Chess: The Game of Royalty
History (Legend?)
Chess is the ancient game of Kings. It is said that the King of Persia was the king who asked for a new game; and Chess is the result.
The man who created chess merely asked a pittance in payment for the game. He wanted one grain of rice for the first cell, two grains
for the second cell; four grains for the third cell, and so on; doubling the amount of rice for each cell. The King said no problem,
and (if he paid in full) went bankrupt shortly thereafter.
Playing Chess: Rules of the Game
The Goal
The goal is to win. Duh! :)
This is done by checkmating the opponent's king. That is, you want to be able to capture the king without giving your opponent a way to block
your move.
The Board
The playing area is made up a grid measuring 8 cells on each side, forming a total of 64 cells. Usually the cells are colored opposite colors,
such as red and black, or black and white. The right corner of the board in front of each player is generally not colored black.
The players sit across from each other.
The Pieces
Each player start with the same number and type of pieces. Each pieces moves and captures in a different manner. A capture is done by landing on the
same cell as one of your opponent's pieces. The opponent's piece is removed from the board.
| Piece Name |
Shape |
Moves |
Captures |
| Pawn |
 |
forward only 1 position at a time. Only on the first move a pawn makes it can move forward one or two positions. |
one position forward to the right or left diagonal |
| Rook or Castle |
 |
forward, backward or right to left as many positions that are open |
the same as moves |
| Bishop |
 |
any diagonal direction. The bishop will always stay on the same color cell it starts on. |
the same as moves |
| Knight |
 |
makes an L when it moves. Moves two cells right/left or up/down and then one cell up/down or right/left.
The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. |
the same as moves. Note: Jumped pieces are not captured. Only the piece at the end of the jump can be captured. |
| Queen |
 |
moves any direction as many unoccupied cells there are. |
the same as moves |
| King |
 |
moves any direction one cell only. Can not move into a check. |
the same as moves. Because the king can not move into a check, the king can not normally capture the queen or king. |
The Start of the Game
At the beginning of the game, the board looks like this.
Special Moves
Castling
IF:
- the king is not in check, and would not be in check in either of the two positions while moving; AND
- the king has not moved yet in the game; AND
- the rook has not moved yet in the game; AND
- no other pieces are between the rook and the king;
THEN the king can move two positions to the left or right. After moving to the left or right, the rook jumps the king and lands immediately next to the king.
Pawn's Promotion
If a pawn makes it all the way across the board, the pawn becomes any other piece (except the king, this is after all a monarchy and we don't want
a revolution). Most of the time, the pawn becomes a queen, but occasionally it is a good decision to become a knight. Once the promotion has
taken place it can't be changed. It does not matter if the original piece has been captured or not. Theoretically you could get a total of nine queens
working for you.
En Passant
Since a pawn can move forward one or two cells on its first move, it is possible to pass a pawn that is blocking your position. So only on the first move
after a pawn has moved forward can the attacking pawn capture by not landing on the pawn's cell. See diagram.
The grey pawn at cell D5 can be passed by the pawn at C7 moving to C5 or the pawn at E7 moving to E5. If the D5 pawn moves immediately to
C6 or E6 the black pawn that just moved would be captured.
End of the Game
If a player can capture the opponent's king, this is called Check.
If the opponent has no way at all of blocking the check, capturing the attacking piece, or of moving the king out of the attacker's
way, the game is over by Checkmate.
If all of a player's moves lead to their own king being in check, the game is a stalemate.
Why was the King Bankrupt?
Because the price of the game was: 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 pieces of rice. That's a lot of rice!
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