Greg Vanderford - Chess for Absolute Beginners: Learn the Basics of Chess With My Proven System

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Table of Contents

Introduction:

Chess is a wonderfully complex and challenging game that has been around since the 6 th century CE. It is also a sport that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds, especially in this digital age in which we are living when you can easily log in to a computer and instantly begin a game with someone halfway across the globe.

When you first learn how to move the pieces, it may feel like you have already digested quite a lot of information and struggle to remember the basics of the game. But learning how the pieces move is only the very first step in a long journey to understand the game of chess. In this book we start by introducing the pieces as well as other basics that every aspiring chess player should learn at the very beginning of their chess studies.

This very system has been used to train thousands of players from a beginner to an advanced level over the course of my chess teaching career. Now you have the opportunity to go through a process that has been proven to produce strong chess players in a very short period of time and with more ease than any chess training system that exists.

By the end of the book, if you have worked through the entire volume, you will be ready take on stronger chess competition and continue onto the more advanced stages of chess training, which I cover in my next book, Chess: From Beginner to Advanced at Warp Speed Volume 1.

I am excited for you to begin your training and take the first step on the amazing journey that we can all enjoy, as fellow chess players and students!

Welcome to the cool and exciting world of Chess!

The game of Chess was invented about two thousand years ago in India (then traveled to Persia and to reach Europe later) and is the oldest game we know of.

Chess is played by two sides and you can win, lose or tie (draw).

In order to play Chess you will need a chessboard and two sets of chess pieces of opposite colors (a light color and a dark one). White (or the side with lighter pieces) always starts the game, and players will alternate moves after that.

Here are all the different pieces:

K King

Q Queen

R Rook

L Bishop

N Knight

P Pawn

But, before we start learning about the pieces and how to play, we need to start learning about the Chessboard. It will only take a few minutes.

This is what a Chessboard looks like:

As you can see, the chessboard (which by the way is also being used to play checkers), has a square shape, with alternating light (usually we call them White) and dark (usually we call them Black) squares. Can you count how many squares are there on the chessboard?

64! Guess how many are there of each color? 32! The same identical number for each side.

On the chessboard, there are up and down squares, which are called files. They go from a to h (left to right).

The squares that go side way are called ranks . They go from 1-8 (from down to up).

There are 8 files and 8 ranks each on the Chessboard. So, if you multiply 8 squares by 8 squares, it would be equal to 64 squares.

Each of the squares on the chessboard has a name, just like you and your friends.

For example the one in the left lower corner, where the a file meets the first rank, would be called: a1, as you can see the mark on the diagram below:

One thing to remember is the letter always comes before the number. Therefore, it would be a1 and not 1a.

On the next diagram, where the f file meets with the fifth rank you can see the mark on f5.

In addition to ranks and files, there are also a series of squares that we refer to as Diagonals .

While squares on files or ranks have always alternating colors (four of each color), when we talk about diagonals, we always refer to a number of squares of the same color, either dark or light.

In addition to dividing the chessboard to light or dark squares, files, ranks and diagonals, we also divide them to other parts.

All the squares on the first through fourth rank are considered as Whites territory , while all the squares on the fifth through eighth ranks are Blacks territory .

Another way to divide the board is by separating the right side and the left side. However, in chess we call it differently: the right side is the Kingside and the left side is the Queenside.

Remember the lower right corner (h1) always has to be of the light color!

And now lets test what you have learned in this lesson.

Lesson 1 - Test

1. How many squares are there on the Chessboard?

2. On a diagonal, are all the squares of the same color or do they alternate between light and dark squares?

3. What color is the c3 square?

4. What color is the g6 square?

5. List all the dark squares on the 6th rank?

6. Which are the light squares on the f file?

7. List all the squares on the d1-h5 diagonal.

8. Is the d5 square on the King or Queen side?