
"Mexico set a new record for simultaneous chess games on when 13,446 players faced off at the same time in a vast Spanish colonial square at the heart of the former Aztec empire, Mexico City officials said."
How are the chess pieces called in Spanish?
Chess is a popular sport in the Hispanic Culture and is played in all Latin cultures across the world. Knowing what the chess pieces are called in Spanish could allow you to analyze a game in another language (Spanish).
The King in Chess is called “Rey” in chess in Spanish.
The Queen is called “Reina” in chess in Spanish.
The Bishop is called “Alfil” in chess in Spanish.
The Knight is called “Caballo” in chess in Spanish.
The Rook is called “Torre” in chess in Spanish.
The Pawn is called “Peón” in chess in Spanish.
If you are playing chess in a spanish speaking country you must know how to say Check. Check is Spanish is called “Jaque.” If you need to say CheckMate in Spanish, you can say “Jaquemate.”
My cousin from Russia seems to be able to find me the coolest chess sets; this one is no exception. It is a colorful, wooden chess set made under the theme of the cold war. The cold war chess set is a collectors set and probably not the best to play on. Still, it is nice to keep around. As you can see each piece is designed with detail and is quite comical.
This last Saturday CheckMates came to help the Arlington Heights Library with Chess during their Giant Board Games Day. It was a fun filled day where dozens of kids came to play and learn the game of chess.
CheckMates gave free introductory lessons to players who did not know how to play chess and taught strategies to kids who already knew the rules of the game. Then kids got to play on the GIANT CHESS BOARD!
Check is one of the most, if not the most, important concepts in chess. Check means the king is in danger. This means that the player whose king is in danger MUST get their king out of check.
There are three ways that a player can get out of check
1. Move – This means to move your king out of danger.
2. Block- This means moving a piece in between your king and the piece attacking it. Note: you cannot block a check from a Knight because it skips over pieces.
3. Attack- This means you are attacking the piece that is putting your king in check. You can use your king to attack or another piece on your team.
A good chess player will look through all his/her options before deciding. In each position, the correct move may be to move, block, or attack, but you will never know until you look at all the options.
Take a look at this position, what should the white team do?
What do you think the white king should do. He can move out of the way to b1 or b2. He can also use his queen to block on a2, but the best option is to capture the rook on a7 with the queen on f2.
The Krasnopolskiy Method to learning to play blindfold or mental chess is simple and makes training your brain fun. Even kids can try playing this version of mental chess.
First, make sure you have a chess board.
Second, make yourself some chess pieces out of paper, thick paper that you cannot see through is important for this to work. Make sure they fit the squares of your chess board.
Lastly, replace your normal chess pieces with these and play with them face down. At first you may need to check which piece is which often, but challenge yourself to look less and less. If you are playing with someone, you can set the amount of time someone can look at their pieces and lower that number with practice. Also, make sure to limit the amount of illegal moves during the game too!
Have fun and enjoy training your brain using chess!
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Also, if you have questions about chess would like us to write an article about something particlar in chess, please let us know.
-George Krasnopolskiy
The Queen is the most powerful piece in chess. It can move like the Rook and Bishop combined. This means it can move forward, backwards, and diagonally as many squares as it would like. The Queen also attacks the same way it moves.
When setting up the chess board, the Queen goes next to the King. I have kids remember that the Queen likes to match, meaning the black queen matches with the black square and the white queen matches with the white square. The Queen always goes on the d file. For white the queen goes on d1 and for black the queen goes on d8.
The King is the most important chess piece on the board. Each team only gets one king and he has very special rules that apply to him such as check and checkmate. Still, the king has a very simple moving pattern in chess. The king only moves one space at a time, in any direction. He also attacks the same way he moves. The king has one special rule you need to know from the beginning: he cannot be next to another king.
When setting up the chess board, the kings always go on the e file. For white this is e1 and for black this is e8.