Brian Byfield - Learn Chess Quick

First published in the United Kingdom in 2010 by
Batsford
10 Southcombe Street
London
W14 0RA

An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd

Copyright Batsford 2010
Text Brian Byeld and Alan Orpin 2010
Illustrations Gray Jolliffe 2010

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

First eBook publication in 2012
eBook ISBN: 978 1 849941 13 6

Also available in Paperback
Paperback ISBN: 978 1 906388 66 9

This book can be ordered direct from the publisher at the website www.anovabooks.com

This book has been written on the assumption that the reader agrees with one or all of the following notions:

1. Chess is about as exciting as watching grass grow.

2. Children who play Chess are terrifyingly intelligent, wear glasses and get very high marks in maths.

3. Chess is another way of saying I hate you.

If these are the sort of things you think, dont worry. Twelve out of nineteen people feel exactly the same way, and not one of them has played Chess in their life.

Yet strangely enough, in spite of the widespread belief that Chess is all a bit nerdy, its still by far and away the most popular game on earth.

In Russia, for instance, practically everybody plays Chess. Its their national game.

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, thousands of new players are getting hooked by the minute, just as they have been for centuries.

Wed like you to be next, and whats more, we think you will be.

But be warned once you realise what an utterly simple but totally fascinating game it is, youll be a goner.

And once youve discovered what it really feels like to grind your opponent into the ground, youll realise that its a rush that you cant live without.

Chess will scare the pants off you at times. It will certainly make you angry. It may possibly cause you to visit the toilet more frequently than usual and it might even give you a big head.

But one thing is for sure.

It will never bore you. Not ever, ever.

This book will teach you everything you need to know as a complete beginner.

It will start, not surprisingly, with the rules. And they arent as frightening as you might think.

It will introduce you thoroughly to each individual piece and show you exactly how they operate.

It will give you some basic tips that will remain invaluable to you for as long as you play Chess. Stuff like what is generally good, what is generally bad, and what is downright suicidal.

And nally it will introduce you to a range of violent tactics that in real life would land you in jail for a very long time.

What it WONT do is confuse you with the mind-boggling subtleties of advanced Chess.

Above all, the book is an attempt to illustrate the simple magic of the game. To bring it alive, not kill it stone dead with unnecessary complex theories.

Work through it systematically, playing out the examples well be showing you, and very soon you and the kids will be wondering why you never learned to play earlier.

Remember, every great Chess player was a beginner once.

Even if it was only for about half an hour.

The object of the game is denitely NOT, as many people think, to kill off all your opponents men. In fact its theoretically possible to win without taking a single piece.

The enemy King is your ultimate target and to win the game you have to work out a dirty, merciless plan to trap the fat old fool like a rat.

When youve achieved that, youve Checkmated him.

Being Checkmated is absolutely not a pleasant experience.

We recommend you avoid it at all times.

There is very little you need to know about a chessboard.

It consists of 64 Black and White squares. And it should always be placed so that a White square is in the bottom right hand corner.

The lines of squares that run from left to right are called Ranks.

The lines of squares that point straight up the board at the enemy are called Files.

And the lines of squares that run diagonally in any direction are called Diagonals.

That is all.

Except of course, that a chessboard is a very violent place.

If you have a weak stomach, you should never go on one.

Each players army consists of 16 men. Or to be a little more accurate, 15 men and one lady.

There are 8 Pawns, 2 Knights, 2 Bishops, 2 Rooks (sometimes called Castles), a Queen and a King.

In our diagrams, they will always be shown in the following way:

There is only one rule to remember about setting up the pieces and that is QUEENS ALWAYS GO ON THEIR OWN COLOUR. In other words, in the starting positions, the White Queen must always be on a light square, and the Black Queen on a dark square.

Set them up now and study the scene. Terrifying, isnt it?

To start a game, they are laid out like this: