Chess Basics


Moves of Pieces
The Fork
The Pin
The Skewer
Check/Checkmate
Stalemate
Discovery
Castle

Points of Pieces: Your arsenal consists of six different pieces each of which has its own point value with the stronger pieces having the most points. Total amount of points is 39. Usually if you are down in points then the odds are not in your favor to win.
Pawn: 1
Rook: 5
Bishop: 3
Knight: 3
Queen: 9
King: 0

Board Set-up:The set-up of the board is seen below. It follows the basic format where the bottom left hand corner is always black, and the queen is always on the same color (i.e. the White Queen goes on the White square). There are different variations for the board set-up depending on the type of chess that is being played, but I am not going to get into those.

Moves of Pieces:

The Pawn
The Pawn's only movement is forward, except for capturing. On the initial move the pawn can move either one space forward or two spaces forward. After any pawn is first moved, that pawn can only advance one space at a time until it reaches its promotion on file #8 (opposite end of the board). The pawn cannot move through or into any other piece.
 The Pawn can capture pieces by a diagonal one square away. To capture a piece, merely move your piece to the square that the desired piece to capture is occupying.
Upon reaching file #8 for white or file #1 for black, the pawn can no longer advance and therefore becomes any other piece available (Rook, Queen, Bishop, Knight). The only restrictions are that the pawn cannot remain as a pawn and the pawn cannot become another king. The move denoted above is known as En Passant, which is French for "on passing". This describes the move in that any pawn on file #6 (for white and file #4 for black) can capture another pawn that advances from its starting position two squares forward on either side. To capture the advancing pawn, the pawn on file #6 (or #4) would merely move to control the diagonal in the direction of the advancing pawn.

The Rook
The Rook can move any number of spaces in any horizontal or vertical direction, but cannot move through other pieces.

The Bishop
The Bishop can move any number of spaces in any diagonal direction, but cannot move through other pieces. There are two types of bishops, white and black. The white bishop can only move on white squares, and the black bishop can only move on black squares.

The Knight
Because of its movement, the Knight is the only piece that can "leap" other pieces. The knight moves in a jolting motion, and its motion can be remembered by "one up and two over" or "two up and one over".

The King
The King is the piece that you are trying to capture from your opponent. This piece is not used too often, but its motion for movement is one square in any direction. The king cannot put the other king into check.

The Queen
The Queen is by far the most powerful piece on the board. This piece can move any number of squares in any direction (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) as long as it does not go through any other piece.

The Fork:

The Fork is a move in which one piece threatens two other pieces in risk that one of the pieces will be taken. In this case, the bishop is forking the rook and the knight.

The Pin:

The Pin is commonly done with the king of the opponent, but is not limited to the king. This move causes one piece to be unable to be moved for threat of the capture of an important piece or the king. In this case, the rook has the knight pinned because moving the knight would put the king in check.

Skewer:

The Skewer results when the movement of one piece gives an opportunity to capture another piece. In this case, the bishop skewered the king because the king is in check and once the king is moved, the queen is captured.

Check / Checkmate:

Check
Check is the term given for anytime that any piece threatens to capture the king of the opponent. Here the bishop has the king in check. In order to get out of check, one of three things must occur. 1. The king must be moved in a way that it is no longer in check. 2. A piece must be used to block the piece that is putting the king in check. OR... 3. The piece that has the king in check must be captured by another piece, or by the king himself if possible.

Checkmate
Checkmate is the term given to the end of the game. Here black lost the game because the one rook has the king in check while the other rook prevents the king from moving to get out of check; neither rook can be captured; and there is no piece that black has that can block the check.

Stalemate:

Stalemate is the inability for either player or to checkmate or the inability for a player to move without going into check. With a stalemate one neither wins nor loses. Another term for stalemate is a Draw. Here if it is black's move, the game is a stalemate because black cannot move without being placed in check. If black had another piece on the board, then it would not be a stalemate because black would still have a legal move. Other forms of stalemate are when each player has a king, or when there is not sufficient mating material such as when one player has a king and a knight and the other player only has a king.
Discovery or Uncover:
The Uncover is a very powerful move if used properly. In this move one piece is used to attack an opponent's piece by the uncovering of this piece from in front of the attacking piece. In the example above, the queen is about to put the king in check by the movement of the knight. This move can also be used to threaten pieces of higher points of your opponent by using less powerful pieces you control.
Here the king is in check and the knight is in a better position to attack and threaten other pieces.

Castle:

The Castle is used to obtain a better defence and to protect your king. The above diagram shows the set-up for castling. The green line represents a Weak Side Castle. The red line represents a Strong Side Castle. To castle, one moves the king two spaces toward the desired side of castle; however, in order to castle a few things must apply. 1. The pieces between the king and the rook with which you are going to castle must be cleared out (obviously). 2. The king and the rook whith which you are going to castle cannot be moved (even if you move them and you put them back on the same square). 3. You cannot castle to get out of check. 4. You cannot castle through check.
This diagram shows the result of a Weak Side Castle. It is known as a weak side castle because the space between the king and the end of the board is two spaces, and that allows for easier penetration by the opponent.
This diagram shows the result of a Strong Side Castle. It is known as a strong side castle because the space between the king and the end of the board is only one space and this set-up is much harder for the opponent to penetrate.