STATION 1: Nature and Background of the Game

Chess has been with us for centuries, through countless cultures and historic
moments. A look at the game’s development throughout history opens a fascinating
window on cultural evolution, transporting our minds to distant lands and eras.

The exact origin of chess is a great

mystery. There are few ancient texts
referring to the very beginning of chess,
and fewer chess pieces left as physical
evidence of the game’s early existence.
But myths, theories and opinions abound!
Most historians believe it started in India,
Persia, or China.

But there is much that we do know. The form of chess which finally arrived in
Europe was already being played in Persia some 1,350 years ago, when that area
of the world was conquered by Muslim armies in the mid 7th century. The game
became very popular in the Muslim world, and it was carried back, throughout
Islam, across North Africa and eventually into Europe.

The long-standing authority on chess history is H. J. R. Murray’s A History of Chess,

published in 1913. According to Murray, chess began in Northern India, traveled
from there to Persia, and later, from Persia back eastward to China, and on to
Korea and Japan.

Consider This:
The original chess was invented in China, right around 200 B.C., by a military
commander named Hán Xin (“Hahn Sheen”). The game was designed to represent
a particular battle, anticipated by Hán Xin’s troops as they waited out the winter
holding their ground. This first chess was called The game to capture Xiang
Qi, Xiang Qi being the name of the commander of the opposing army. (This battle
is well established in Chinese history.)

A few years after his victory in this battle, Hán Xin fell out of favor with the emperor,
and his game became less popular, or even forbidden, but was resurrected in the
Tang Dyanasty (7th through 10th centuries A.D.). At that time several new rules
came into effect…and variations of the game spread throughout the world.
STATION 2: Set-up of the Game

Setup

Setup at the start of a game

Chess is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks and denoted with
numbers 1 to 8) and eight columns (called files and denoted with letters a to h).
The colors of the 64 squares alternate and are referred to
as light and dark squares. The chessboard is placed with a light square at the right-
hand end of the rank nearest to each player.
By convention, the game pieces are divided into white and black sets, and the
players are referred to as White and Black respectively. Each player begins the
game with 16 pieces of the specified color, which consist of one king, one queen,
two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. The pieces are set out as
shown in the diagram and photo, with each queen on a square of its own color, the
white queen on a light square and the black queen on a dark

STATION 3: Movement of each piece

Movement
The player with the white pieces always moves first. After the first move, players
alternately move one piece per turn (except for castling, when two pieces are
moved). Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an
opponent's piece, which is captured and removed from play. With the sole
exception of en passant, all pieces capture by moving to the square that the
opponent's piece occupies. A player may not make any move that would put or
leave the player's own king under attack. A player cannot "pass"; at each turn one
must make a legal move (this is the basis for the finesse called zugzwang).
If the player to move has no legal move, the game is over; it is either
a checkmate (a loss for the player with no legal moves) if the king is under attack,
or a stalemate (a draw) if the king is not.
Each chess piece has its own way of moving. In the diagrams, the dots mark the
squares where the piece can move if there are no intervening piece(s) of either
color.

 The king moves one square in any direction. The king also has a special move
called castling that involves also moving a rook.
 The rook can move any number of squares along a rank or file, but cannot leap
over other pieces. Along with the king, a rook is involved during the king's
castling move.
 The bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, but cannot leap over
other pieces.
 The queen combines the power of a rook and bishop and can move any number
of squares along a rank, file, or diagonal, but cannot leap over other pieces.
 The knight moves to any of the closest squares that are not on the same rank,
file, or diagonal, thus the move forms an "L"-shape: two squares vertically and
one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically.
The knight is the only piece that can leap over other pieces.
 The pawn can move forward to the unoccupied square immediately in front of
it on the same file, or on its first move it can advance two squares along the
same file, provided both squares are unoccupied (black dots in the diagram); or
the pawn can capture an opponent's piece on a square diagonally in front of it
on an adjacent file, by moving to that square (black "x"s). A pawn has two
special moves: the en passant capture and promotion.
STATION 4: Chess Techniques

Castling

Examples of castling (view animation)

Once in every game, each king is allowed to make a special move, known
as castling. Castling consists of moving the king two squares along the first rank
toward a rook (which is on the player's first rank) and then placing the rook on the
last square that the king has just crossed. Castling is permissible under the
following conditions:

 Neither the king nor the rook have previously moved during the game.
 There cannot be any pieces between the king and the rook.
 The king cannot be in check, nor can the king pass through squares that are
under attack by enemy pieces, or move to a square where it would result in a
check. Note that castling is permissible if the rook is attacked, or if the rook
crosses a square that is attacked.

En passant

Examples of pawn moves:

(left) promotion; (right) en passant
When a pawn advances two squares from its starting position and there is an
opponent's pawn on an adjacent file next to its destination square, then the
opponent's pawn can capture it en passant (in passing), and move to the square
the pawn passed over. This can only be done on the very next move, otherwise the
right to do so is forfeit. For example, in the animated diagram, the black pawn
advances two squares from g7 to g5, and the white pawn on f5 can take it via en
passant on g6 (but only on White's next move).

Promotion
Main article: Promotion (chess)
When a pawn advances to the eighth rank, as a part of the move it is promoted and
must be exchanged for the player's choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the
same color. Usually, the pawn is chosen to be promoted to a queen, but in some
cases another piece is chosen; this is called underpromotion. In the diagram, the
pawn on c7 can be advanced to the eighth rank and be promoted to an allowed
piece. There is no restriction placed on the piece that is chosen on promotion, so
it is possible to have more pieces of the same type than at the start of the game
(for example, two queens).

Check
e.g. The black king is in check by the rook.
When a king is under immediate attack by one or two of the opponent's pieces, it
is said to be in check. A response to a check is a legal move if it results in a position
where the king is no longer under direct attack (that is, not in check). This can
involve capturing the checking piece; interposing a piece between the checking
piece and the king (which is possible only if the attacking piece is a queen, rook,
or bishop and there is a square between it and the king); or moving the king to a
square where it is not under attack. Castling is not a permissible response to a
check. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the
opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal way to remove it from attack. It
is illegal for a player to make a move that would put or leave the player's own king
in check.
In casual games it is common to announce "check" when putting the opponent's
king in check, but this is not required by the rules of the game, and is not usually
done in tournaments.
STATION 5: End of the Game

Win
e.g White is in checkmate, being unable to escape attack by the black bishops.
Games can be won in the following ways:

 Checkmate: The player whose turn it is to move is in check and has no legal
move to escape check.
 Resignation: Either player may resign, conceding the game to the opponent.[6] It
is usually considered poor etiquette to play on in a truly hopeless position, and
for this reason high-level games rarely end in checkmate.
 Win on time: In games with a time control, a player wins if the opponent runs
out of time, even if the opponent has a much superior position, as long as the
player still has a theoretical possibility to checkmate the opponent.
 Forfeit: A player who cheats, or violates the rules of the game, or violates the
rules specified for the particular tournament can be forfeited. In high-level
tournaments, players have been forfeited for such things as arriving late for the
game (even by a matter of seconds), receiving a call or text on a cell phone,
refusing to undergo a drug test, refusing to undergo a body search for electronic
devices, and unsporting behavior (such as refusing to shake the opponent's
hand).