Fred Reinfeld - The complete chess course : from beginning to winning chess!

Book One

The Basic Rules of Chess

Chess is played by two opponents, White and Black, who take turns making their moves. White always makes the first move. The chessboard (Diagram 1) has eight horizontal rows (ranks) and eight vertical rows (files). Each row is therefore made up of eight squares.

All 64 squares are used in the play, and in order to make it easier to tell them apart, they are alternately light colored (light squares) and dark colored (dark squares). (D)

The Chessboard

At the beginning of a game, each player has 16 chessmen, always placed as in Diagram 2. (D)

The Opening Position

White always takes the light colored chessmen; Black has the dark colored chessmen. The names of the forces shown in Diagram 2 are:

An important point to remember is that in the opening position the right-hand corner square nearest to White must be a light square.

Another important point about the opening position: the two queens face each other along the same vertical row (the d-file). Each queen is placed on a square of its own color, the white queen on a light square, the black queen on a dark square.

Both kings likewise face each other across the e-file.

The king bishop is placed next to the king, on the f-file.

The king knight is placed next to the king bishop, on the g-file.

The king rook is placed next to the king knight, on the h-file.

The queen bishop is placed next to the queen, on the c-file.

The queen knight is placed next to the queen bishop, on the b-file.

The queen rook is placed next to the queen knight, on the a-file.

The white pawns are set out on the second row (the second rank), in front of the pieces just named.

The black pawns are set out on the seventh row (the seventh rank), in front of the pieces just named.

Each pawn is named for the file it stands on.

Thus, the pawn on the e-file (where the kings begin the game) is the e-pawn.

How the Pieces Move

Each of the men moves in a different way. In describing the moves it is necessary to refer to ranks, files, and also diagonals. (A diagonal is a row of squares of the same color all going in the same direction. In Diagram 2 the row of light squares from Whites king rook to Blacks queen rook is a diagonal.)

The King

The king (subject to limitations that are described later on) moves one square in any direction. (D)

Whites king has eight possible moves, indicated by an X.

The king captures the same way it moves; when it captures an enemy piece it displaces that piece (occupies the square of the captured unit). (D)

Whites king can capture any one of the black men.

The Queen

The queen is the most powerful of all the chess forces. Like the king, the queen can move in any direction but with this important difference: the queen can move the whole length of any available line, as long as there is no obstacle in the way. (D)

The queen can move to any of the squares indicated by an X; it moves in only one direction at a time.

There are two possible obstacles: friendly pieces, which the queen cannot displace or leap over; or enemy pieces, which can be captured by displacement. (D)

The white queen can capture the black rook or bishop or either black knight.

The Rook

The rook (next most powerful piece after the queen) moves horizontally (on ranks) or vertically (on files) one direction at a time. (D)

The rook can move to any square indicated by an X.

The rook captures hostile pieces by displacement, but it cannot displace or leap over its own forces. The rook captures in the same way it moves. (Some players call the rook a castle, but rook is the proper term.) (D)

The rook can capture the bishop or knight, but not the pawn.

The Bishop

The bishop, moving in one direction at a time, moves and captures diagonally. (D)

The bishop can move to any of the squares indicated by an X.

The bishop captures hostile pieces by displacement. It cannot displace or leap over its own forces. (D)

The bishop can capture either of the black pawns.

The Knight

The knight is the only piece that can leap over other units his own or the opponents. The knight is also the only piece that has a move of fixed length. It moves a total of three squares in either one of two ways:

(a) One square forward or backward; then two squares to the right or left.

(b) One square to the right or left; then two squares forward or backward.

The knight captures only on the terminal square of his move, displacing the piece it captures. (D)

The knight has the option of moving to any square indicated by an X.

This is one of the eight possible moves available to the knight in Diagram 11.

Note that the knight changes the color of its square each time it moves. It goes from a light square to a dark square or from a dark square to a light square. (D)

The white knight can capture Blacks bishop.

The knight leaps over two pawns to capture the most distant pawn.