For many the chess It may be a bit boring but for others it is a great combination of competition, strategy and reasoning. According to specialists, This game combats cognitive decline, trains both sides of the brain, and is a great therapeutic and rehabilitation tool.
First of all, you have to know the pieces on the board: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen and king. The main objective of the game is to checkmate the opponent’s king, meaning that he cannot move his king to any square. The board is made up of 64 black and white spaces and, at the beginning, they must all be in the same position:
– The 8 pawns in the second row
– Two towers (one in each corner)
– Two horses (each on both sides of each tower)
– Two bishops (each on both sides of each knight)
– The queen or queen next to one of the bishops
– The king between the queen and one of the bishops
Each piece moves differently and the main rule is that one cannot jump over the other, with the exception of the knight. To be able to put in checkmate, you have to eat your opponent’s pieces and thus prevent him from putting you in check. As you can see, Each move depends on the opponent’s move.
How the pieces move:
– The king: can only advance one square in any direction, whether up, down, left, right or diagonal.
– The queen: can move in any direction towards as many squares as she wants.
– The tower: you can only move forward, backward, up or down, as many squares as you want.
– The bishop: can only move diagonally, as many squares as he wants.
– The knight: moves forward two squares in one direction and then one more at an angle of 90 degrees, drawing an L in its movement.
– Pawns: they can only advance one square (on the first move two can advance) and never go back or jump. However, to eat your opponent’s pieces you must do so diagonally.
Two aspects to take into account are the following. When a pawn reaches the final square of the opponent’s side of the board, that pawn is replaced by a queen. Castling is one of the special moves: taking into account that it is the first move of the king and the rook, in a single turn the king is moved two squares to one side and the rook is placed on the opposite side of the king.