STARTING THE GAME

You should have learned from the last two lessons all about SCHOLAR'S MATE and how to stop it. At this point we should tell you that if you try for SCHOLAR'S MATE against a strong opponent your Queen will end up in trouble. Moving the Queen out like that at the start of the game may well work against a beginner, but against a strong player it's not worth playing.

So, how should you start a game of chess? Imagine you're the manager of a football team. The King is the goal. The other pieces on the back rank, Queen, Bishops, Knights and Rooks, are the players in your team. At the moment they're in the changing room, waiting to come onto the pitch.

And that's the first thing we have to do at the start of the game, which we call the OPENING. (A game of chess can have three parts, the OPENING, the MIDDLE GAME and the ENDING or ENDGAME.) Moving our pieces off the bank rank and onto the field of play is called DEVELOPMENT.

Your Queen is your most valuable striker: Michael Owen, perhaps. Do you really think it's a good idea to bring out your most valuable player and start attacking while most of the rest of your team are still in the changing room and there's an open goal at the other end of the pitch? Of course not! So don't play chess like that either. DEVELOP ALL your pieces before you start attacking.

The first thing we have to do, then, is DEVELOP our pieces.

What's the most important part of the football field? The goal areas, yes, but before you can get anywhere near your opponent's goal you have to CONTROL THE MIDFIELD.

It's exactly the same in chess: you have to CONTROL the CENTRE OF THE BOARD, the squares e4, d4, e5 and d5. You CONTROL them either by occupying them or by DEVELOPING your pieces where they ATTACK those squares.

The other thing you have to do when you play football is to DEFEND the GOAL. Again, it's exactly the same in chess. If you advance your CENTRE PAWNS and leave the King behind them it's the same thing as leaving the other team with an OPEN GOAL in football. So to keep the King safe we CASTLE, usually on the King-side because it's further away from the centre, where the action is. We keep three Pawns in front of the King, at least one Rook on the BACK RANK, and, if possible, a Knight on f3 or f6. That will give you a good DEFENCE.

Look at the diagram and see for yourself how White has followed these rules while Black has broken them.

We repeat the three most important things you are trying to do in the opening:

1. DEVELOP your pieces.
2. CONTROL the CENTRE (Remember, A KNIGHT ON THE RIM IS DIM!)
3. Get your KING SAFE.

A few more pieces of advice:

4. Don't bring your Queen or Rooks out early on without a very good reason.

5. Don't move a piece twice early on without a very good reason.

6. Don't develop a piece where it stops you developing another piece.

7. Don't develop a piece where your opponent can THREATEN it while playing a DEVELOPING move.

Now let's play through a few moves of an opening and see how these rules apply.

At the same time we'll show you how to read and write chess. Each piece except the Pawn has a letter: K for King, Q for Queen, R for Rook, B for Bishop, N for Knight. When we write down a move we write:

1. The letter of the piece, unless it's a pawn move.

2. The name of the starting square of the piece.

3. If it's an ordinary move we write a minus sign (-), and if it's a CAPTURE we write a times or multiplication sign (x).

4. We write the name of the square where the piece ends up.

5. If it's check we write a plus sign (+) and if it's CHECKMATE we write this sign: #.

6. Castles King-side is 0-0 and Castles Queen-side is 0-0-0.

You'll see as we go along how we number the moves.

1. e2-e4

White moves his Pawn from e2 to e4. This is a good move because:

1. It helps CONTROL the CENTRE.

2. It opens up lines for White to DEVELOP his Bishop and Queen.

1... e7-e5

Black moves his Pawn from e7 to e5. Why is this a good move?

1. It helps CONTROL the CENTRE.

2. It opens up lines for BLACK to DEVELOP his Bishop and Queen.

2. Ng1-f3 (Diagram)

Why is this a good move?

1. It DEVELOPS a PIECE.

2. It helps CONTROL the CENTRE.

3. It helps White get ready to get his KING SAFE by CASTLING.

4. It THREATENS the Black Pawn on e5.

What moves might Black consider here?

Black MUST do something about his Pawn on e5. Can he move it? No: it's BLOCKED by the Pawn on e4. Can he CAPTURE the Knight on f3? NO! Can he BLOCK the THREAT? No - you can't BLOCK an ATTACK from a Knight. So he must find a move that DEFENDS the Pawn.

We'll look at each possible move in turn:

a) f7-f6. A bad move for at least three reasons:
a) It doesn't help DEVELOPMENT (Rule 1)
b) It weakens the King's defences (Rule 3)
c) f6 is the best square for the Knight on g8 (Rule 6)

b) Qd8-f6. This breaks two of our rules:
a) Don't bring your Queen out too soon (Rule 4)
b) f6 is the best square for the Knight on g8 (Rule 6)

c) Qd8-e7. This also breaks two of our rules:
a) Don't bring your Queen out too soon (Rule 4)
b) It blocks in the Bishop on f8 (Rule 6)

d) Bf8-d6. This breaks one rule:
a) It blocks in the pawn on d7 and so also the Bishop on c8 (Rule 6)

e) d7-d6. This breaks one rule, but not so badly:
a) It blocks in the Bishop on f8 slightly, but it can still go to e7.
This move also helps with DEVELOPMENT (by opening a line for the Bishop on c8) and CENTRE CONTROL, so it's not bad.

f) Nb8-c6. This is the only way to DEFEND the Pawn on e5 which doesn't break
any of our rules. It also DEVELOPS a piece and helps CONTROL the CENTRE.

(Another good move for Black, which you'll meet later in the course, is Ng8-f6, THREATENING the White Pawn on e4.)

So, the move we'll play is...

2... Nb8-c6 (Diagram)

Now choose a move for White.

Is Black THREATENING anything? NO! So we have a wide choice of moves.

There are FOUR good moves here which obey all our rules.

Before we look at them, let's explain something. Chess in its current form has been played for more than 500 years. In that time the best players have worked out the best ways to start a game and given names to them. Some openings are named after a player who played or wrote about them. Some are named after a place or country where they were played. Some openings have names which describe them in some way.

As you learn more about chess you'll learn many of these openings and be able to try them out yourself. If you get an idea for playing an opening it's a good idea to discuss it with your teacher first or look it up in a book to find out whether or not it's good.

Back to the diagram, and let's look at our four good moves.

White could play 3. Bf1-c4 (Diagram)

An excellent move. Why?

1. It DEVELOPS a piece.

2. It CONTROLS the CENTRE.

3. It helps White get his KING SAFE by CASTLING.

4. It ATTACKS (but doesn't THREATEN) the Pawn on f7.

This is called the ITALIAN GAME. Black's two most popular replies are:

3... Bf8-c5 (turning into the GIUOCO PIANO, which means Quiet Game in Italian) and 3... Ng8-f6 (the TWO KNIGHTS' DEFENCE - Black defends with two Knights!).

Going back again, White could also play 3. Bf1-b5 (Diagram)

Another excellent move. Why?
1. It DEVELOPS a piece.

2. It helps White get his KING SAFE by CASTLING.

3. It ATTACKS the Knight that DEFENDS the Pawn on e5.

The idea is to tie Black down to DEFENDING his Pawn on e5.

This is called the SPANISH OPENING or RUY LOPEZ. Ruy Lopez was a 16th century Spanish priest who wrote about the opening.

Another good move for White is 3. Nb1-c3 (Diagram)

Another excellent move:

1. It DEVELOPS A PIECE.

2. It CONTROLS the CENTRE.

3. It DEFENDS the Pawn on e4.

Now if Black plays his usual move, Ng8-f6, it's called the FOUR KNIGHTS GAME (for obvious reasons) and if he does anything else it's the THREE KNIGHTS GAME!

This is not quite as aggressive as Bf1-c4 or Bf1-b5 but is very safe and solid. A good choice for beginners.

Finally, White can play 3. d2-d4 (Diagram)

Yet again, an excellent move.

1. It opens a line to DEVELOP the Bishop on c1.

2. It CONTROLS the CENTRE.

3. It ATTACKS the Black Pawn on e5, a second time, forcing Black to do something about it.

If Black captures the Pawn: 3... e5xd4 (his best move), White can take back with the Knight: Nf3xd4. Then if Black takes the Knight by playing Nc6xd4 (not his best move) White can play Qd1xd4.

The move is safe because, while Black has TWO PIECES ATTACKING d4, White has TWO PIECES DEFENDING d4. Make sure you understand this before trying out this opening.

This is called the SCOTCH GAME or SCOTCH OPENING. It was first played in a postal match between London and Edinburgh in the 1820s.

You will learn much more about chess by trying out these openings in your games than you will by playing for SCHOLAR'S MATE all the time.






















































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