BASIC CHESS RULES

Playing chess is a great way to keep your mental abilities sharp. It also is a lot of fun. It can be played as a hobby or professionally. Many schools across the globe have a chess training program added as a part of their curriculum to instill and enhance the rational thinking in children.

Modern Chess is a strategic game played by two players with an eight-by-eight square checkered board that uses 32 pieces. Each player commands 16 pieces. In Chess the common pieces are usually black and white. However there are many styles of collector pieces to choose from. In the collector’s versions 16 pieces of one style and 16 pieces are of a matching style. This is done so that the players can differentiate their pieces from the pieces of thier opponents’. However, no matter what set of chess pieces that you use, a set of basic chess rules governs the progress of the game.

Objective of the game

The true objective of this wonderful game is to place your opponent’s king in checkmate. This is done by moving and re-positioning your chess pieces on the chess board using the basic chess rules. Checkmate happens when one player can capture the opponent player’s king in the next move.
The four main fundamental requirements of this game are protecting the king, obtaining positional power and retaining strength on the board and most importantly, putting the other player in checkmate.
Basic chess rules for chess-piece movements
Now, let’s take a look at how the basic pieces can move…

Pawn

The Pawn, in its opening placement position on the board, can be moved by one square or two squares forward. After that it can move one square forward. The Pawn can capture an opponent’s piece only by moving in the diagonal forward direction one square, by moving up in a diagonal single row

Rook

The Rook is one of your power pieces on the board. It can move and capture in the horizontal or vertical direction on any move. It can advance to any square as long as there is no obstruction in its path. It does not have a set limit of squares it has to move. To capture with piece the other player’s piece must be on the stopping square of the rook.

Knight

The Knight can move in any direction, but it has to do it in three squares. This piece can only move in an ‘L’ shape. When the Knight moves, he is not restricted by the presence of any other pieces in its path. It captures anything in its way.

Bishop

The Bishop, a simple power piece, can move only in the diagonal direction from one end of the board to the other, back and forth, in a diagonal pattern as long as there is no other piece in its path. When it captures a piece, that piece has to be on the stopping square.

Queen

The Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. She can move any number of spaces and can move horizontal and vertical, but she can also move diagonal all over the board. When she swoops in to capture a piece from the opponent it is usually a deadly blow to your opponent. She can capture anything on the final square of her journey.

King

The King is the piece that the whole game revolves around. He can move to any of his neighboring squares in any direction. There is only one exception on how the king can move, please see castling below.
Basic chess rules for all pieces.
Chess can be grouped into three distinct stages as given below. Good chess strategy should address all of these stages. These important basic rules tell us how to use the pieces on the board.
What is Capturing?

When you capture another player’s piece, the basic chess rule states that the opponent’s piece can be removed by you from the board by placing your piece on the square occupied by the opponent’s piece.

What is castling?

Castling is a special type of chess move. When castling, you simultaneously move your king, and one of your rooks. The king moves two squares towards a rook, and that rook moves to the square at the other side of the king. For more details, see the rules of chess, or the answers to the questions below.

When you are not allowed to castle?

There are a number of cases when castling is not permitted.
1. Your king has been moved earlier in the game.
2. The rook that castles has been moved earlier in the game.
3. There are pieces standing between your king and rook.
4. The king is in check.
5. The king moves through a square that is attacked by a piece of the opponent.
6. The king would be in check after castling.
Can you castle, if your king has been put in check in an earlier move but is not currently in check, and the king has not been moved?

Yes. Having been in check earlier in the game does not prevent you from castling, as long as the conditions mentioned above are fulfilled.

Can a player castle if his king was checked earlier in the game?

(Remember, the king has not moved, the opposing piece was simply blocked by another piece.)
The player can still castle in this situation. The rules of chess state that castling is illegal, when the king or rook has moved earlier, and when in or through check. When the other player was in check, and then it was removed by interposing another piece, or by taking (not with king or rook that is involved in the castling, of course) the checking piece does not prevent the player from castling later.

Is it allowed to castle which a rook that is attacked or goes through check?

The rook can pass check, or better worded, through an attacked square. I.e., when all conditions that allow castling are met (rook and king have not moved, squares between rook and king are empty, king does not castle from, through, or to check), then castling is allowed, and it is of no importance whether the rook is attacked or goes via an attacked square.

Pawn promotion

The Pawn is the only piece on the chess board that cannot move backward. Keep in mind however, when it reaches the other end of the chess board, the basic chess rules allows the pawn to be promoted to any piece that the player desires.

Check and check mate

When the king is in danger of capture by any opponent’s piece, it is called ‘check’. The check has to be immediately taken care of on the player’s next move by protecting the king. This happens by either moving the king or capturing the opponent’s threatening piece with another piece.
Unfortunately, If no move is available for the king and there is no way to capture the threatening piece, the king is said to be check mated. When this happens The checkmated player loses the game

Drawn game

A game is said to be drawn if no player is in a position to check mate the opponent king.