The Everything Chess Basics Book (7 page)

Chapter 3
The Pieces and Pawns

In checkers, there are two types of pieces: checkers and kings. So chess is quite a bit more complex, since there are six types of chessmen. This complexity at the very core of the game is what gives chess its great charm.

To Begin

All games of chess begin with White making a move. In reply, Black makes a move, and then it’s White’s turn again. The players continue alternating moves until one of a number of situations occur that ends the game. These situations are explored in detail in Chapter 4.

A move in chess is generally defined as a move by White and Black’s reply. A single move by either White or Black with no reply is often called a half-move, or a “ply” in computer-talk.

On a computer screen or in a book or magazine, the board is almost always set up so that the White pieces are on the bottom and the Black pieces are at the top. There is no particular reason for this other than tradition. You could just as easily have the Black pieces at the bottom and the White pieces at the top.

The White pieces are set up along the first rank. The rooks begin at the outside corners, with the knights inside, the bishops next, and the king and queen in the middle. The White pawns line up on the second rank. The Black pieces begin on the eighth rank, and the Black pawns begin on the seventh rank. Kings are opposite each other on the e-file and queens are opposite each other on the d-file.

Setting up a chessboard

Kings start out on the e-file. Just remember King Edward, and you’ll never forget. The queens start out on the d-file. Queen Dolores will do. Also, remember that the queen takes her own color: The White queen starts out on d1, a light square, while the Black queen begins on d8, a dark square.

The King

Although there are six types of chessmen, the game of chess is really about the king. All other pieces and pawns are there as the king’s helpers or weapons. The twin objectives of a chess game are to trap the opposing king and to keep your own king free. You will learn more about these objectives in Chapter 4. This twin objective is probably what makes chess unique. Most other games are measured in accumulations of points or time or territory.

Chess pieces have been designed to look like all kinds of things. This is fine for collections and displays. But for practical play, a design is needed that is at once easily recognizable by anyone who plays and readily available. That is the Staunton design, named after its inventor, nineteenth-century Shakespearean scholar and chess master, Englishman Howard Staunton.

Possible Moves

The chess king is not particularly strong or fast. He can move in any direction, along a rank, file, or diagonal, one square at a time. This may not sound very promising, but your monarch can have a lot of power late in the game when there are not too many other pieces around. He can have up to eight possible moves in the middle of the board, but only three possible moves from any corner.

The Black king can move to any of the five nearby dotted squares. The White king can move to any of the eight nearby dotted squares.

But the king is extremely valuable: get him trapped and you lose the game. Therefore good players often begin by hiding their big guy in an inaccessible corner, while attacking with their other pieces and pawns.

Captures

Although the king never leaves the board during a chess game, the king can capture other pieces. As long as the enemy piece is within range of the king (that means one square in any direction from where the king stands), he has the option of moving to the square occupied by the enemy piece and removing it from the board.

The pieces can be made of almost any material—wood and plastic are most common. Some chess pieces are virtual: they appear only on your computer screen. So long as there are sixteen White and sixteen Black pieces and pawns of the correct type, you have a viable set.

The Rook

This piece that looks like a tower is often incorrectly referred to as a
castle
by the uninitiated. But by any name, it is a powerful piece to have in your army, and a formidable enemy piece.

The rook moves along empty ranks or files. Place it on a1 on an empty board and it has fourteen possible moves, anywhere along the a-file or the first rank. Place it on e4 and it can go in four different directions: left along the fourth rank, right along the fourth rank, up (toward your opponent) along the e-file, or down (toward you) along
the e-file.

The many possible squares the rook can move to give it a particularly rapid striking capacity. It is indeed a very similar piece to the chariot it was derived from. The rook started out as a chariot or a boat. It became a tower on a siege-engine during the Middle Ages. The word
rook
is not an English word translating any of these concepts, though. Instead, it is a mispronunciation of an old Sanskrit word for chariot.

The rook can move to any of the fourteen dotted squares. Rooks are powerful on an empty board.

Captures

The rook can capture any enemy piece (except the king) or pawn in its path. And although it is not possible to capture a king, if the enemy monarch should happen to be in the path of your rook, your opponent must drop everything else and remove the danger one way or another.

A capture is carried out by moving the rook along the rank or file desired to the square where the enemy piece or pawn resides. Place your rook on that square and remove the enemy piece or pawn from the board.

Long Range

Since the rook can swoop down the entire length or width of the board, it is referred to as a
long-range piece
. But this long-range capability is only good for rooks on an open board—that is, a board without a whole lot of obstacles in the way.

At the start of the game, the rooks are sleeping. None of them have any possible moves, so their power is only a potential for later use. Without open files or ranks the rook is pretty useless, and can get in the way of the other pieces.

Open files are files that are free of pawns. Other pieces, both enemy and friendly, can be on the file, and it is still open as long as no pawns reside there. Half-open files are files with an enemy pawn on it. Again, pieces of either color can clutter it up, as long as no friendly pawn is in the way.