A Brief History Chess has been played for about 1500 years. In the sixth century AD, the game began in northern India and spread to Persia. Chess was adopted by the Muslim world after the Arab conquest of Persia, and it later expanded to Southern Europe via the Moorish conquest of Spain. However, the game arrived in early Russia directly from the Khanates (muslim countries) to the south. Chess's origins can be traced back to the Gupta dynasty in northern India, where it was known as Chaturanga in the 6th century. This translates as "the four divisions," which depict infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry, respectively, and are represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook.
Simple Rules
Here are some basic rules for the game of chess:
1. The king is the most crucial but also one of the weakest pieces. The king can only move one tile in each direction - up, down, sideways, or diagonally.
2. The most powerful piece is the queen. She can move as far as she can in any one straight direction - forward, backward, sideways, or diagonally - as long as she does not pass through any of her own pieces.
3. The rook has the ability to travel as far as it wishes, but only forward, backward, and to the sides.
4. The bishop has the ability to move as far as it wishes, but only diagonally. Each bishop begins on one colour (light or dark) and must remain on that colour at all times.
5. Knights move differently than the other pieces, travelling two squares in one direction and then one more move at a 90-degree angle, resembling the shape of a "L."
6. Pawns are unique in that they move and capture in opposite directions: they move forward but capture diagonally. Pawns can only move one square forward at a time, except on their first move, when they can move two squares forward.
7. There are three ways to stalemate: insufficient material (insufficient firepower), no legal moves, and three-fold repetition. One more - 50 king moves with no other legal moves - but this practically never happens outside of scholastic tournaments.
8. A chess game finishes when one player places the opposite player's king in a position where it cannot avoid capture (checkmate). Concession can also be used to win or lose a game.
Some tips when starting chess
For beginners, playing on intuition is quite appealing, but it is also necessary to calculate moves. Think how that one move will affect the entire board. Ask yourself the question "What will this move accomplish and what can the enemy accomplish from it". Overtime these decisions will come as second nature.
The most significant part of chess is tactics. Understanding tactics is the foundation of everything in chess, including openings, endgames, and assessing middle game positions.