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At the end of the last lesson we told you that there were some more rules you needed to know before you can REALLY play chess. There is one VERY IMPORTANT RULE about how the King moves, which is: THE KING MAY NOT MOVE TO A SQUARE WHERE IT COULD BE CAPTURED NEXT MOVE BY AN ENEMY PIECE. This also means that: TWO KINGS MAY NEVER STAND NEXT TO EACH OTHER. And again: KINGS ARE NEVER CAPTURED: BOTH KINGS STAY ON THE BOARD THE WHOLE GAME. The diagram will, we hope, make this clear. Place a White King on e4, a Black King on d6 and a Black Rook on f1. Let's go through each of the eight squares in turn and see whether the White King can move there. d5: No: next to the enemy King. e5: No: next to the enemy King. f5: No: the Rook on f1 could capture it. f4: No: the Rook on f1 could capture it. f3: No: the Rook on f1 could capture it. e3: Yes, the King is safe from capture. d3: Yes, the King is safe from capture. d4: Yes, the King is safe from capture. Next you need to learn two new words. The first word is ATTACK. Set up the diagram on your board. Suppose Black moves his King from c1 to c2. If the White Rook stays where it is the Black King will be able to capture it next move. We say that the Black King ATTACKS the White Rook. Do you see where the White King could move to ATTACK the Black Rook? That's right, the White King could ATTACK the Black Rook by moving to e5. The second word is CHECK. Suppose White moves his Rook from b3 to c3. Now the White Rook ATTACKS the Black King. If you ATTACK the enemy King this is called a CHECK. You say the word CHECK to your opponent to warn him. Can you see how the Black Rook can CHECK the White King? There are two ways to do it. Have you found them both? The Black Rook can CHECK the White King by moving to either d4 or f6. If you are in CHECK you MUST do something about it. Look at the next diagram. Sarah is playing White against Tom. It's Sarah's move. Tom has just moved the Rook to b3 (not a good idea, as it happens) and said "CHECK". What can Sarah do about it? First of all, where can she move her King? She has eight possible King moves but only one is safe. Can you help her by finding it? The answer is f4. Do you see why the King cannot move anywhere else? But there are two other ways in which Sarah can get out of check. Firstly, she can BLOCK the CHECK by moving her Rook from f6 to f3. Secondly, she can CAPTURE the CHECKING PIECE. Do you see how she can do that? By moving her Rook from b8 to b3, CAPTURING the Black Rook on b3 that was giving check. So, Sarah has three ways of getting out of check. She can move her King from g3 to f4, her Rook from f6 to f3, or her Rook from b8 to b3, CAPTURING the Black Rook. Which move would you advise her to play? The best move is the last one: to take the Black Rook. In our next diagram, Sarah is again playing White against Tom. Set up the position on your board. Sarah moves her King from e5 to d4. Tom's face lights up and with a gleeful shout he captures the King with his Rook on b4. "Yippee! I've captured your King. I've won the game!" he shouts. Is he right? Tough luck, Tom! You're wrong. You haven't won the game at all. Yes, Sarah has made a mistake by moving her King to a square where it can be taken. But, no, you are not allowed to take it. What you must do instead is ask Sarah to take her move back and play something else instead. Now set up the next position. Tom only has a King left: on e8. He's lost the rest of his pieces. Sarah still has two Rooks as well as her King. Her King is on e1 and his Rooks are on a7 and h8. She's just moved her Rook to h8, ATTACKING the White King. What does Sarah say when she ATTACKS Tom's King? That's right. "CHECK"! Can Tom get out of check. Remember, there are three ways you can try to get out of check. Can Black MOVE his King to a safe square? No: if he moves down to d7, e7 or f7, the Rook on a7 will zap him. And if he moves sideways to d8 or f8 the Rook on h8 will zap him. Can he BLOCK the check by sticking something in the way? No. Can he CAPTURE the Rook on h8? Again, no. So what's happened? It's CHECKMATE! The game stops here. Sarah wouldn't say 'CHECK', she would say 'CHECKMATE'. CHECKMATE means 'The King is captured' or 'The King is dead'. Sarah has won the game! In our next diagram, David is playing White against Katie. It's David's move. What can he do? He can't move to h7: he'll be zapped by the Rook on g7. Nor can be move to g8: again the Rook on g7 will zap him. Perhaps he could CAPTURE the Rook on g7? No good: he'll get zapped by the Rook on a7 this time. And he's got no other pieces left that he can move. "I can't move anywhere", says David. "What shall I do?" "It's checkmate, then", exclaims Katie. "I've won the game." NO, SHE HASN'T WON THE GAME. Look again at the position. Is David in check from the Rook on g7 at the moment? No! Is he in check from the Rook on a7 at the moment? Again, no! Is he in check from anything else? Again, no! We need a new word for this sort of position. STALEMATE! STALEMATE is a draw: no one wins and no one loses.
Finally, in this lesson, let's look at some positions with Bishops.
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XABCDEFGH
XABCDEFGHY
XABCDEFGHY White to move
XABCDEFGHY White to move XABCDEFGH 8-+-+K+-tr( 7tr-+-+-+-' 6-+-+-+-+& 5+-+-+-+-% 4-+-+-+-+$ 3+-+-+-+-# 2-+-+-+-+" 1+-+-mk-+-! xabcdefgh White to move
White to move
White to move
White to move
XABCDEFGHY CHECKMATE! XABCDEFGHY 8-+-+-+Rmk( 7+-+-+-+-' 6-+-+-+-mK& 5+-+-+-+-% 4-+L+-+-+$ 3+-+-+-+-# 2-+-+-+-+" 1+-+-+-+-! xabcdefghy CHECKMATE! XABCDEFGHY 8-tR-+-mk-+( 7+-+-+-+-' 6-+-+-vLL+& 5+-+-+-+-% 4-+-+-+-+$ 3+-+-+-+-# 2-+-+-+-+" 1+-+-mK-+-! xabcdefghy CHECKKMATE! |