Welcome to Chess Education Partners, Inc. Chess Programs for Children Phone: (312) 927-4290 Email: Chessteachers@aol.com |
|
The Rules of Chess for Kids Written by David Howe Chess is a game played by two players. Each player moves one set of pieces, one set being called 'white' and the other set called 'black'. To start the game, the players place board with a white square in the lower right hand corner and their pieces on the board as follows:
Starting the Game Once the pieces have been placed in their starting positions, the player who has the white pieces makes the first move. After the white player makes their move, the black player makes a move. The two players take turns making a move until the game ends. ! Important: a player may not skip their move. They must make a move.
Moves To make a move, a player chooses one of their pieces on the board, and moves it from its current square to another square. The square it moves to must either be empty, or contain a piece belonging to their opponent. Chessmen can never move through other chessmen when moving. The Knight has the ability to “jump” over other chessmen.
If the square contains an opponent's piece, then that piece is removed from the board and placed off to the side. This type of move is called 'capturing'. The Chessmen In chess, there are five types of pieces and pawns. Each type of piece moves in a different way. This makes chess difficult to play at first because you have to remember how six different chessmen move.
The Pawn pP The pawn is special because it has two different moves. One type of move is where it moves to the empty square directly in front of it. The other type of move is where it moves to capture a piece in front on the left, or in front on the right. A pawn may move one or two squares ahead on its very first move. A pawn can never jump to a square.
The King kK The King moves one square in any direction. He may not move to a square where he could be captured. The Queen The Queen moves in a straight line in any direction. She may not jump over other pieces. The Bishop lL The Bishop moves straight, but not forwards, backwards, or sideways. He moves through the corners of the squares. He cannot jump over other pieces. The Knight nN The Knight (or Horse) is special because it can jump over other pieces. It moves by leaping two squares forwards, backwards, or sideways, and then turning and leaping one more square, making an 'L' shape. The Rook rR The Rook moves straight forwards, backwards, or sideways. It cannot jump over other pieces.
Special Rules for the King When you Attack the King When you make a move that puts your opponent's King in danger of being captured, you tell your opponent you're attacking their King by saying "Check." Your opponent must then make a move that protects their King. If they can't make such a move, then you win the game. Why? The moving player says "Check" as a polite way of telling their opponent that they have to protect their King on their next move.
The King Must be Kept Safe! When you make a move, you can never make a move that will let your opponent capture your King. Why? Because if you did that, your opponent would capture your King and the game would end with you losing!! And no one would want to do that on purpose! Winning! A player wins the game when they can, on their next move, capture the opponent's King, and there's no move their opponent can make to prevent it. Special Pawn Rule You may wonder what happens when a pawn reaches the last row of the board. Does it just sit there unable to move? Does it disappear? The answer is no! When you move a pawn to the last row, you remove the pawn from the board and replace it with another piece!! You can replace it with a Queen, or a Rook, or a Bishop or a Knight. So three things happen on the turn where you move a pawn to the last row: You move the pawn to the last row. You remove the pawn from its square on the last row. You put your replacement piece on that same square in the last row. The new piece can now move on the next turn!
Super
Confusing Rule 1: This rule is called 'castling'. Don't worry if you don't understand it right away because it is a confusing rule! The rule is this: If there are no pieces between your King and Rook, and your King is not under attack, and neither your King or your Rook has moved yet, then you can move them both at the same time! You can only do this once per game, and you don't get to choose which squares they move to. The King must move two squares towards the Rook, and the Rook must move to the square next to the king (on the other side). You can't castle if either of the two squares your King has to move through is attacked by your opponent. Why? What is the purpose of Castling? The reason you castle is to help get your King to a safer place on the board, and also to help get your Rook to a place where is can get out from behind the pawns.
Super
Confusing Rule 2: This rule is called 'en passant'. Don't worry about what 'en passant' means yet. You must devote your entire brain to understanding this rule. Why? Because it's Super Confusing! The rule is this: Let's say it's your turn to move, and you move one of your pawns two squares forwards. Let's also say the pawn you just moved ends up right beside one of your opponent's pawns. Now it's you opponent's turn. Your opponent, may say 'en passant' and move their pawn to the square your pawn would have ended up if it had only moved one square. You opponent then removes the pawn you just moved from the board. Keep in mind: this type of move doesn't happen much. Also keep in mind that your opponent must make the en passant move on the turn right after you moved your pawn two squares forward. If he waits until the turn after that, it's too late and he can't do the en passant move.
Super
Confusing Rule 3: This rule is called 'stalemate', and it is very stale. When stalemate happens, the game is a tie. No one wins and no one loses. The rule is this: If your King is not being attacked, but you still can't move any of your pieces, then you call out 'stalemate!' and the game is over. Neither player wins -- it's a tie! Remember: It's not stalemate if the King is attacked! Final Words Congrats! You've made it through the whole thing. You will probably need to play chess many times before you get used to it. But be patient and soon you will be playing and winning (hopefully). Remember that you can still have fun playing even if you lose. Winning is nice, but the main thing is to have fun while you're playing the game.
Written by David Howe Edited by Zack Fishman
Check out the great chess web site: http://www.chessvariants.com/chess4kids.dir/c4c-index.html
|
