Agawam Chess Club

Setting Up the Board

Chess is played on a squared board divided into 64 squares, alternating from light to dark. The board is always set up so that each player has the light square on their right-hand side. The Queen always stands on the square of her own color. From white's perspective, the board is labeled from the bottom right corner left, "a" through "h" and from the bottom left hand corner up, "1" through "8" This creates a grid.

The Chessmen

There are seven classes of pieces in Chess: the Knights, the Bishops, the Rooks, the Queen, and the King. There are also Pawns, but in Chess, Pawns are never called pieces and pieces are never called Pawns. The pieces are further divided into major and minor pieces; Knights and Bishops make up the minor pieces while Rooks and the Queen make up the major pieces. The King is of course invaluable.

Chessman	Value	Description
Pawn	1	Pawns are the weakest class of chessmen and can only move forward one square at a time. If it is their first move, however, they may advance two squares at once. Pawns capture diagonally forward and may be promoted to any piece, accept a King, when they reach the 8th Rank.
Knight	3	The Knight is a bizarre piece in that it moves in the shape of a letter "L" which is three by two squares. It doesn't matter which piece of the "L" comes first, two and three or three and two; it doesn't matter. Confused? Make sure to look at the example! A special trait of the Knight is that they are the only piece that may jump over another piece to get to their destination square; this can be very useful in closed positions.
Bishop	3	Bishops can move and number of squares on an open diagonal, in other words, they stay on their own color. The Bishop, although it is worth the same as a Knight, is arguably stronger because of its advantage during the endgame.
Rook	5	The Rook can move any number of squares on an open rank or file. (Ranks are horizontal lines and Files are vertical lines) The Rook is a very powerful piece and is most powerful during the endgame.
Queen	9	The Queen shares the powers of the Rook and Bishop, allowing it to move freely along any open diagonal, rank, or file. The Queen is obviously the most powerful piece, but its own value also makes it extremely venerable, as your opponent will be prepared to trade multiple pieces to obtain it.
King	Invaluable	The King can move to any of the open squares directly around him (one space in any direction). In Chess you must attack your opponent's King, while protecting your own and whoever loses their King first, loses the game!

Capturing, Check and Checkmate

In Chess, you capture an enemy chessman by occupying its square - unlike in Checkers, you do not capture chessmen by jumping them!

If a chessman is threatening your King, you are in check, and once you're in, getting out always takes top priority; remember, losing your King means you've lost the game! Also, your opponent may not allow you to move somewhere else, and then simply capture your King; he must call out check and you must prevent it. In the event that you cannot legally stop check, you are in checkmate and have lost the game.

It's a Draw!

A draw occurs when...

Threefold Repetition - The same position is repeated three times in a row
Perpetual Check - An endless series of checks which the opponent cannot avoid
Stalemate - The opponent has no legal moves and is not in check
Mutual Agreement - If both players agree to draw
Both players lack mating material
A player flags his opponent and lacks mating material
No captures or pawn moves are made within 50 moves

Inadequate mating material is defined as a lone King, a King and Bishop, a King and two Knights.