En Passant
There are a few exception in the rules of chess; things like pawn promotion, castling, and en passant are exceptions to how the pieces move. Castling is very commonly seen in chess games, pawn promotion is a lot less common, and en passant is almost unseen. It is so rare that many casual player do […]
How the Pawns Moves
The Pawns are always the smallest of the pieces, and you should have eight of them. They will go on the second and seventh rows. White on the second row (a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2) and black on the seventh row (a7, b7, c7, d7, e7, f7, g7, h7). The pawn is […]
The Bishop and how it moves
The Bishop is a great chess piece. It has a unique way of moving and is important for all chess players to use. The Bishop moves only on diagonals. For younger children who are not familiar with diagonals I would describe this as on squares of matching color. When setting up the board the bishops go next […]
The Rook and how it moves
The Rook is an important piece to use in chess and not very hard to learn. There is an easy rhyme I made up for the rook; here how it goes: “Up, Down, Side to Side, that’s the way the rook will slide.” The rook moves forwards, backwards, and sideways as many squares as it […]
The King and how he moves
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. […]
The Queen and how it moves
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 […]
Playing Chess in your Mind (Mental Chess) Part 2
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 […]
Playing Chess in your mind (Mental Chess) pt.1
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 […]
Getting out of Check
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 […]
Cool Chess Boards: Cold War Chess Chess
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 […]