Explainer: What is chess? Who plays chess?
By Ernesto H.
Brief History of chess
Chess is one of the oldest and most popular board games in the world. Two players are required, and the board game has a checkered pattern with specifically designed pieces of contrasting colors, mostly known as white and black. The objective of the game is to capture the opponent’s king by checkmate.
There are many ways to end a game of chess. According to Britannica.com, the game ends when a player puts the opposing player’s king in a position that cannot avoid capture which is checkmate, and gets taken by another piece. The game can also be won or lost through concession, it can also end as a draw, and this can happen through stalemate. It happens when one side has no legal moves to make, in other words, if the king is not in check, but no piece can be moved without putting the king in check, then the game will end with a stalemate draw.
Students share their chess experience
Multiple students share their experiences with chess. Chess has inspired many people and has gotten recognition.
For example, Junior Andrew D., was inspired to create a program. “It inspired me and my friend Joel to create a coding program where people can learn about chess in computer science.”, he said.
On the other hand, Kenneth S. said, “I wanted to play chess because my friends looked like they had fun competing with each other so I wanted to participate in a friendly competition.”
Being competitive can boost your motivation, increase your motivation and study hard. These can apply to chess when competing with your friends or random opponents.
Senior Horlando A. said that he has been playing since middle school with a friend. “I get really competitive sometimes and it helps me with my problem-solving skills and the fact that I have to use my brain to accomplish it”, he said.
Likewise, both Kenneth and Horlando took breaks from chess. “It was fun with it and I played it for a while, but I stopped because It was too distracting.” Kenneth said.
Horlando said, “After a few months, I quit playing and I only picked it up last year during my Junior year.”
The following information was gathered from Chess.com:
A quick explainer on some of the key elements of chess:
Chess pieces, names, and move sets
Chess has six types of pieces, king, rook, bishop, queen, knight, and pawn, each with its unique moves. The game starts with two rooks, two bishops, two knights, one queen, one king, and eight pawns.
The Bishop
The Bishop moves and captures along diagonals without jumping over the intervening pieces. The bishop can move as if it were forming an “X” shape
The Rook
The Rook gets to move either forward, backward, or sideways, but unlike the bishop, it cannot move diagonally. It symbolizes a chariot, which stands at the corner of the board. The rook is considered the major piece, similar to the queen, it is not worth losing. To remember how the rook works, always remember how it moves like a “+” sign, moving straight vertically and horizontally.
The Knight
The Knight is a piece that represents the head of a horse, it moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, the knight can jump over pieces. To remember/imagine how the knight works, the knight forms an “L” shape to its next stop. It moves two squares vertically or two horizontally.
The Pawn
The pawn, the simplest piece of them all, can only move forward, during the start of the game, the pawn can move forward twice, not only that but there is a chance for the pawn to perform an “en passant”, which technically means “in passing”; when a pawn moves two squares on one turn, on the next move, an adjacent pawn will be able to capture that pawn as if it had only move one square. The en passant capture must be performed on the turn immediately after the pawn being captured moves. If the player does not capture en passant on that turn, they will no longer be able to be performed. Once your pawn reaches the board’s end, you will have the opportunity to exchange your pawn for any piece such as a rook, bishop, knight, or queen.
The Queen
When you combine the bishop and rook, you get the queen, the queen is the most powerful piece in chess, it has the same moves as the bishop, moving diagonally, and the rook, moving forward backward, or sideways, the queen has more freedom and mobility than the rest of the pieces. It is recommended not to lose this piece during a match, if it happens, it will most likely be over.
The King
The king is the most important piece, it is the main piece you must protect, if it gets captured, meaning that if your opponent checkmates you by using different pieces; it would most likely be a game over. The king can only move one square around, it works similarly to a pawn, but the king can move sideways, forward, and backward.
If you are interested in playing chess, you can visit Chess.com to compete with your friends, or just play for fun!
