Hello, I’m King Carl, king of the white army.  King Charles of the black army and I are constantly fighting, and we’ve set rules on how we can fight.  If you care to join us, I will teach you how to play our game. 

The best way to start is from the beginning.  White always goes first, no matter who wants to play who.  This gives white the advantage, though black can attempt to gain the advantage again.  Then each side alternates turns, only moving one piece at a time. 

For our battles, each army can have eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, a queen, and their king.  We play on a square with 64 smaller squares inside, and each piece takes up one square.  On the sides of the boards we have rank and files.  Ranks are horizontal along the board; files are vertical.  My army sets up on the first and second ranks, and the black army sets up on the seventh and eighth.  Pawns line up on the second and seventh ranks, and all other pieces file on the first and eighth.  From left to right, from my perspective, we have the rook, the knight, the bishop, the queen, myself, then another bishop, knight, and a rook.  Black mirrors my army.

The way one army wins is when they place the other army’s king in a position where he is in danger and can’t escape.  There is also another way to end the game; in this case, you cause what is called a draw or a stalemate.  This can happen if one army can’t make a legal move, if the same position is repeated three times, or if 50 moves go by without a capture or pawn move.

I should explain what check is.  Check is different from checkmate, but it is very similar.  With check, the king is in danger but can do something about it.  When you are in check, you must do something to get out of check, instead of trying to take a piece.  The ways to get out of check is to move the king, block with another piece, or capture the piece that is putting the king in check.  There is another move called double check, where the king is in danger from two sources, and then they must move the king to evade that.

Let me tell you how the pieces move.  The kings, for example, can only move one space in any direction.  Queens can move horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, all for as many spaces as she wants.  Rooks can move horizontally and vertically for as many places as they want.  Bishops, on the other hand, move diagonally on their color, for as many spaces as they want.  Knights are the oddballs; they move in an L fashion and can jump over other pieces.  This L fashion must be two over and one across, or some variation of that.

Pawns are the most difficult to understand, so I will take some time to explain them to you.  For one thing, pawns can only go forward.  On their first move, they can move two spaces, but they don’t have to, and after that they must move one space.  Pawns capture to their immediate forward diagonal, and even have a special move called en passant.  En passant means “in passing” in French, so pawns can capture another pawn while they have been passing, but only immediately after. 

One more special move for pawns is called promotion.  In this case, the pawn makes it to the other side of the board, onto the opponents back rank, and can then either become a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight.  This allows the pawn to have all the powers of the piece they choose.

Another special move that I, the king, and the rook can perform is called castling.  In this scenario, the kings can move two spaces to their left or right, and the rook then moves two or three spaces and goes to the opposite side of the king.  This is mostly used as a protective measure and can only be used in certain instances.  For instance, the king and the rook you are castling with can’t have already moved since the beginning of the game.  You cannot castle out of check, into check, or through check.  

Each piece in chess has a point value, except for the king.    We use points to have a better understanding of who is winning and when to take a piece.  You never want to make a fair trade if you are behind in points.  Try to look for “hanging pieces,” or pieces that are unprotected.  The king has no point value because it can’t be taken.  Queens are worth nine points, rooks worth five points, bishops are basically three points (officially 3 ¼), knights are worth three points, and pawns are worth one point.

Something we teach everyone is to control the center.  This means having one or two pawns in the center of the board, and you can probably bring your knights and bishops out as well.  This is called developing your pieces.  Also have multiple attacks going at once.  Another is to protect your pieces; in other words, while you are attacking other pieces, don’t let your opponent attack and take your pieces if you can’t take back.  For example, if your opponent takes a knight with their bishop, you should try to take the bishop so that it stays an even game. 

If you are interested, someone who knows how to play would be more than welcome to teach you more.  I must go now; Charles is challenging me again.  Feel free to join us some time, I would love to have your help.  Oh, and in case you were wondering; the name of the game is Chess.