CheckMate ©
Designed by The Irish Chess Academy

Welcome to the 'ESB CheckMate Chess Tutor'.
It allows you to use a computer to make learning chess easy.

To begin with we must become familiar with the equipment essential to play the Royal Game. Later on you will need a chess set, which comprises a board and "men". First you need to learn how the pieces move and some basic rules. We will show these moves and rules with simple animated diagrams. Simply use the scroll bar on the right »»»»»»»»»»»»

If you follow the lessons in order you will learn quickly. Don't be impatient.
At the end of the basic rules there is a complete animated game to help you .

Let Us Begin

THE CHESSBOARD IS YOUR KINGDOM

This is a chessboard. It has alternating light and dark squares. All chessboards have the same pattern of light and dark squares. There are sixty four squares in all on a chessboard.

A basic rule is that you must set up a chessboard in a particular way when you start to play. Each player must have a light square in the lower right corner.

REMEMBER: Light on the right!

Chess Terms - Files, Ranks and Diagonals

Files are the rows of squares that run up and down the chessboard.
Three of these are shown in colour in the diagram below.

Ranks are the rows of squares that run across the chessboard.
Three of these are shown in colour in the diagram below.

Diagonals are the rows of squares that run at a slant on the chessboard.
Three of these are shown in colour in the diagram below.

Some simple rules regarding the chessmen:
Chessmen (pieces and pawns) can do either of two things:

1. They can move to vacant squares
2. They can capture enemy chessmen

Note the only piece that cannot be captured is the King.
When an enemy chessman is taken, the piece or pawn that captures it takes its place on the board.

The Chessmen
Your army and that of your opponent

The first rule of chess is that WHITE moves first. At the start of the game White's pawns stand on the 2nd rank, and Black's stand on the 7th rank as in our next diagram.

Each side has 8 Pawns

This is their starting position

A pawn can move straight ahead one or two squares on its first move. After that, it can move only one square at a time, even if it didn't go two squares on its first move.

How the Pawn moves

We assign a value to each chessman using the pawn as the lowest unit. There is no chess rule concerning this, but it will make it easier to play a game if you have some idea of the relative value of the chessmen, particularly when you need to make a decision regarding exchanging one of your men for one of your opponent's.

THE PAWN = 1

=

PAWN CAPTURES

Each side has 2 Knights

This is their starting position

How the Knight moves

We assign the Knight a notional value just as we did for the pawn.

THE KNIGHT = 3 =

Each side has 2 Bishops

This is their starting position

How the Bishop moves

We assign the Bishop a notional value just as we did for the knight.

THE BISHOP = 3 =

Each side has 2 Rooks

This is their starting position

How the Rook moves

We assign the Rook a notional value just as we did for the pawn.

THE ROOK = 5 =

Each side has 1 Queen

This is its starting position

Note: At the start of each game the Queen stands on a square of her own colour - Black Queen on a black square, White Queen on a white square.

How the Queen moves

We assign the Queen a notional value just as we did for the pawn.

THE QUEEN = 9 =

Each side has 1 King.

This is its starting position

How the king moves

It is against the rules to move the King onto a square where it can be captured. If you do this by accident, we say that the move is illegal. The illegal move must be taken back, and a legal move must be played instead.

SPECIAL MOVES - CHECK & CHECKMATE

In the first diagram below the White King is attacked by the black bishop. An attack on the king has a special name.
It is called CHECK. When the king is under attack and might be captured next move, we say the King is in check.When the King is in check, it must be saved. The King can never be captured or exchanged for another piece. If the King cannot be saved, the game is over. If your king is in check you cannot make any other move just before you save it.
There are three ways to answer a check

• Move the King to a safe square (Escape)
• Capture the attacking piece (Remove the attacker)
• Place another man in the line of fire (Block the check)

Okay, we now know almost all there is to know about the rules.
As soon as we cover a few more important points we will look at a real game.

SPECIAL MOVES - CASTLING

Once the battle commences the Kings need a safe home. The rules allow for a special move that safeguards the King. This is called castling. There are strict rules regarding when and how castling may take place. First we will illustrate the castling manoeuvre. When the Kings castle it is the only time in the chess game that two pieces may move together on the same turn. It is also the only time that the King can move more than one square at a time. It is also the only time a Rook may jump over another piece.

CASTLING RULES

There are a number of rules that must be observed concerning castling.

• Being in check stops you castling. You cannot castle if you are in check. You must get out of check first, then you may be able to castle later on.

• You cannot castle across a square controlled by an enemy piece.

• You cannot castle into a square controlled by an enemy piece.

• You cannot castle if there are pieces between the King and the Rook.

• The King and the Rook to be used in castling must not have moved yet in the game.

Our diagram below shows a number of these possibilities.

White cannot castle on the Kingside, since that would place his King in check from the Queen on g6.
He may castle on the Queenside, since the King does not move across a check, even though the Rook on a1 crosses a square which is attacked by the Black Queen. Beginners are often confused, and think that you may not castle if you have ever been in check. This is quite wrong; as long as you have not moved your King it does not matter how many times you have been in check earlier in the game.

Rember this special rule about Kings: They can never allow themselves to be captured.

OPPOSITION
The Kings must keep apart

Enemy Kings can never get close enough to capture each other. There must always be at least one square between Kings. They can never get closer. This can be seen in the diagram above. They oppose each other at one squares distance. This situation is known as "the opposition".

Whenever the King is attacked we say that he is in check. The rules require that the King gets out of check on the very next move. Since the king is not allowed to be captured, it is an infinitely valuable piece and cannot truly be given a numerical value.

SPECIAL MOVES

PAWN PROMOTION
Sometimes referred to as "Queening"

When a Pawn reaches the last rank it can become any piece other than a King. It cannot remain as a Pawn, but must take on a new role. It can become a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight. You can have a new Queen even though you still have the original Queen on the board, and you can continue this process if you succeed in promoting more pawns.

We call it "Queening", since nearly always a player will change the promoted pawn into a new Queen, because the Queen is the most powerful piece.

CAPTURING "En Passant"
Pronounced "On-Pass-on"

The "En Passant" rule

En passant is a French term meaning "in passing".It is Black's move in the diagram above (left). He has the option of advancing the pawn one square or two, as the pawn has not yet moved. It is reasonable to assume that if Black moves the pawn two squares he will avoid capture. However, White may capture it anyway.The en passant rule allows White to capture the pawn as if it had only moved one square ahead. This means that whether Black's pawn moves one square or two, it can be captured by White on the same square. It is a requirement of the rules that the "en passant" capture must be carried out on the very next turn. It cannot be deferred, or the right to play it is forfeited.

The diagram on the right above shows the position after white carries out the "en passant" manoeuvre.

Capturing "En Passant" Further Explanation

This is one of the trickiest moves to learn and the single move that causes consternation among beginners. A small bit of history helps to introduce and to understand the en passant (French for "while passing") capture. During the early days of chess, pawns could only move a single square at a time. Several changes were introduced in Europe to speed up the game. One of these changes permitted pawns to move two squares if they had not yet moved.

But this rule change introduced an unfortunate situation. A pawn could now move all the way down the board to become a queen without the opponent's pawn ever having a chance to capture it. When the White pawn moves forward two squares in a single move, the Black pawn on the neighbouring file wants to be able to capture the pawn before the white pawn can advance further. The en passant rule applies here. For one move, AND ONE MOVE ONLY, the black pawn can respond by capturing the White pawn as if it had only moved a single square.

Note that only pawns can capture "en passant," and only a pawn on an adjacent file can capture in this way.

DRAWING THE GAME

Stalemate

If the King is not in check, but cannot move without moving into check, and the player cannot move any other piece or pawn, then it is stalemate. This is regarded as a draw in spite of any material difference between the two sides. In the position below it is Black's turn to move, but his only piece cannot make a legal move. It is stalemate.

Perpetual Check

If a player is unable to escape from annoying checks at each consecutive move,
even though he has far more men than the opponent then it is a draw.
We call this Perpetual Check.

Let's see this in action below.

Insufficient Material

It is also a draw if no one has enough men to checkmate the King, as in the diagram below, where a King and Bishop cannot deliver checkmate without the help of other forces. Another draw is by agreement. If both players say it is a draw, then it is a draw. Finally, if the exact same position is reached three times in one chess game, a draw can be claimed. The exact same position does not have to happen three times in a row. However, it must be the same player's turn to move.

Time To See a Real Game

Click Here »»»»»»»» SAMPLE GAME

ENJOY YOUR CHESS!