Royal - Chess for Beginners

Chess for Beginners

Complete Guide to Learn How to Play Chess Like the Champions With Chess Fundamentals, Rules, Pieces, Winning Tactics and Strategy, Chess Openings and Endgames

Jeffrey Royal

Copyright 2021 - Jeffrey Royal

Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome to Chess for Beginners: Complete Guide to Learn How to Play Chess Like the Champions With Chess Fundamentals, Rules, Pieces, Winning Tactics and Strategy, Chess Openings and Endgames! This book will be your one-stop primer to learning the game of chess from the ground up, beginning with identifying the pieces and their basic movements through discovering the principles of opening strategies and locking down the endgame to secure victory.

Chess is an ancient game, and many of the rules and traditions upon which it was created are still part of its mystique in the 21 st century. Well help you unlock the secrets of chess in just five short chapters, plus a glossary to boost your chess vocabulary and make you feel more confident about your gameplay. Well talk about developing your pieces and show you the best opening gambits, midgame tactics, and closing strategies to ensure that the odds always play in your favor. There are also graphics to support your learning, so youll be able to visualize everything as you go.

We also suggest setting up a chessboard or finding a chess application youre comfortable with- chess can only truly be mastered with both study and hands-on practice. Its also easier to get a feel for the pieces, their movements, and their purposes when you can see it all laid out before you. Chess is one of those rare pastimes that engages multiple senses and skills- youll be challenged to be patient and observant, use your critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills, exhibit sportsmanship, and push your synapses to the limit. The bonus to participating in this mental workout is that its also a lot of fun. Now, if youre up to the challenge and ready to jump into the amazing world of chess, lets turn the page and get started!

Chapter 1: History and Fundamentals

You cant build a house without a solid foundation, so lets start out with a quick history lesson and some chess fundamentals. Once youve got an idea of how chess developed over the centuries, it becomes the basis of the rest of your chess knowledge. Youll also need to learn some basic board and piece properties before your first game gets underway. Every little bit counts towards your cumulative chess savvy and will help you develop your skills.

A Brief History of the Game

Chess originated on the Indian subcontinent in or around the 6 th century as a strategy game known as chaturanga. This precursor boasted four classes, or divisions, of pieces- the infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry. It was used as a teaching tool for critical thinking and tactics of war. Because of its close association with the military, it didnt take long for the game to become popular among troops. This popularity led to one of the best historical examples of cultural diffusion- the spread of chaturanga across central Asia, where it was embraced by a growing Persian empire.

- a depiction of a chaturanga board; this ancient Indian game is the precursor to modern chess -

Once in the hands of the Persians, the game began to evolve and become more sophisticated. The four basic types of pieces morphed into a closer approximation of what we see today; they became more specialized, and new rules governing their movement came into play. The Persians also gave the world one of the most enduring, integral parts of the modern game, the words check- from the Persian word shah or king- and checkmate- derived from shah mat, meaning the king is dead! The term shah itself even lent itself to the modern name chess. As it continued to be translated from language to language, it began to settle into more and more of the pronunciation we use now. Chess is most recently derived from the French eschecs.

Although the Persians were responsible for the spread of chess across Asia, it was actually the growth of the Islamic religion that can be credited with the final evolution of the modern chess pieces. In Islam, it is considered taboo to create effigies or likenesses, and so the intricately carved cavalries of Persian chess sets were transformed into shapeless markers of wood and clay, distinguishable only by their size and placement on the board. That meant that when the game reached Europe, carried there by Muslim traders, returning Christian crusaders, and other adventurers, the chess pieces were a clean slate waiting to be redesigned.

- a 12 th -century carved stone chess set shows the indistinct pieces used by the Muslim players so as not to have anything resembling the likeness of the human -

From the 15 th century on, we began to see chess as we recognize it today. It became the pastime of the noble and wealthy, and the pieces became analogous with the machinations of courtly life. The pawns and knights represent the armies that did the bidding of the kings and queens. The bishops and rooks are trusted advisors and henchmen of that royalty. When you play chess, try to keep these representations in the back of your mind- it will help you think about the game as a tiny politically-motivated battlefield.

Since its Westernization, chess hasnt changed much, but by the 18 th century, people wanted to find a way to make it more competitive. In order for this to happen, rules needed to be standardized. In the mid-1830s, the drive to change the game from a parlor pastime into a true sport was in high gear. The first modern tournament was played in London in 1851, and the world has never been the same. The prevalence of media coverage meant that newspapers all over the world were able to print the results, and people were captivated. The preservation of an ancient game for a modern population was cemented.

People from all corners of the globe began to take up chess as a hobby and a vocation. It was clear that a governing body would unite these players and set up a system for rankings and competitions. FIDE, or Federation Internationale des Eschecs, was founded in 1924 and today boasts members from 195 nations. In fact, its estimated that there are over 300 million active chess players worldwide. The internet connects many of these players through websites and applications dedicated to the game, and its popularity isnt likely to die down anytime soon.

Getting Ready to Play

The first step to playing chess is to know how to set up the board, understand the allowable moves of the pieces, and learn the algebraic notation used to record moves within the game. Once youve mastered these fundamentals, youll be ready to start practicing and studying to gain and improve your skills. Knowing how to use algebraic notation means you will be able to read and review the accounts of all recorded games, as well as notate your own. Algebraic notation is the universal language of chess, and its all based on the board and pieces, so lets start there.

A regulation chessboard is made up of 64 squares arranged in eight rows and columns of eight squares each. The horizontal rows are called the ranks, and the vertical columns are called the files. Each rank is numbered 1-8, and the files are lettered lowercase a-h. Easy so far, right? If youre confused about which end of the board is which, thats pretty simple, too. White is always set up on ranks 1 and 2, so consequently, black is set up on ranks 7 and 8. Therefore, whichever end white initially uses is where you begin counting. The files are lettered from left to right, so the bottommost left-hand square of the chessboard is a1. The topmost right-hand square is h8.