The Basics of Chess for Beginners
Hello and thank you for being here reading my article.
In this article I plan on sharing with you some of the basics of chess to help you understand how the game is played and a few basic set up rules.
One thing I want you to know is that chess is a game of skill and as any skill it can be learned. If you are really serious about learning chess and getting better it will take some discipline on your part to take time and study the game, analyze your games and play A LOT of games to improve.
Nothing can replace the experience of just simply playing more games and different opponents. Once you get the courage to play your first game, then your second, then your third you will begin to find what playing style you are comfortable with and start dominating your opponents.
Now let's get into a few of the basics.
Chess is a two player board game, one player plays with white pieces and one player plays with dark pieces. Each player begins with 16 pieces and take turns moving one piece at a time across the board.
The opponent with the light pieces moves first and you can think of your chess pieces as your army of soldiers going to war. The main objective of the game is to attack your opponent, eat as many of their pieces as possible and ultimately trap their king which is called "checkmate".
Although your main objective is to trap your opponents King this may not be the case every game. There are a couple other ways that a game can end:
One way is a stalemate where neither opponent can checkmate the other OR when one players king is NOT in check but is trapped in such a way that no matter where he moves he would be putting himself in check which is not a legal move.
Another form of stalemate is when both opponents have captured all of each others pieces EXCEPT for their kings. This is a stalemate because you can't checkmate with only the kings on the board.
The last and final way that a game can end is if one player throws in the towel and quits. Although you should not EVER quit a game you can do this by simply knocking over your king and let your opponent know you are quitting.
The reason you should never quit a game is because you never know what can happen and all it takes is ONE mistake from your opponent for you to completely take over the game.
One quick tip to remember is whoever controls the center 4 squares controls the game and is in a better position to attack. So keep this in mind when you play your first game.
One thing I learned very early in my chess career was to always be attacking and protecting. This means you always want to attack your opponent while still protecting your pieces. If you can keep your opponent retreating then you are in good shape.
Now I encourage you to go and play your first game. There are many places where you can play against other beginners players. One of the more popular places to play is at .
If you still don't feel comfortable playing your first game and feel you need to learn a few more things I am going to follow up this article with with a couple more articles like how to set up the board properly and how each piece moves.
Hello and thank you for being here reading my article.
In this article I plan on sharing with you some of the basics of chess to help you understand how the game is played and a few basic set up rules.
One thing I want you to know is that chess is a game of skill and as any skill it can be learned. If you are really serious about learning chess and getting better it will take some discipline on your part to take time and study the game, analyze your games and play A LOT of games to improve.
Nothing can replace the experience of just simply playing more games and different opponents. Once you get the courage to play your first game, then your second, then your third you will begin to find what playing style you are comfortable with and start dominating your opponents.
Now let's get into a few of the basics.
Chess is a two player board game, one player plays with white pieces and one player plays with dark pieces. Each player begins with 16 pieces and take turns moving one piece at a time across the board.
The opponent with the light pieces moves first and you can think of your chess pieces as your army of soldiers going to war. The main objective of the game is to attack your opponent, eat as many of their pieces as possible and ultimately trap their king which is called "checkmate".
Although your main objective is to trap your opponents King this may not be the case every game. There are a couple other ways that a game can end:
One way is a stalemate where neither opponent can checkmate the other OR when one players king is NOT in check but is trapped in such a way that no matter where he moves he would be putting himself in check which is not a legal move.
Another form of stalemate is when both opponents have captured all of each others pieces EXCEPT for their kings. This is a stalemate because you can't checkmate with only the kings on the board.
The last and final way that a game can end is if one player throws in the towel and quits. Although you should not EVER quit a game you can do this by simply knocking over your king and let your opponent know you are quitting.
The reason you should never quit a game is because you never know what can happen and all it takes is ONE mistake from your opponent for you to completely take over the game.
One quick tip to remember is whoever controls the center 4 squares controls the game and is in a better position to attack. So keep this in mind when you play your first game.
One thing I learned very early in my chess career was to always be attacking and protecting. This means you always want to attack your opponent while still protecting your pieces. If you can keep your opponent retreating then you are in good shape.
Now I encourage you to go and play your first game. There are many places where you can play against other beginners players. One of the more popular places to play is at .
If you still don't feel comfortable playing your first game and feel you need to learn a few more things I am going to follow up this article with with a couple more articles like how to set up the board properly and how each piece moves.
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