opportunity to capture the pawn that just moved by moving over to the square the pawn passed over. This can only be done on the next move.

Pawn Promotion

Promotion is a chess rule that occurs when a pawn has advanced to the 8th “rank.” It is then forced to be ‘promoted’ to allow its movement to function like either a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. The player can choose which of the 4 movement abilities they would like the pawn to take. In all cases where the queen’s movement is not chosen, the promotion is called an “under promotion.” The movement selected does not have to be that of a captured piece and there is no restriction placed on how many pawns can be promoted, making it possible to have more pieces of the same type than when the game began.

The original intention of the rule was to allow the ‘foot soldier’ (pawn) to be promoted to the next rank for getting through ‘enemy lines’. In medieval times that piece was the queen. Variations of the rule have existed through time, such as forcing the pawn to change to the correlating 8th “rank” position it lands upon. The current rule came into effect in 1883.

Check

A “check” is the result of a move that puts the threatening piece in a position to capture the opposing king. The only 3 viable responses to a king in “check” is to move it into a position where it is not in “check,” move another piece to block the piece that has placed the king in “check” or to capture the piece that has placed the king in “check.” If neither response is available, the king has been placed into “checkmate” and the game is over. Players are not forced into calling “check” by rule.

End of the game

The objective of the game is to “checkmate” the opposing player, but not all games end in this fashion. Players typically resign when placed in a horrible position or a timed game where a player runs out of that time can also cause the game to end. There are also situations where the game can become endless, thus bringing about a draw.

Draws occur under several conditions. Agreement, stalemate, 3-fold repetition of a position, the 50 move rule or by impossibility to checkmate. The 50 move rule is commonly omitted because of its frequency to occur. Stalemates can only occur on a “Black” players’ turn. The condition is that there is no “checkmate” and the “Black” player cannot move a piece anywhere.