Chess (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what chess is and the history of this game. Also, what your board is like and the movements of your pieces.

What is chess?

chess It is a popular board game of ancient tradition whose frequent and sporting practice in the West dates back to the 15th century. The game simulates the confrontation between two armies on a grid board ancient and assigns each player one of the sides, with the purpose of defeating the opponent and capturing their king.

The name of the game comes from Arabic ash-shatranjin turn a loan from the Persian language. Its initial form in Spanish was acedrexwhich would later become chess and finally, in the modern Spanish language, chess.

Chess is a very widespread and practiced game throughout the world and at the time it was considered a “game of kings” because it was very common among the nobility. The standard of rules used today comes from the 19th century. Since the mid-20th century it has been considered a game worthy of prestigious international competitions, whose official tournaments are organized locally, nationally, regionally and worldwide.

In fact, The world chess championships have been held since 1866 and players of very different nationalities have been crowned, such as Germany, Cuba, India, the United States and, above all, Russia.

history of chess

There is no consensus regarding the exact origin of the game of chess. It was probably invented in Asia by some ancient culture like India, whose game chaturanga It had important similarities, either because of China, with its version of the game known as Xiangqi.

The oldest mentions of the game come from ancient Persia how is he Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan (“Book of the Rights of Ardeshir, son of Pabag”) from the 6th century, a work that narrates the founding of the Sansanid Persian dynasty by Ardacher I.

The game passed from Persian hands to Arab hands after the conquest of Persia and It was the Muslims who transmitted it to Africa and the West especially to the regions of Europe that were controlled by the Islamic empire and that therefore received a strong influence from its culture during the dark ages of Europe: Italy and Spain. From there the game spread from the 10th century to the rest of the European continent.

For its part, in Asia chess flourished in variants that still exist, such as shogi (Japanese chess), janggi (Korean chess) or markuk (Thai chess), all heirs of the Chinese version of the game.

chess pieces

The chess pieces are always the same, although they are of two different colors (black and white, or light and dark) and are distributed in the same proportion on both opposing sides. Each one has its own range of allowed movements and a rating in points. In this way, each player will have:

One (1) kingon which the party depends. It is the only piece that cannot be captured normally, but must be cornered in a position such that it has no possible movements and is under attack by an enemy piece (that is, in check). When the king is in check and has no escape or way to defend himself, he is said to be checkmate and that marks the end of the game. The king may move a single square at a time in any desired direction, and any piece in its path may be captured by the king, as long as this does not expose the king to danger. check.
One (1) lady or queenthe most powerful piece in the match, worth 9 points when captured. The queen can move any number of squares in any direction desired (horizontal, vertical or diagonal), and can capture any piece in the same directions.
Two (2) towerswith a value of 5 points each. These pieces can only move horizontally and vertically, but they can move as many squares as desired, being able to capture pieces to the same extent.
Two (2) bishopswith a value of 3 points each. These pieces can only move in vertical paths, but they can move as many squares as desired. For that reason there is one in black boxes and another in white boxes, exclusively. The bishops capture pieces on their respective diagonal squares.
Two (2) horseswith a value of 3 points each. These pieces are the most agile in the game, and in their journey they can pass over (“jump”) other pieces that are crossed, something impossible in the rest of the cases. However, your movement must always trace an “L”, that is, two squares in a row in the same horizontal or vertical direction (never diagonal) and then one vertical or horizontal square. Therefore, to capture a piece, it must be located in that last square of the “L”, and not in the initial squares “jumped” by the knight.
Eight (8) pawnsthe pieces with the least value in the game: 1 point each. These pieces can only move forward one square at a time, except for their initial move (known as “exit”) in which they can choose to move forward one square or two. Additionally, pawns can only capture enemy pieces that are on their two immediate front diagonal squares (right diagonal and left diagonal). However, when a pawn advances uninterrupted to the end of its row on the enemy side of the board, it may be “promoted” and exchanged for any other game piece, except the king.

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exists a special move known as “castling” in which a king and a rook that have not yet moved in the game and are not under any threat, can exchange their original positions, occupying the intermediate squares to protect the king. There is a short castling (with the king's rook) and a long castling (with the queen's rook).

chess board

The chess board is square and is divided into 64 identical squares forming an 8×8 matrix. Looking at it from the front, the leftmost square must always be white (or some light color), while the two that follow it (above and below) must be black (or some dark color) and the ones following those light , alternating successively.

Each of the two players will occupy one side of the board, facing each other and arranging their pieces according to the following formation:

chess board

The squares of the chess board normally They are numbered from 1 to 8 as they ascend vertically, and identified as follows: to to the h as they advance horizontally. These elements are important for chess notation, which records the moves of a match using special language.

chess rules

The rules of chess can be summarized as follows:

They can play alone two players per game each one in charge of a side (the light or the dark). Each side must be drawn by lot before the game.
The player on the light side will always have the first move. The objective of the game is to defeat the opposing side by capturing its pieces until you can corner the opposing king and lead it to the checkmate.
The game takes place in turns. On each turn a player can move one (1) piece at a time. No player can skip his turn, nor is it allowed to go back to previous turns.
Each player's turn will last as long as necessary, or it can be measured through a clock. In the latter case, the player who exhausts the total time established for the game on his turn will lose the game.
When an enemy piece is captured, it must be removed of the board and the own piece that captured it takes its place. Captured pieces cannot return to the board. Unless captured, pieces in play cannot leave the board either.
The king is the only piece that cannot move to occupy a threatened square for an opposing piece. That is, the king can never voluntarily expose himself to check. Likewise, no player can ignore a check against his king.
Any player can resign from the game whenever you want. This, however, is considered granting the other the victory.

Chess tactics and strategy

Since both sides in the game have the same number of pieces arranged in the exact same way, victory in chess depends entirely on the skill of the player, that is, on his ability to use tactics and strategy.

For this reason, the game is not considered “of chance”, but “of strategy”. Its fans are normally dedicated to the study of movement sequences and its tactical variants, in order to control the development of the game and reduce the options of the opposing side.

In this sense, chess players aspire to capture the greatest number of the opponent's pieces or capture their key pieces, or to achieve a favorable positioning of one's own pieces to be able to advance into enemy territory towards the king. It is, in fact, the mastery of tactics and strategy that differentiates novice chess players from more advanced players.

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