Chess Game: The Definitive Guide (2022)

Contents

What is Chess Game?

Chess Game is two-player strategy board game played on the chessboard, a checkered board with 64 squares in 8×8 grid. This Game is played with strategies and ideas based on some calculations and tricks all around the world with a lot of courage and intelligence.

This game is somewhat derived from the ancient game called chaturanga that was Indian strategy game played by kings and royal people in the old times.

This game have a total of 32 pieces, i.e. 16 pieces for both sides each have different ability of moving with a lot of variations in their power. Each player have 6 different types of pieces: 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, a queen and the most important one – the king!

Top 10 Benefits Of Chess

Even though, Chess can also have benefits beyond intelligence and IQ, it also have a significance benefits on our health and behaviour. Here are some of the benefits of chess game:

Here I will tell you about 10 major benefits that you will get by playing chess at a regular basis. This will not only increase your IQ level or changes your mindset towards all the real-life situations but also build you a great personality (the one you never expects).

Raise Your IQ Level

Playing a chess game requires a high IQ level but this can also help you to increase your IQ level as while playing chess you have to do a lot of calculations, have to make good plans, you have to make good chess strategies to make that plan successful.

On the basis of own experience, I have also realised a considerable amount of change in my IQ level and the way of thinking towards the situations in my life. This was also accepted by GM Magnus Carlsen who have IQ above 190 that Chess surely increases your IQ Level.

Also, all the chess grandmasters and top-level chess players have high IQ level. You can also start playing chess so that you can also experience such a considerable amount of change in your IQ.

Enhance Your Personality Traits

Chess can help you to enhance your personality traits that will also improve your performance of work in real-life. Here are some of the personality traits that you can developed by chess.

We have done a research study to know whether playing Chess game can surely improve the personality of an individual. For this we have divided a group of students in 2 Groups.

According to the research study on these two groups, we have seen 38% difference in IQ of people who play chess regularly in 3 months due to intense interaction with calculations, strategies, making plans, etc.

Till now, you have understood that Chess improves the personality traits a lot and will makes our life different from other people. That’s why, I say that Chess could be a good option for the children who want the overall development in their life.

Exercises Both Hemispheres Of Brain

As Chess is a brain game that requires strategies and plans to be made that also helps in exercise of both hemisphere of the brain.

The left hemisphere controls the logical thinking and calculation ability of the brain, which is very important on each move in chess. Whereas, the right hemisphere controls the creative thinking of the brain which is very important to make plans and generate ideas as well as for building strategies for the game.

Here you have seen that chess game can help a lot to your brain and opens make more dendrites which results in activating the right hemisphere of you brain. Hence, chess could help you to exercise both parts of your brain.

Increase Your Creativity

Chess game is played by analysing positions, making good plans, master strategies and lot more thinking process that will help you to increase your creativity.

These research study have proved that chess players are more creative than the non-chess players.

Improve Your Concentration Power

Chess is a game of planning and strategies that needs a lot of concentration and focus for a long time. Concentrating over a single thing for a long time helps you to improve your focus and concentration power.

It would be very beneficial to you if you improve your concentration power, such as you could think more effectively, can take the decisions of your life more effectively, you could also inert the ability to control your thoughts, this will also sharpen your mind, improves your self-confidence and many more other benefits.

Chess Game could be a great educational tool for students to improve their performance in every sphere of life and can help in the overall development of the students.

As we have discussed above Chess is very beneficial for the overall development of the students. You all may glad to read that the Government of many countries understands the value and importance of chess game in the development of students.

That’s why governments of many countries all around the world decided to make chess game a compulsory subject in school education.

That’s why, the governments of lot of countries decided to make the game of chess as a compulsory subject in school education.

Major Health Benefits Of Chess

Chess is a brain game associated with various mental activities such as critical thinking, problem-solving activities, tactical calculation, making plans and chess strategies, and main other brain exercises through chess.

So, Do chess only improves the performance of the mind and improve your IQ Level?

No!

Chess also gives you some of the health benefits such as it will prevent you from various diseases such as Autism, Alzheimer, Stroke Recovery and many other health benefits.

This research study have proved that there is a strong connection between health and playing brain games like chess.

It Teaches Right Way Of Planning

Making plans and strategies in Chess also teaches you the right way of planning. I am talking not only about chess games but also in your life, you could gain the ability to set good targets and can make good strategies and would not lose anywhere in the real-life.

According to the study, Chess game can promote prefrontal cortex development that can help them to take better decisions in their life based on a right way of planning, correct judgement and better thinking abilities.

It Improves Decision-Making

Chess also improves our decision-making, as in the game we have to take a lot of decisions in various strategies, our moves, our plans, etc.

The prefrontal cortex is responsible for performing “executive functions” such as reason, logic, problem-solving, planning, memory, directing attention, developing and pursuing goals and inhibiting counterproductive impulses that also contributes to our decision-making process.

Teaches To Accept Win And Lose

Chess Game Teaches You How To Accept Win And Lose. The main problem with people of all ages, that they do not accept the win or lose.

It is the worldwide accepted truth that everyone likes to win in every sphere of their life, but no one wants to accept their loss. It is good to win each match but that’s not possible that every player wins each match, one player will lose and another will win the match.

It Improves Problem-Solving Skills

In the game of chess, we usually solve some positions and tactics which will ultimately improves our problem solving skills.

Nearly 450 fifth-grade students were split into three groups in a 1992 study in New Brunswick. Group A was the control group and went through the traditional math curriculum. Group B supplemented the math with chess instruction after first grade, and Group C began the chess in first grade. On a standardized test, Group C’s grades went up to 81.2% from 62% and outpaced Group A by 21.46%.

Chess have also shown a considerable amount of benefit on the studies as well the overall education as the players will have to face less difficulties and problems in the education system as compared to non-chess players.

So, these are some of the major benefits of chess in our life, body, health and mind that leads to overall development of a person. Here is a quick infographic for you that makes you completely clear for you and can also tell other people about the benefits of chess game and encourage them to play chess by showing this infographic to them.

Overview Of Chessboard

In the beginning of this chess guide, I have told you that the game of chess is played on a checkered chessboard.

So, what’s that, how we can play that, is there any other use of chessboard, what those silly numbers and alphabets on that board mean, how a position can be evaluated on a chessboard and a lot more questions to be answered here.

How To Setup A Chessboard

The first step of learning chess game is how to setup the chessboard. The standard game of chess starts from a pre-defined setup of chess pieces. Let’s learn how to setup this!

Here I will tell you the complete procedure to setup a chessboard that will help you to do this very easily.

As you can see the chess diagram above, the chessboard have some letter and numbers on it. Are they of any use in chess or made for decoration purposes only.

The chess games can be recorded in the form of alphabets and numbers known as the algebraic notation.

How These Chess Pieces Move?

Now, I will teach you how to move these chess pieces which makes the base of how to play chess. All 6 kinds of chess pieces move in their different styles, as there are different characteristics of all the 6 pieces.

The Chess pieces cannot jump or move over other pieces { Exception: the Knight is only the chess piece that can jump over the other pieces } and cannot move to the square acquired by the chess piece of its similar color.

But they can be moved to the squares acquired by the opponent pieces to capture these pieces.

Generally, Chess Pieces are moved into the crucial positions, where they can capture other pieces or make the crucial pressure on the opponent by attacking the opponent’s king, defend their pieces in case of capture, or control important squares in the game to consolidate the position in the game.

Now, I will tell you how all of these chess pieces move that we have discussed above in the table of Info About Chess Pieces one-by-one.

How To Move Pawn In Chess?

The Pawns are considered as the weakest piece in chess. The pawns can only move up to only one square. But only at the initial position { i,e, when the particular pawn hasn’t been moved yet }, the pawns can move up to two squares.

The Pawns can capture only one square diagonally in front of it. But there is a restriction to the pawns in chess that they can not move backward, nor they could capture the square behind it. This becomes the weakest point for the pawn that if any piece is to be put on the square just in front of it, the pawn becomes dead virtually, as it can not move forward, nor it could capture that piece.

As per the Reinfeld values, the Pawn has a total of 1 value point.

How To Move Bishop In Chess?

The Bishop can move as far as possible but can move only diagonally. In the game of chess, each bishop starts on a specific color { light or dark color } and also stays on that color even at the end of the game.

These Bishops work well in the pair when they cover the two adjacent diagonals and create a massive attack by covering each other’s weakness.

The Bishop is considered as the best attacking piece for sacrifice due to their high range of mobility and can create a crucial weakness in the opponent’s camp.

The Bishops worked well in the open position, while they became dead in the closed positions on the chessboard even in the international chess games.

As per the Reinfeld values, the Bishop has a total of 3 value points.

How To Move Knight In Chess?

The Knight has very restricted mobility, that’s why it is considered as the most adventurous chess piece and can become a very dangerous chess piece in many situations of the game.

This chess piece can move two squares in one direction, and then one additional move at the 90 degrees. It just forms the shape of the “L” character at the chessboard.

The Knight has the special ability that it is the only chess piece that could move over the other chess pieces as it has to complete its total move that makes the L-shape on the chessboard.

The Knights are opposite to the Bishops in terms of their characteristics. As the Bishops work well in the open positions, the Knights play an outstanding role in the closed positions.

As per the Reinfeld values, the Knight has a total of 3 value points.

How To Move Rook In Chess?

The Rook can move as far as possible but can move only in the forward, backward, or in the sideways directions.

You can see the movement of Rook that I have described In the Image below:

The Rooks are especially powerful pieces when they are protecting each other and working together in the same files { doubling the rooks on the same files } or in the same ranks { attacking the two files at the same time }.

These rooks work well in the open files which make the decisive attack and help to destroy the opponent camp. As per the Reinfeld values, the Rook has a total of 5 value points.

How To Move Queen In Chess?

The Queen is considered as the most powerful piece in the Game of Chess, due to its range of movement.

The Queen can move in any direction, whether – straight, backward, sideways, or diagonally as the king but can move as far as possible { i.e. as far as the complete diagonal from a1 to h8 } as long as she reaches its pieces.

You can see the movement of queen that I have described In the Image below:

The Queen can be very dangerous in the positions where you King or any square near it is vulnerable and become an easy target for Queen. At that situation you Should either exchange of your Queens or keep your opponent’s Queen busy on other side of the Board.

As per the Reinfeld values, the Queen has a total of 9 value points.

How King Moves In Chess?

The King can move only one square, whether it is forward, backward, sideways, or in the diagonal direction.

The main weakness of the King is that it can not move to the square which is attacked by any other opponent pieces.

It is the major weakness of the king that in the check, the king has to be saved, the Player can not move anything else leaving the king in danger.

Now you may wonder to know about what is the check. The Check is a condition in which the King in the Chess is attacked.

There are three ways to protect from Check. These are as follows:

1. Move the king to a safe square.
2. Capture the threatening piece.
3. Block the path of check between the threatening piece and the king.

These are there ways to protect from check.

Common Special Moves In Chess

There are a few special chess moves or chess rules that are also considered as an exception and also different from the basic chess moves. Even these moves violate the fundamentals of chess.

Sometimes, we are even forced to say that “Hey!, What’s The Nonsense”. But whatever they are, they make the chess game more fun and interesting in the real sense.

The common special moves in chess are castling, enpassent, pawn promotion, etc.

So let’s discuss these special chess moves one-by-one.