8 th and last lesson: Summary of the 1^st course

Chess can be helpful to soften your problems and you can find new friends with it. Chess is a game (sport) for each age! You can find friends those are 10 or 100 years old. Chess can connect people and if you play it as a game (riddle), not as a battle, you`ll love it soon.

You need a chessgame for the course, writing material and we`ll work parallelic in chat (Don-MasseClassroom) and by correspondence (correspondence class of chess) in our campus.We`ll work in future too with animated graphics.  We have  the windows chat and the correspondence –class open at the same time, during chat we look at the posts in the correspondence class, because there you can post graphics as attachment. There will be more than one post in each lesson, because only one attachment is possible per posting. We´ll work with some links too, especially with www.apronus.com/chess/wbeditor.php  . there we can setup positions, make diagrams and save them. If the chat may not work sometime, we can go to the yahoo-group of “wapd-chess.org”.

How to setup a chessboard: a board has 64 squares, 32 dark ones, 32 light ones.

The horizontal lines are called “ranks”, the vertical ones “files”.

How the pieces move:

The king (highest piece) moves in all directions, but only one square.

The queen (value: 9 pawn-units) moves straight or diagonally, one or more squares.

The rook (value: 5 pawn-units) moves only straight, one or more squares .

The bishop (value: 3 pawn-units) moves only diagonally, one or more squares.

The knight (value:  3 pawn-units, equal to the bishop)  moves one square orthogonally, then one diagonally and is a leaper, the only piece that can jump over other pieces.

The pawn (lowest piece)  moves one square orthogonally forward, unless he does the first move: then it can move 2 squares.

But it captures only diagonally, but only one square.

All other pieces capture as they move.

Notation of the pieces:                                              Notation of moves:

K= king,                                                                  x = capture (or :)

Q=queen,                                                               + = check

R=rook,                                                                  # = checkmate

B=bishop,                                                               capturing en-passant: e.p.

N=knight,                                                               0 - 0 (short castling)

(P) or nothing: pawn.                                               0 - 0 - 0 (long castling)

                                                     (For analyze:)     ! = good move,    ? = bad move.

Now –as you know-the board is set up that a dark square is in the left hand corner.

You remember the 8 ranks (horizontal rows) and the files (vertical rows).

Now I`ll tell you how to setup the pieces: The white ones are placed on the 1^st and 2^nd ranks

(a1-h1and  a2-h2), the black ones on the last boths ranks (a7-h7 and a8-h8).

The white king is placed on e1, the white queen left beside him on d1, left beside the queen on c1 and right beside the king on f1 there are the bishops, then on b1 and g1 the knights, on the outer sides left and right on a1 and h1 the rooks. On the second rank (a2-h2) there are placed the 8 pawns.

Now the black pieces: the king is placed on e8, the queen on d8, the bishops on c8 and f8, the knights on b8 and g8, the rooks again on the outer side, on a8 and h8. On the 7 th rank are placed the black pawns. Please see at the graphic. Note: do you see that the white and black pieces stand opposite to another? Imagine a mirror on the board, sharing it into 2 pieces, then you see, both colors of pieces are placed as the same. Now we have the starting position, the one what you begin the game with.

The pieces are noted: The King: K, Queen: Q, Rook: R, Bishop: B, Knight: N, Pawn: no letter.Moves are noted with abbreviation of the piece and the square where it moves. 

www.apronus.com/chess/wbeditor.php  Please setup the position, first “clear board”.

Special moves: Castling: You have the choice of long (queenside castling), symbol:0-0-0, or short (kingside castling),symbol:0-0,

Capturing “en-passant” : The second special rule is a special move of the pawn- capturing en-passant:

Promotion of a Pawn to a piece of your choice (except King), if it reaches the last (white) or the first (black) row (rank).

If a pawn, coming from its starting rank, lands next to an “opponent`s” pawn by making a double move (2 squares forward as it`s first move), then the “opponent” (partner) has the right, on the immediately following move, to capture it “en-passant” (in passing), just as if the pawn from the starting rank had only advanced by one square (graphic).  

Wins: The game is won if your “opponent” is checkmated or  he has resigned.

Draws: Cases of draw: if one king is “stalemated” or there are only 2 kings on the board, you offer a draw and your “opponent” accepted it, if the same move by both players repeat 3 times after another, “perpetual check” or if both players do the same moves after another three times.  

This was the first course for real beginners.The next one (for beginners) will contain mating positions and endgames, we`ll work by the same way.

Assignment: Please setup the positions at www.apronus.com/chess/wbeditor.php and play them. And visit the post about this lesson in our forum ! I hope the course was fun! SECOND COURSE