"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.”

Cold War Chess Set

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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.

]]> http://www.checkmatesusa.com/cool-chess-boards-cold-war-chess-chess/feed/ 0 http://www.checkmatesusa.com/chess-at-arlington-heights-library/ http://www.checkmatesusa.com/chess-at-arlington-heights-library/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:26:11 +0000 George http://www.checkmatesusa.com/?p=2910

Kids Playing Giant Chess at Arlington Heights Library

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!

[Show as slideshow]

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.

Chess by telico82

In order to become a good chess player you need to practice and work hard, just like anything else. No matter how talented a student it, they still need to put the work in if they want to become good chess players.

The nice things about chess is that there are so many different ways to practice. The easiest way is to play a game…more advanced students will also use chess notation to write their moves to later review their games.

Another way to practice is to do chess puzzles. In these puzzles you must find the right move in a certain chess position.

Lastly, you can always read a book about chess…there are so many to choose from!

Knighfall by Breff

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!

Just recently I was asked about playing chess without a chess board; its a really interesting way to play chess. The point is this: if two players can both visualize a chess board and remember each of their moves (which they dictate in chess notation) they can play a full chess game in their heads without ever using a chess board!

I know that for people who dont play chess this sounds insane, and to those that already play chess it may sound like an unattainable challenge. All you readers will be glad to know that there is a way developed of how to learn to start playing chess in your mind.

The goal here is not to take on the whole game right when your starting, but to break it down. One way to do this is to play one of the alternative chess games (chess variants) like pawn wars to practice and train your memory. Once you do this, you can add in more pieces and really exercise your brain. Tomorrow I will write about other methods to train your brain for Mental Chess.

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

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.

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.