Chess
Technically, this is a video game review.
How to play Chess
There are 6 different chess pieces on the board, and they all have different movement and attacking patterns.
The pawn
Each player starts off with 8 pawns. Pawns are thought of as expendable, the weakest piece on the chess board. Pawns can only move forward. On the first move, pawns are able to move 2 spaces forward, but after that they can only move 1 space forward. Pawns can only attack next to the space ahead of them, making them unable to attack anything directly infront of them.
The knight
Each player starts off with 2 knights. This is the most intersting piece in my opinion, because it’s the only piece that can jump over defenses. But this comes at a cost, which is that its movement pattern is unique. Knights can only move in an L shape pattern, 2 spaces up and 1 space right, 2 spaces left and 1 space down, 2 spaces down and 1 space right, etc. However, smart chess players are able to utilize the knight’s odd movement to capture pieces that are hidden behind others.
The bishop
Each player starts off with 2 bishops. Bishops are only able to move diagonally across the entire board. One thing to note is that the bishops are not on the same diagonal path, meaning that (depending on the location of the enemy’s pieces) some pieces are only able to be captured by one bishop and not the other.
The rook
Each player starts off with 2 rooks. Rooks are able to move vertically and horizontally across the entire board, but they cannot move diagonally.
The queen
Each player starts off with 1 queen. This is your strongest piece and most important piece other than the king. The queen can move across the entire board vertically, horitonally, and diagonally. It’s like the rook and bishop pieces combined.
The king
Each player starts off with 1 king. This is your most prized posession on the board. If you lose it, you lose the game. The goal of chess is to capture the other person’s king. The king has a 1 diameter attack and movement range, allowing him to protect nearby pieces.
Interesting chess moves
Pawn promotion
Turns out, pawns can have another use other than sacrificing themselves. If you somehow manage to get a pawn to the end of the board, you can promote it to a more useful chess piece like a knight, rook, bishop, or queen. Pretty cool right? Personally, I’ll always promote it the pawn to a queen because I think it’s the piece with the most power.
En passant
This is one of those chess rules that’ll make you say: “is this really legal in chess?” En passant is a move in chess in which a pawn captures a horizontally adjacent enemy pawn that has just advanced two squares in one move.
Castling
Castling is a special move in chess that uses both a rook and the king. In castling, the king is moved two squares toward the rook, and the rook moves past the king to the square right next to where the king has moved. Castling may be done only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved, the squares between the king and the rook are unoccupied, the king is not in check, and the king does not cross over or end up on a square attacked by an opposing piece.
Where to play Chess
Two of my personal favorite websites to play chess are Chess.com and https://lichess.org/.
Chess.com
Play Chess for Free on the #1 Site!
Chess.com offers many features such as tournaments and playing against bots. Chess.com has the largest online chess userbase with over 20,000,000+ members and around 1 million active on a daily basis. Chess.com also offers a phone app if you’re mainly a mobile gamer.
lichess.org
Lichess is a free, libre, no-ads, open source chess server.
A competitor to Chess.com, lichess.org/ offers more free features than Chess.com. It also allows you to solve chess puzzles and compete in tournaments. The main difference between Chess.com and lichess.org is lichess.org has free teaching lessons, whether on Chess.com you have to pay. lichess.org also offers a phone app if you’re mainly a mobile gamer.
Which website should you use?
Overall, both websites are great options to play on. I personally alternative between both. If I’m wanting to learn and practice, I’ll often go to lichess.org because there’s no ads. But if I’m feeling more in a competitive spirit and to play in a tournament, I’ll either go to Chess.com or lichess.org.
