Chess Basics

Chess is a strategy game going back thousands of years. It is a game that can be learned in an afternoon, but take a lifetime to master. It is an excellent hobby to take up because it can be played at a leisurely rate, with games taking anywhere from a few minutes, to a few hours, to a few days.

Chess is played on an 8 x 8 board of squares. There are two colors a square can be, light and dark. Each player has a dark square in their lower left corner. The two "teams" of pieces are light and dark as well, with the lighter color going first. Each player has 16 different pieces to use, with many of them having different movement properties.

The object of chess is to capture your opponents king, or put him in "check mate." Check mate is a term used when a players cannot make a legal move with any of their pieces to prevent their king from being taken. "Check" is a term that is used when a player has a piece in a position to take their opponents king. If a player is in check, then they must move either their king or another piece to prevent their king from being taken.