Is it possible to play chess? Rules for playing chess for beginners

Chess is a game for two. One player (White) uses white pieces, and the second player (Black) usually plays with black pieces. The board is divided into 64 small black and white squares (fields).

There is a system (notation) that describes the situation on the board and the movement of all the pieces and pawns.

EXAMPLE 1

EXAMPLE 2

In this system, vertical rows of fields are called lines (verticals) and are designated by Latin letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g and h. Horizontal rows of fields are called rows (horizontals) and are numbered from 1 to 8 (1st row, 2nd row, etc.). Each square has its own designation (for example, square e4, indicated by a yellow circle on the board).

EXAMPLE 3

Sloping rows of fields - diagonals are indicated by end fields, for example: a2-g8 And h4-d8 diagonals (marked with red lines). While verticals and horizontals include fields of different colors, diagonals consist of fields of the same color, either white or black fields. For example, diagonal b1-h7 white-field (marked with a green line), and the diagonals c1-a3 And a3-f8 black-field (marked with a blue line). 2 diagonals consisting of 8 fields ( a1-h8 And h1-a8) are called long (main) diagonals (marked with yellow lines).

EXAMPLE 4

STARTING POSITION

At the beginning of the game, each side has:

Pawns and pieces (all together) are called material. At the beginning of the game, the parties have material equality. The goal of the game is to capture the enemy king. This is called mate the king.

Queen and rooks are heavy pieces. Bishops and knights are light pieces.

Chess pieces in the notation are described as follows: king - Kr; queen - F; rook - L; elephant - C; horse - K; pawn - p.

In chess game notation, the designation pawn (p) is most often omitted.

The arrangement of pieces and pawns at a given moment on the board is called a position or situation. The diagram shows the starting position.

White occupies the first and second ranks, black - the seventh and eighth. The board should be positioned so that the top left corner field is white ( h1 for whites and a8 for blacks). In the initial position, the white queen must stand on a white square ( d1) and the black queen - on the black square ( d8).

EXAMPLE 5

The left half of the chessboard (a to d) is called the queenside, and the right half of the board (e to h) is the kingside.

EXAMPLE 6

Four central fields ( d4, d5, e4, e5) are called 2 center. This is a very important section of the board.

MOVES

Any movement of a piece or pawn on the board is called a move. Players take turns making moves, with the white player starting first.

You cannot move a piece to a square already occupied by your own piece or pawn. The knight is the only piece that can jump over squares occupied by its own pieces or pawns and enemy pieces.

Rook

The rook can move any number of squares along the horizontal or vertical lines.

In the diagram, the white rook can move to any square on the e-file or to any square on the 4th rank, a total of 14 squares are available to it.

EXAMPLE 7

Elephant

The bishop can move any number of squares along the diagonal.

In the diagram, the white bishop on d4 can move to any square on the diagonals a1-h8 And g1-a7, a total of 13 fields are available to him. The other white bishop has only 7 squares at its disposal.

In the starting position, each player has one bishop, which can only move on white squares, and one bishop, which can only move on black squares. They are often called light-squared and dark-squared bishops.

EXAMPLE 8

Queen

The queen can move any number of squares vertically, horizontally and diagonally, as shown in the diagram.

Thus, the queen combines the capabilities of a rook and a bishop, and can also move along both white and black diagonals. The diagram shows that the queen standing on d4, 27 fields available. This mobility makes the queen by far the strongest piece.

EXAMPLE 9

Horse

The horse moves in a very unusual way.

From a black field e5 The white knight can go to one of the 8 white squares, as indicated by the arrows. The knight will move 1 square forward and one square diagonally and only on a field of the opposite color to the field on which it is at the beginning of the move. The diagram shows that the horse jumps over the field d5 and stands on the field c6 or c4; through e6 on the field d7 or f7; through f5 on the field g6 or g4, and through e4 on d3 or f3. The knight always moves from a white square to a black square and vice versa. We can say that the horse moves in the letter "G".

EXAMPLE 10

This is the only piece that can jump over its own and other people's pieces.

Although the white knight is surrounded on all sides by his own and others' pieces and pawns, this does not prevent him from moving to the squares marked with markers.

The horse stands out for its exceptional maneuverability.

A well-known problem is to move a knight around the entire board, visiting each square only once. Mathematicians have found that there are more than 30 million such routes. Although the best minds have been solving this problem for several centuries, no one has established the exact number of such routes.

EXAMPLE 11

King

The king can move one square in any direction (diagonal, vertical, horizontal).

On the diagram, the squares to which the king can move are marked with dots.

In the corner of the board, the king's mobility decreases: on the extreme horizontal line, only 5 squares are available to him. When the king is located on a corner square of the board, only 3 squares are available to him.

EXAMPLE 12

TAKE

A piece can capture an enemy piece or a pawn standing in its path. This piece is removed from the board and its place is taken by the piece that makes the move. After which the move is considered over. A piece can capture an enemy piece or pawn only if it can move to the square on which the captured piece is located.

White's move. The white queen simultaneously threatens the black rook and bishop and can capture one of these pieces. Since the rook is a more valuable piece, White takes the rook on d4. The following position appears:

EXAMPLE 13

Before taking.
1. Јd4 After taking:

The player is not obligated to make an eventual capture.

Pawns

To designate a pawn, we will add the file on which it is located or the square: f-pawn, g4-pawn, and so on. Pawns are also called by the name of the piece located on this vertical in the initial position: queen pawn (d pawn), king pawn (e pawn), rook pawn (a or h pawns), knight pawn (b or g), bishop pawn (c or f).

Unlike pieces, which can move in any direction, a pawn can only move one square forward vertically. An exception for the initial position, for example, a white pawn on the second row and a black pawn on the 7th row can move 2 squares forward at once.

Pawns move only vertically, but captures are made diagonally, left or right.

On diagrams, white pawns can only move up, and black pawns can only move down.

Let's look at the pawn moves in the diagram. The white pawn a4 can only move to one square:

EXAMPLE 14

[Since the white pawn c2 in the initial position, then she can go 1. c3;

The white d4 pawn does not threaten the black king, but can capture one of two black pieces: 1. dc;

Black can make the following moves with pawns: 1... ab

In addition to the usual capture, a pawn can capture an enemy pawn (but not a piece) on the pass.

The situation (example 15) arises after the moves

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 f6

A similar situation can arise if Black plays 3... f5 instead of 3... f6

EXAMPLE 15

Now White has the right to take the black f-pawn on the pass with his e-pawn. To do this, White removes the black pawn from the board and moves his pawn to f6. In notation: 4. ef

However, if White does not immediately use the right to capture on the pass, then on the next move he will already lose it. If in diagram 1 White does not play 4. exf6, then on the next move he can no longer take this pawn. Only the white pawn on the fifth rank and the black pawn on the fourth rank can gain the right to capture en passant.

The mobility of a pawn and its attacking potential are much lower than that of any piece (rook pawns control only one square, and the remaining pawns control two squares). However, a pawn can be promoted to any piece except a king. When a pawn reaches the last row (the white pawn is the 8th row and the black pawn is the 1st row) it can be promoted to a piece (queen, bishop, rook or knight) of the same color, regardless of whether there are already such pieces on the board or not. This is called promoting a pawn.

Thanks to this pawn ability, a player can have more pieces of a certain type than in the initial position, several queens, for example. Most often, a pawn turns into the strongest piece - a queen.

When a pawn reaches the last row, the notation after the pawn's move indicates the piece into which the pawn is promoted. At position on the diagram, the notation would look like this:

EXAMPLE 16

1. d8 Ј - this means that the white pawn has reached the 8th row and has become a queen.

A pawn can also be promoted to a queen by taking the bishop on e8: 1. de Ј ;

White can promote his pawn to any other piece. In this case, for example, it is best to take the bishop and turn the pawn into a knight, which immediately attacks both the black king and queen 1. de ¤

NOTATION

In this position, White moves the knight from e3 to c4, simultaneously attacking the black rook on b6 and the pawn on d6. An attack like this is called a double strike. Black removes the rook to b8, and White wins the d6 pawn.

Now Black faces a new danger: White threatens the bishop on c6. To avoid the threat, Black moves him to d7. Let's represent these moves using chess notation. White's first move

EXAMPLE 17

1. ¤ c4, where 1 is the move number, K is the abbreviation of the piece making the move, and c4 is the square to which the piece moved. White's next move and Black's response are described in the notation in the same manner. The symbol used to indicate taking x(multiplication sign), for example 2. TO xd6. Now we can list all the moves in this example: 1... ¦b8 2. ¤d6 Ґd7 Three dots before a move (when necessary) indicate that it is Black's move.

Chessboard and pieces

Board. A chess game is played on a board consisting of 64 squares, alternating light (white squares) and dark (black squares). Rows of fields are called lines, which can be verticals, horizontals and diagonals.
Each horizontal line is numbered from 1 to 8. Each vertical line is numbered in Latin letters from "A" to "H". Each field of the board has its own coordinates, which are formed by writing the name of the vertical and the number of the horizontal. For example: h2
d7
During the game, the board is positioned so that each partner has a white corner field on the right. If this requirement is violated, the resulting position is considered impossible. The game should be interrupted. The position of the board is corrected. Then the created position is transferred to it. After this, the game continues.

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H

Figures. There are kings, heavy (queens, rooks), light (knights, bishops) pieces and pawns. Sometimes pawns are not considered pieces.

The initial position of the figures is shown in the diagram. If they are located differently, the position is considered impossible.

Move concept
The partner who has the white pieces (the right to speak) starts. Then, until the game ends, moves are made alternately. The color of the partners' pieces in amateur games is determined by lot, and in competitions - by the rules. If a game is mistakenly started by a participant playing with black pieces, it is canceled and played again. When counting moves made, White's move followed by Black's response is counted as one.
The player is the partner whose turn it is to move.
Determination of the move. A move is the movement of a piece from one square to another, either free or occupied by an enemy piece. When castling, the position of the king and rook changes. Apart from the knight and rook, when it moves over the king during castling, pieces cannot cross occupied squares.
A move to a square occupied by an opponent's piece means capturing it, and it must be immediately removed from the board (see below about capturing “on the pass”).
Moves of the pieces. The king moves to any adjacent square that is not under attack.
Castling is a two-pronged move involving the movement of the king and the rook: first, the king moves two squares towards the rook, which is then transferred across it to the square adjacent to it. If the player touches the rook and then the king, then castling is impossible. The move must be made in accordance with the “Touching a Piece” rule.
If the player touches first the king and then the rook (or both pieces at the same time), but castling is impossible, then a move with the king or castling in the opposite direction must be made. It may turn out that these requirements are impossible to meet. Then touching the figure does not entail any consequences. The player has the right to continue the game with any move. Castling is completely impossible: 1) if the king has already moved 2) with a rook that has previously moved.
When castling, the king cannot cross a square attacked by enemy pieces.
If the king of one of the sides was attacked on the previous move (check was declared), then on the current move the player is obliged to eliminate the king’s attack: escape with the king from under attack, cover the king from the attacking piece, or cut down the attacking piece.
The queen moves to any square vertically, horizontally and diagonally on which it is located.

The rook moves to any square vertically and horizontally on which it is located.

The bishop moves to any square along the diagonals on which it is located.

The horse moves in a kind of zigzag - through an adjacent field (even an occupied one) vertically or horizontally, then moving away from its original position to one of the adjacent fields diagonally.

The pawn can only move forward. In the general case - vertically to the adjacent free field, and from the initial position - and through one. Capturing with a pawn is possible only diagonally on an adjacent square and, again, moving forward.

A pawn attacking a square that is crossed by a move of two squares by an opponent's pawn can take the latter as if it had come under its attack. Such a capture “on the pass” is permissible only on the first counter move.

White moves the pawn b2-b4, and immediately in response to this, Black can capture en passant by moving his pawn from c4 to b3 and removing White’s pawn from the b4 square.

Upon reaching the last (eighth for white and first for black) rank, the pawn is immediately replaced (as part of the same square) by a queen, rook, bishop or knight of its color. The choice of a new piece does not depend on those remaining on the board. She can be, for example, the second queen, the third knight, etc. Such a replacement is called pawn promotion. The action of a piece that appears on the board begins immediately.
End of turn. A move is considered made when: the player, having moved a piece to a free field, took his hand away from it; the opponent's piece was removed from the board when captured, in the place of which the player put his own, interrupting the contact of his hand with it; when castling, the player took his hand away from the rook placed on the square crossed by the king; the pawn moved to the last rank is replaced by a new piece, from which the player has removed (broken contact) his hand. If the hand is released from the pawn placed on the promotion square, the move is not completed, but moving the pawn is different, i.e. It is impossible to change the place of its transformation.
When it is determined whether a set number of moves have been made in a given time, the last (control) move is not considered completed until the player switches the clock. This rule does not apply to certain situations noted in the Code article “Finished Batch.”
If a checkmate or stalemate position has arisen on the board, and the player, having moved a piece, did not have time to switch the clock before the flag fell, the game is considered to have ended in checkmate or stalemate, respectively, regardless of the clock reading.
Touching the figure. Having warned in advance about his intention (by saying “I’m correcting”), the player can correct the placement of the pieces on the fields. Otherwise, when intentionally touching: one or more pieces of the same color, he must go first touched, and if it is an opponent’s piece, then take it; one of your own pieces and one of your partner’s pieces, the latter must be captured, and if this is not possible, a move is made with the touched piece or the enemy’s piece, which the player touched, is captured. If it is impossible to establish which figure was touched first, we must assume that it is its own figure.
When touching pieces that have no possible moves and cannot be captured, the player has the right to make any move. A statement about a partner’s violation of the Code article “Touching a figure” must be made without touching the figures.

The task of the game. Mat.
The goal of the game of chess is to checkmate the opponent's king.
Mat- an irresistible attack on the king. When checkmate, he cannot evade or be covered from a blow, and defense by capturing an attacking piece is also excluded.

Impossible positions
The occurrence of impossible positions is caused by a violation of the rules of the game. The Code addresses a number of such cases. In other cases, it is recommended to make decisions by analogy.
General principle: correction of impossible positions is made only if irregularities are discovered before the end of the game (including when the result is determined by an award). Depending on the nature of the violations, the game may be continued or canceled and replayed.

Situation	Solution
An impossible move was made	The position in which the error was made is restored. The game continues with the “Touching a Piece” rule applied. If the error cannot be identified, the game is played again.
Pieces are moved out of place and then placed incorrectly	If the position cannot be restored, the game is played again.
While making a move, the player unintentionally knocks over one or more pieces	The player must restore the position of the pieces without switching the clock, otherwise the judge may change the clock readings.
The pieces were placed incorrectly in the initial position	If an error is discovered before the end of the game, the rest of the game starts again.
The game started with the wrong color of pieces	If a quarter of the time has elapsed before the general control, then the game continues. If the error is discovered earlier, the judge may order a replay of the game (in this case, the competition schedule should not be significantly disrupted).
Incorrect position of the chessboard	The resulting position is transferred to the correctly positioned board, after which the game continues
The move with the promotion of a pawn was executed incorrectly	The move is cancelled. The error should be resolved by applying the "Touching the figure" rule
Castling performed incorrectly	Same
The “Touching a Piece” rule was violated: one is touched, and the move is made by another	The referee may consider the move impossible and impose sanctions if he witnessed the violation.
A move was made after a checkmate or stalemate position appeared on the board, but the flag fell on the opponent’s clock	The move is considered impossible. The game ends immediately as soon as the position of checkmate or stalemate occurs. Dropping the flag doesn't matter.
A move is made after a time delay	The referee stops the clock and, if necessary, checks the number of moves actually made. The partner who is overdue is considered a loser.

Win and draw. Finished batch.

Situation	Solution
Checkmate given	The game is won by a partner who checkmates the opponent's king
One of the opponents gave up	An opponent who surrenders is considered defeated
The player stopped the clock	Stopping the clock is equivalent to surrendering the game. If this happened due to a misunderstanding, the judge may limit himself to a remark or leave the incident without consequences.
The player has no moves and his king is not in check	There's a stalemate on the board. The game is considered to end in a draw.
The partners agreed to a draw	Draw. A draw proposal can only be made by the player in the interval between making a move and starting the clock.
A draw is offered to the player	The player's opponent committed a violation, for which the referee must give him a warning. But a draw is considered offered. The partner can accept or reject it
The player proposed a draw without making a move	The partner can accept or reject the offer or defer the decision until the move is made
At least 50 last moves were without capturing a piece and without moving a pawn	At the request of the player, the game is considered a draw. This rule increases to 75 moves in positions with the following balance of forces: 1. King, rook and bishop versus king and rook 2. King and two knights versus king and pawn 3. King, queen and pawn in front of the promotion square against the king and queen 4. King and queen versus king and two knights 5. King and two bishops versus king and bishop
Any partner was late for the start of the game by more than 1 hour	The game is considered lost to those who are late
A position has arisen where the possibility of winning due to the nature of the remaining material is excluded for both sides (King against King, etc.)	A draw is recorded
The partner ran out of time when the opponent had only one king left	A draw is recorded. A partner who has one king cannot win the game.
The same position appeared on the board for the third time	If the player demands, a draw must be recorded.
The player makes a move without requiring a draw due to the position being repeated three times	The party continues. The player receives the right to demand that a draw be recorded in connection with a three-time repetition of a position if the same position on the board occurs again.

In all cases, a draw offer can be rejected verbally or by making a counter move. Until the partner's decision, the one who proposed the draw cannot refuse it.
When a player requests a draw due to a position being repeated three times or based on the 50 or 75 move rule, the referee stops the clock to check the validity of the claim (if the referee is not present, the player has the right to stop the clock and appeal to him). If the demand turns out to be fair, the game ends in a draw. If it turns out that the request is erroneous, then 5 minutes are added to the applicant's watch. In this case, the time limit may be overspent. If this does not happen, then the game continues. Moreover, exactly the move with which the player associated the requirement for a draw must be made.
The validity of the draw requirement when the position is repeated three times and according to the 50 or 75 move rule is checked on another board.
If the judge mistakenly recognizes the validity of the claim, and the applicant's partner does not point out the error during the review, no one's result is changed.
If the claim for a draw is rejected, the claimant may request additional verification at the expense of his or her time or, by stopping the game, appeal to a higher authority. In the latter case, if the claim is confirmed to be erroneous, he is credited with a loss.
For winning a game, a participant in the competition receives 1 (one point), in case of a loss – 0 (zero), and in case of a draw, each partner is awarded 1/2 (half a point).

Chess clock.
Each partner must make the appropriate number of moves at a given time. The conditions are determined in advance and included in the regulations. For control, a watch with a special device – a flag – is used.
The game begins with the start of the clock of the participant playing with white pieces.
The time remaining after completing the required number of moves accumulates. If, for example, 15 minutes are saved, and an hour is allotted for the next part of the game, then the chess player has one hour and a quarter before the second control.
There are also competitions where a time limit for thinking is set for all moves at once. In this case, the game ends when one of the flags falls.
The watch's readings, in the absence of obvious defects, are undeniable. There may be situations that require a judge's decision. It happens, say, that the flag remains in a hovering position, although the minute hand has passed the corresponding mark on the dial. Has the control time really expired? The judge has the final say here. Taking into account the actual reading of the clock, he may consider the flag to have fallen.
In the absence of a judge, a statement about the expiration of the opponent's control time must be made by the partner.
A watch defect should be reported as soon as it is discovered. The participant's reference to their malfunction later than immediately after the control flag drop may be rejected.
Defective watches must be replaced. The time used by the partners is precisely set on the new ones. If the judge decides to change it to one or both partners, then they must have at least 5 minutes left or 1 minute for each move.
Having evidence that only one partner’s watch incorrectly reflects the time spent, the judge corrects only their reading. If there are no such reasons, the time is adjusted equally on both watches.
The clock is stopped by the referee when the game is interrupted for reasons beyond the control of the partners - to correct impossible positions, when replacing a defective clock, etc., as well as when the player demands to fix a draw due to a three-time repetition of a position or according to the 50 (75) move rule . In these cases, if there is no judge nearby, the participant can stop the clock himself to appeal to him.
If the game continues after an impossible move or errors in the placement of shifted pieces and it is impossible to determine the time used by each partner, it is awarded to them in proportion to the time spent by the time the error occurred.
Example. After Black's 30th move, when the clock showed 90 minutes for White and 60 minutes for Black, it was discovered that there was an error on the 20th move. The time used for the first 20 moves is set as follows: white: 90:30x20 = 60 minutes, black: 60:30x20 = 40 minutes. In this case, partners must have at least 5 minutes left before control, or 1 minute for each move.
The surrender of the game or agreement to a draw remains valid if it is later discovered that the flag has fallen.
If both flags fall and it is impossible to determine which one comes first, the game continues. From the next move, a new countdown begins until the next control.
The judge should not draw the attention of his partners to the fact that the opponent made a move, forgot to change the clock, warn how many moves need to be made before the control time expires, etc.

Part recording
When conducting a game, partners are required to keep a record of the game. The recording must be kept legibly and step by step. The recording of a game can be interrupted by a partner who has less than 5 minutes left before the time control expires. After the flag falls, the missing moves must be added immediately.
There is an international and national party recording system. Which, in turn, are divided into full notation and short notation.

In the international system, in full notation, a move is written as follows: The number of the move is indicated, the piece by which the move is made, the square from which the piece moves, and the square to which the piece moves are indicated.
The figures are represented by the following letters:
K is king
Q – Queen
R – Rook
N - horse
B - elephant
The pawn is not designated as anything.

For example entry
22.Qh2-h8
It means the Queen's move from square h2 to square h8.

If it is necessary to indicate a black move, either the previously made white move or an ellipsis is indicated before the move.
For example:
23. … Rd2-d6
This is the black rook's move from square d2 to square d6.
1. e2-e4 e7-e5
White's first move is from square e2 to square e4, in response to this Black moves a pawn from square e7 to square e5.

If a piece is captured, an “x” sign is placed between the field from which the piece moves and the field where it moves.
For example
2. e4xd5
Pawn e4 cuts to d5.
If the opponent’s king is checkmated by the current move, then a “#” sign is placed after the move. If there is a check, then the “+” sign is indicated.
Short castling is designated as “O-O”, long castling – “O-O-O”.
If a pawn makes a move to the last rank (white to the eighth, black to the first), then after the move the piece into which it has become is indicated.
For example
8. e7-e8Q
The pawn made a move to square e8 and became a queen.
16. O-O-O g2xh1Q
This notation means: On the sixteenth move, White made a long castling, Black, with a pawn standing on g2, cut down the piece standing on h1 and the pawn turned into a Queen.
When writing in short notation, the field from which the move was made is not indicated.
For example,
1. e4 e5
This notation means that White moved his pawn to e4, and in response Black moved his pawn to e5.
However, when a record in short notation can be interpreted ambiguously, either the move is indicated in full notation or the part of the field from which the move was made is additionally indicated, which allows the move to be identified.
For example, on the first rank there are only two white rooks on squares a1 and h1.
Let's say you need to indicate the move of the rook from square h1 to square d1. But with this arrangement of pieces on square d1, both rooks and the entry can go
12. Rd1
It won't be correct. It is necessary to indicate the part of the square from which the rook comes, in this case:
12 Rhd1
There may be different situations that lead to different entries. For example:
34. N4e5 Rff5
If during a move the opponent’s piece is captured, then the “x” sign is indicated after writing the piece’s symbol. If a pawn captures, then only the vertical from which the pawn moved and the vertical on which the pawn captured the piece are indicated.
For example:
13.de
The pawn standing on the d-file cut down the piece standing on the e-file. In this case, identification must be unambiguous. If, for example, there are two white pawns on the d-file and both can capture on the e-file, then it is necessary to accurately indicate the capture square.
Castling when written in short notation is indicated in the same way as in full notation.

The Russian notation system differs from the international one in the designation of figures:
Kr - king
F – queen
L – rook
C – elephant
K - horse
The pawn is also not marked.
The sign for capturing a piece is “:”
Shah – “+”
Checkmate - "x"

Behavior of partners
It is prohibited during the game:
Use records or printed materials, ask someone for advice; this requirement also means a ban on any conversations with anyone other than the judge or in his presence;
Take notes for memory, in addition to recording moves and clock readings;
Analyze in the tournament room (in particular, your game on another board);
Distract or disturb a partner in any way (this also applies to cases where the partner who offered a draw repeats the offer without sufficient reason before the opponent, in turn, exercises this right).
Violation of the rules of conduct may entail sanctions, including loss of the game.
Compliance with the norms of sports ethics is a condition for a normal competition environment. It is the tradition of chess players to shake hands before starting a game and congratulate their partner on their success. Being late for a game without good reason, “advising” the opponent to agree to a draw, demonstrating dissatisfaction with an unsuccessful game, etc. should be considered a sign of bad manners.
Partners' opinions about each other, as well as their relationships, can be different. But during competition there must be mutual respect.

Solving tactics, studies and chess compositions should be the first step for anyone who wants to improve themselves.

Step 2.

The next step should include studying the Masters/Grandmaster games. However, you should not jump to this step quickly. First you must get to know simple tactics, such as fork, double attack, pin, through attack, simple mating networks, etc. Without knowing the basic techniques, it will be difficult for you to analyze the games of strong players.

I would also like to add a few words about the masters' games. Ideally, when you watch a game for the first time, you study it without reading comments and see how much you can understand the different moves. Pay attention to the game plan, tactics, mistakes, transition from middlegame to endgame, etc. Put yourself in the player's shoes and try to analyze the position from their point of view. As you watch the game, stop and ask yourself: “ How would I play here?" Try to understand the ideas behind the moves.

After the preliminary work has been done, you need to re-look at the game with comments and fill in the gaps that you missed during self-analysis. This approach to learning is more productive and profitable than simply reading comments and watching the game. Some chess coaches recommend reviewing games even 4-5 times in order to better understand and remember the material studied.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Each player must apply knowledge in practice. Playing games is absolutely necessary to improve your chess skills.

Another important condition without which self-improvement is impossible is motivation. Only a well-motivated person can spend hours playing chess, study theory productively, play practice matches and not give up further practice, regardless of the result. It is these players who quickly achieve serious growth.

Step 3.

To understand the analysis given in the books, you must understand chess notation and have a good knowledge of special notations. When you study a chess game, you will have to interpret moves and specials. notations automatically, without wasting time on understanding and using cheat sheets.

Some players, despite playing chess for a long time, are unable to read chess notation or quickly find the right square on the board to make a move.

If you do not know chess notation, then I can offer you a very simple exercise. When you play the game, use an unmarked board (no numbers or letters) and try to write down your move as quickly as possible. It is also necessary to quickly define fields and name them, e.g. d2, h5, a3 etc., without calculating their coordinates.

Step 4.

Every chess player should be able to identify mistakes in their own games. When analyzing your games, you should always look for ways to strengthen your game and write appropriate comments. When analyzing you need to try to answer 3 questions:

1. Where were the main mistakes made and how could you have played better? (for both players)
2. What was each side's plan?
3. What was the reason for your mistake? (little time, option not calculated deeply enough, gross mistakes, etc.))

Analyzing and commentating your games is extremely important to improve the quality of your game.

Another important point is the importance systematic training. Working on chess throughout 30 minutes 3-4 days a week You will achieve greater success than spending 2 hours training, but once a week.

Many players adhere to the wrong learning strategy, concentrating on one chess topic for a long time. For example, studying opening schemes or patterns of play in the middlegame for a very long time. As a result, this does not give the necessary progress in chess.

Some outstanding chess coaches believe that the most effective way is to study several topics during one lesson. For example, first a little theory, then analysis of the classical game, tactics and endgame.

Step 5.

The next step in chess development is to study the history of chess, along with the biography of your favorite players and their games. Choose games from such outstanding players as Botvinnik, Smyslov, Nimzowitsch, etc. and study their ideas that they applied in games.

You can also study the games of modern players, but do not forget about the classics, since the plans and ideas of the great masters of chess history are easier to understand and apply in your own games.

Another very important part of learning is participating in good chess competitions. For a player to grow, it is recommended that he participate in 5-6 tournaments a year. This way you can test all the acquired skills and theoretical knowledge through good practice.

Let's summarize.

There are 5 steps that are essential to improve your game:

1. Solving tactics, studies and chess compositions.
2. Studying master games, practice matches and working on motivation.
3. Improving the skills of reading/writing chess notation.
4. Analysis of your own games, study of the endgame.
5. Chess history and participation in chess tournaments (5-6 tournaments per year).

Chess, as an exciting hobby, is suitable for both children and adults. This exciting intellectual game perfectly develops logic, memory and thinking. You can learn to play chess from scratch on your own. A tutorial and video tutorials will help with this. They make it clear where the king stands and how to set up the starting position. Training takes place in an accessible form, at a time suitable for the player. Having learned all the chess rules, you can begin to participate in official competitions. They are often organized by a chess club or club, which brings together lovers of these intellectual battles. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, let's look at the rules of playing chess for beginners.

All the rules in 5 minutes - video

Purpose of the game

Many of our readers ask the question of how to learn to play chess in a short time. The answer is obvious. The main thing is to understand the essence and main goal - to checkmate the opponent’s king. This situation means that the king on the board has nowhere to retreat - there are no free cells in the zone of his movement, or other shelters. Checkmate means capturing the enemy army and, accordingly, victory over the opponent, who ends the game with his defeat.

In addition, beginning chess players will have to learn:

How to arrange;
What position does the king occupy on the board and how to properly defend it;
A successful chess move;
The role of the pawn in chess.

The international organization FIDE is involved in popularizing these tabletop battles in our country and throughout the world. It holds amateur competitions, including for beginners, which allow them to gain not only a small monetary gain, but also invaluable experience in this intellectual battle with a real opponent. Regular practice will allow you to find the right way out even from seemingly hopeless situations, learn how to masterfully checkmate, win and lose with dignity

How to set up the board and arrange units?

All actions take place on a board consisting of 64 black and white squares. Two armies will stand on it, carefully thought out moves will be made in order to checkmate the enemy. The first thing new players need to learn is how to place everything correctly. Any tutorial will tell you about this.

The setup begins with the correct placement of the board - you need to make sure that White has a white square in the lower right corner.

Each player will have to arrange his army, which consists of:

2 rooks;
2 elephants;
2 horses;
His Majesty with the queen (queen);
8 pawns.

The placement rules are quite simple. On the outer squares in the first row there are rooks, behind them knights and bishops are placed. The central cells of the first row are intended for the main figures. The queen is given a cell of the same color as him, he loves his color! Where the king stands is next to the queen. In the second row of the board, pawns are placed in front of them, playing the role of privates in your tabletop army. It is they who have to make the first move, expose themselves to attack, protecting the king. This arrangement of figures is considered classic.

How do chess pieces move?

Once you learn how to correctly place the pieces on the chessboard, you can move on to learning the rules for moving them. So:

King moves one cell, but in any direction. This is necessary in order to prevent checkmate after receiving check from the opponent.

Queen moves in any direction by the required number of cells. He is considered the most valuable piece on the board.

Elephant moves diagonally to any number of cells. The black elephant moves on black squares, and the white elephant, respectively, on white squares.

Horse moves in the letter “G” for 3 cells. Its main feature is that it can jump over any obstacles, which is not allowed even for a queen. This horse ability is very valuable.

Rook can move in a straight line, vertically or horizontally - that is, either forward or backward, but by any number of cells.

How does he walk? pawn in the chess army even beginner players know - one, maximum - 2 squares and only forward. They attack representatives of the enemy army exclusively diagonally. If a pawn reaches the opposite edge of the board, it receives the right to promotion - to become a knight, bishop, rook or queen, and gain more opportunities for movement. Compliance with all of the above movements requires chess rules, which clearly spell out how chess pieces move in all types of matches, from classic to bullet.

The easiest way to learn how chess pieces move is in pictures. These are the basics of chess literacy, which is taught to children. Having remembered how white and black should stand and move on the board, you can move on to studying special possibilities, there are only two of them - capturing on the pass and castling.

Taking on the pass

An en passant capture concerns a special pawn move. If your opponent has moved a pawn two squares, thereby aligning it with yours, which has the opposite color, then you have every right to remove it from the board. Your pawn will take its place. The only caveat is that you need to do this right away.

Castling

The king and rook take part in castling, but on the condition that they have not yet moved on the board, and at the moment there are no other participants in the battle between them. The essence of this is that they change places with each other - the king takes 2 steps towards it, and the rook jumps over it. An important rule of all castlings is that none of the cells involved in them should be under attack from the enemy.

Draw

A draw is called a stalemate. Its essence is that one of the participants has no more moves, but the checkmate is not achieved. In this case, the game ends.

In addition, the game ends in a draw if the positions of the pieces in the battle are repeated three times or the players have very little material left on the board, insufficient to declare checkmate to the opponent.

End of the game, checkmate

We've already figured out where to start, now it's time to find out how to finish it right. A checkmate to the opponent is considered a victory. Attempts to drive him into a “trap” - this is the essence of the chess game. If the king is under attack, he is declared in check, meaning that he has the right to make a move that saves him or to close himself off from the check.

Checkmate is the surrender of the entire chess army, which was unable to protect its commander-in-chief, and he fell into the nets set by the enemy. The faster it is delivered, the higher the participant’s qualifications are considered. Victory in tournaments is confirmed by referees who closely monitor the progress of the battle and do not allow a single impossible move.

Chess Variants

We have figured out how to learn to play chess, now we move on to different versions of these intellectual game battles.

Classic

The classic game has certain time limits. The duration of the game is at least an hour. This is exactly how much time players are given to think about their movements and defeat their opponent. Most often, the control is set for an hour and a half, during which players need to make 40 moves. The following are possible options:

30 minutes until the end of the board battle;
Plus 20 minutes for each successful move made, etc.

If checkmate is not given before the end of the maximum time of the game, a draw is declared.

Bullet

In this version, all the rules of the classics apply, but time control is significantly tightened. Each player is given time from 10 to 60 seconds to think. For each move made, the party participants are given seconds, not minutes.

Blitz

Blitz chess also has a time limit. Players are given no more than 5 minutes to think about each move. It is the most popular chess game in sporting competitions. It goes by quite quickly, requiring players to be composure and maximum concentration on the playing field.

Chess – 960 (Fisher)

The rules for this option are standard. They differ from the classics mainly in the initial position on the extreme horizontals. The layout is performed randomly, selected from 960 possible. All other rules will be similar to the classic version. This applies to:

Castling;
Takes on the pass;
Confessions of a draw;
Checkmate.

The main difference is the variety of options for starting a game. The game then proceeds according to standard rules with a time limit.

Value of pieces

The rules of chess must be strictly followed. It is recommended to play without fanaticism, that is, without needlessly risking pieces. Every pawn is important on the game board. After all, if there are no fighters left in your army, then with whom will you go on the attack in order to checkmate? However, mistakes in the game cannot be avoided and sometimes you have to sacrifice representatives of the game army. It’s up to you to decide which one to give away; below we will provide a table with their value:

Queen – 9 points;
Rook – 5 points;
Bishop and Knight – 3 points each;
Pawn – 1 point.

Points do not affect the result. They only make it clear to the player what he loses by giving the material to his opponent, and what he gains when he takes it. Descriptions of all participants in the tabletop battle were given above.

Notation - recording a chess game

Notation is a scheme of symbols designed to record a chess game, which even novice players should know. This is necessary in order to learn:

Record game games yourself;
Read and understand specialized literature;
Play blind
Analyze already played games in order to analyze them and work on mistakes.

A detailed description of each game on a piece of paper will allow you to analyze your wins and losses. There are several types of chess notation. The most commonly used is algebraic. The following photos will help you understand it. You can see from them that the board consists of 64 cells, each of which has its own symbol.

Each character has its own designation:

Kr (K) – king;
F (Q) – queen;
L (R) – rook;
K (N) – horse;
C (C) – elephant;
P (p) – pawn.

+ - check;
++ - double check;
# - mate;
X – capture of a figure;
0-0 – castling;
!! – excellent move;
?? – gross mistake, etc.

Even beginning chess players should know the basic terms of recording a game game. They will allow you to independently develop successful strategies that guarantee victory in the game.

Tournament Rules

Even amateur tournaments have certain rules. At first glance, they are quite simple, but they require players to be careful and vigilant. Judges are required to ensure their compliance. This is prescribed by the instructions for holding tournaments.

Touched - go

This is one of the main rules. If a player touches a piece with his hand, he must move it. If he touches the opponent's piece, then he must take it. If a player touches two of his pieces at once, then he must move the one he touched first.

Clocks and Timers

Almost all variants of battles involve recording the time for players to think about the characters’ movements. For this purpose, mechanical watches and electronic rules are used. The general rules for their use are as follows:

Press the clock after completing each move with the hand with which it was made;
Keep track of your opponent's time, avoiding delays, which actually means his loss;
Check the time limit before starting the game.

These are the basic rules of how to play with time control.

The chess section for adults and children gives some advice to aspiring grandmasters. Following them will ensure you a successful game and allow you to become a real ace in this sport. Below we present the main ones:

Think about your opponent's every move;
Develop your own plan on how to checkmate your opponent;
Know the value of your pieces.

Some points deserve special attention. Here they are:

Protect your king

Even with the correct placement on the board, the safety of the king may be at risk. Therefore, always carefully think through his defense, not allowing your opponent to put checkmate. But at the same time, do not allow yourself to calmly watch your figures being eaten.

A competent grandmaster not only keeps his commander-in-chief under protection, but also develops a strike against the enemy.

Control the center of the chessboard

You need to keep at least 4 central cells under control. This is where the main playing positions are located. The figures at the edges of the playing field are less involved in the game battle and therefore they are less agile. The game cannot be won with pawns alone. Therefore, you need to, without hesitation, alternately introduce the main forces into the necessary zones, with which you will put checkmate to your partner.

History of chess, when were they invented

If you're serious about getting into chess, you need to know the history of this ancient game that became an Olympic sport. It appeared more than 2 thousand years ago, presumably in India. The ancestor of modern gaming battles was the ancient military chaturanga. From India at the beginning of the first centuries AD. it began to spread around the world, ending up first in Central Asia and soon gaining popularity in both the Far and Middle East. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, chaturanga, which began to be called shatranj, found its way to Mauritanian Asia, and in the mid-15th century it became popular in Europe. It was then that the first instructions for conducting tabletop battles and the requirements for its compliance appeared.

The first tournament was held in 1575. This happened at the court of the Spanish king. The battle involved his subjects against guests from Italy. After this, international tournaments for this board game began to be held everywhere. In 1836 the first magazine was published. In all European countries, including the Russian Empire, circles of amateur chess players began to form. In the 19th century, chess clocks appeared and tabletop battles received a time limit. From that moment to the present day it has survived almost unchanged. Both adults and children became interested in it. Amateur and professional tournaments began to be held everywhere. A huge number of people began to follow the tabletop battles. Soon professional grandmasters appeared and the games were included in the Olympic program. They began to be called a passive sport.

Greetings, dear reader or guest of this blog. My name is Alexander Borisov. I am Zhorik’s father and in this article I would like to tell you about how to learn to play chess and achieve good results in this sport.

Before continuing, with your permission, I will take the opportunity to introduce our programs for training chess players.

The fact is that you can learn the rules of the game in order to go play in the yard with friends or with your grandmother in the country in 1 day, but to learn how to play professionally, for this you also need to train, and do it correctly.

This article will be useful to those who:

wants to learn to play chess from scratch
wants to understand the basic principles of the game
wants to know how to properly train every day to improve chess skills
wants to avoid making cruel mistakes at the beginning of his chess career
wants to know who is better to play with and what chess programs to train with

Just one moment, if you came across this article on the Internet and want to teach your child to play, then you need to start, and then this. And we begin.

Do I have the right to teach you to play chess? I think yes. Why? Well, if in 2 weeks I taught a 4-year-old child the game from scratch and in 3 months he, then I can teach you too.

Among other things, I myself have been playing chess for quite some time. Back in, like, 2003, my rating reached almost 2200 ELO points.

The base of the chess game consists of the following blocks:

Learning the rules of the game
Understanding game tactics and strategy
Daily workouts

Now we will consider all this.

So that here and now, I don’t have to sit and retell you all the rules: how the board is placed, how the pieces move, how they eat each other, what pitfalls there are and all that, I simply recommend to you, where it’s collected step by step from start to finish everything you need to know to learn to play.

What does it have to do with learning to play by the rules and so that no one will ever tell you, “Hey friend, they don’t walk like that, or they don’t eat like that”... In addition, by studying these rules from the link that I gave above, you yourself will be able to correct others. Well, I guarantee you that at least 50% of street chess players don’t even know the simple rule - .

If you are too lazy to read, then I recommend that you purchase this video course, which Zhorik and I recorded for you. Suitable for both adults and children.

So, in order to start playing chess, you need to learn the basic rules (elementary things: who goes first, what checkmate, checkmate, stalemate are, what the pieces are called and who is stronger than which, etc.).

After you understand the basics, you need to learn how to correctly place the pieces on the board and find out how each of the 6 main pieces moves, these are the pawn, rook, knight, bishop, rook, queen and king.

After that, study the rules of castling, capturing a pawn on an en passant, and what piece the pawn turns into when it reaches the last line of the chessboard. ALL!

Everything else will come to you over time. For example, you don’t need to know chess notation in the first days, just like you don’t need to know what a tiebreaker is in chess. It's simple. For your convenience, here are links to all the articles that you can read right now and in 2 hours go play with a friend in the yard or with your grandmother in the country.

Let's assume that you have already learned to play chess. Now you need to improve your playing skills. What should you do for this? That's right - train every day, but let's talk about that a little later. Let's first learn the basic principles of the game.

Here's a useful article for you by the way -. Read it. MEGA useful rules for a beginner so that he does not make wrong moves, does not miss pieces and checkmate his king. These rules are our own development with Zhorik.

Let's move on to the principles of the game. Now I can burden you with all sorts of complex grandmaster terms, but let’s not. Let me tell you in simple language about the elementary principles, by understanding which you will mega powerfully increase the level of your game after reading them.

I put them all together based on the most common mistakes made by beginners, including my Zhorik. Here are my tips that any professional chess player (grandmaster) will approve of:

Don't move with extreme pawns at the beginning of the game. Capture the center with the central ones
Don't bring out heavy pieces at the beginning of the game, take out the lungs
Don't run queen at the beginning of the game alone, trying to eat someone because it is the strongest piece
Don't forget about the king's protection, don't forget about castling.
Rooks love open lines, keep them busy
Horses love space, place them in the center, not on the edge of the board
Try not to let doubling or lining up pawns
Try hard do not create weak unprotected pawns
Don't move pawns from the castled king. The king needs protection from his own pawns
Don't rush to check your opponent, showing his attack on the king. A check can be placed in such a way that it will only help the opponent in development. No need to say “Check” out loud.

And now for more details about each tip.

1. The center is the most important squares of the chessboard, and it is for their conquest that all chess players fight at the beginning of the game. It’s like in a war they try to take the heights so that the rest of the battlefield is in the palm of their hand, as in chess, they try to capture the center in order to attack from it on all fronts.
2. At the beginning of the game you need to try to bring out the light pieces, these are knights and bishops, and only then everything else. A heavy figure alone cannot do anything; it needs helpers and these are just light figures. A heavy figure entering the battlefield alone will be forced to retreat from the attacks of light enemy figures.
3. Similar to everything that is written in point No. 2. While you run around the board with your queen in the hope of eating someone, the enemy will develop all his pieces and attack while your combat units are standing in the garage and resting.

Here is an example of how a beginner should not play:

While White was running with the queen, Black was developing. Look at the final position. White has all his pieces in their places, while Black has already captured the center and brought out two knights, one of which is in the center.

1. An uncastled king often dies in the middle of the game, before reaching the endgame (end of the game), so after removing light pieces, try to castle to protect your most important piece.
2. Rooks love space, so seize free lines; rooks also work very well in pairs. Having burst into the so-called gluttonous row of the enemy, they can attack him in full.

An example of a rook attack in a glutton row:

1. Try to place your knights in the center, because on the edge of the board they are not effective and have fewer options for moves. If, standing on the edge, the knight at best has 4 options for moves, then in the center there can be as many as 8.
2. This is, of course, a pro level, but you still need to know this. Doubled or tripled pawns in most cases aggravate the position. Double pawns interfere with each other and become targets for attack. Pawns love to go next to each other when each can defend a similar one.

Here is an example of doubled and tripled pawns:

1. What does weak pawns mean? Here is a simple example of such weak pawns:

And this is how this situation arose. Perhaps it would have been better for Black to play Cd7 instead of c6.

Weak pawns are those pawns that cannot be protected by their own pawns. As a result, such pawns become targets for attack. The opponent, having found such a weakness in your army, will try to direct all his forces in this direction.

1. After you have castled, try not to move pawns away from the king, because pawns are his defenders, it’s okay to make a window, but don’t weaken the position in the same way as beginners like to do, trying to drive away the bishop who has pinned the knight.

Very often, such weakening of the horse ends in failure:

Beginners love to play around. The advice is this: before you make a check, think about what it will give? This will really harm the opponent's king and worsen his position, or, on the contrary, help him gain an advantage, good positional play, development of pieces, or even worse, win a piece from you.

I see this mistake very often among beginners. They have one piece under attack and need it to leave, but instead they give a useless check to the opponent’s king with another piece. As a result, the opponent defends against check with a pawn and attacks the second piece.

It turns out that now two pieces are under battle and one is lost. Was there any point in making a check? Keep it up.

Well then. In general, that's all. Now that you know all the rules of the game and know how to play, when you know all the basic principles of playing chess, all that remains is to practice every day.

How to do it? In fact, this is a very big topic and I naturally cannot cover it all in this article, so in order for your daily training to be as effective as possible, I suggest you watch this video course that we developed together with Zhorik.

It has absolutely everything you need to train effectively and efficiently every day and achieve super results.

Also, very soon my team and I will open a chess school “Chess with Zhorik” in which we will constantly improve our playing skills under the guidance of an experienced coach Pavel Alexandrovich Shipintsyn.

P.S. At the end of the article, a piece of advice. Buy or download the CT-ART 4.0 program on the Internet. Very cool thing. There are various options for working out different chess situations.