Chess is by all means one of the signature board games in human history. Despite being thousands of years old, it doesn’t lose popularity and keeps being widely played in all corners of the world, not only in its home Asia. Moreover – it has turned into a full-fledged sport, with its own leagues, tournaments and army of fans that follows every big match aired on the TV. Of course, learning to play chess like those mastodons of the board you can see at such events takes years and also a special kind of strategic thinking. But even if you’re not very good at this game yet, you still have a chance to improve your skill playing chess regularly – for instance, in this online game!
History of chess
The motherland of chess is considered to be Ancient India in 600 AD. Back then, it was called chaturanga. It was a gracious and metaphorical imitation of real battles waged by Indian rajas and generals. From there, this first version of chess had traveled all around Asia, picked up by Muslim countries, and had eventually made its way to Europe through Spain. In the 16th century, it was already well-known in many European countries and looked much like modern chess.
Chess Game Play Online Free
The 19th century gave the chess frenzy a new spin – this is the time when the first official world championship was held. Since then, chess had become not only a table game to while away your free time, but a recognized kind of sport, just like football, only played on a board rather than at a stadium. It’s rightfully considered to demand a high level of logic, strategy and even psychology because you have to be capable of analyzing and predicting your opponent’s moves and build your own tactic based not only on the disposition of pieces on the board, but also the way your opponent plays. The basics of that can be learned playing chess online!
The board
The game unfolds on a checkered board (consisting of black and white squares). There are eight horizontally, just enough to position all of your pieces, and eight vertically, just enough for gambits and other cunning maneuvers. The rows are called ‘ranks’ and are marked from 1 to 8. The columns are called ‘files’ and are marked as Latin letters from A to H. Based on that, chess moves are coded like F1-C4, showing the square from which the piece set off and the one it landed on.
The pieces and their positions
Chess is played by two players, each having an ‘army’ of 16 pieces. At the start of the match, they are placed on the opposite side of the board and are aligned across two rows. The back row is occupied by the most valuable pieces:
– The king and the queen in the middle
– Two bishops flanking them
– Two knights by each the bishops’ side
– Two rooks at each edge of the row
The queen is always put on the square of the same color. The king takes up the other square in the middle.
The second row is formed by pawns that cover the ‘army elite’. Now we’re good to go, and the game starts!
How do pieces move?
The player with white pieces always goes first. They can start with either one of the pawns or a knight that is the only piece that can jump over other pieces (i.e. its own pawns in this case). The rest of the pieces will be able to make their moves when at least some of the pawns are out of their way and the trajectory they can take according to the rules is free. You can choose to move any of the piece unless the king is in check – then you’re obliged to protect the king, even if it means losing a valuable piece.
You can also capture another piece with any of your pieces if that piece is along your movement path. For that, you need to make your move and place your piece where the one you want to capture stands. The captured piece is removed from the board. This rule works for all chess pieces except pawns for which moving and capturing is done differently:
– Pawns move one square forward. However, at the beginning of the game, you can move a pawn by two squares. This two square rule applies only to pawns in the starting row. Note that pawns can’t go backwards. While moving along a straight path, pawns can also capture other pieces that are right in front of them diagonally. When a pawn reaches the last row at the opponent’s side of the board, it turns into a queen or any other piece if the queen of its color is still on board.
– Bishops move diagonally, both forward and backwards, and any number of squares.
– Knights move in an “L” shape and can jump over other pieces.
– Rooks move any number of squares either horizontally or vertically.
– Queen can move in any direction and any number of squares either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
– King can move just one square in any direction. However, he can’t move in a way that puts him in check.
There is also a special move called castling that involves the king and one of the rooks. If neither the king nor the rook you want to use has moved yet and all the squares between them is free, you can pull the rook right to the king and put the king over it. This way, you can sometimes strengthen your position and put the king under solid defense as the hostile pieces will have to go through the rook to get to it.
Check and mate
The aim of chess is to announce a mate to your opponent – i.e. arrange your pieces in such a way that, wherever the opponent’s king moves, he’s still under threat.
Creating that threat is called putting the king in check. For that, you need to move any of your pieces in such a way that would mean capturing the opponent’s king if it’s not moved away or any other piece is used to cover him. This needs to be done every time somebody puts your king in check – you can’t move any other pieces other than the king and those that can be placed between it and the threatening piece whenever that happens.
If the king ends up in a position where there is no place for it to move without staying in check and also the player can’t use any of the other pieces to cover it, it checkmate and the game is over.
There are also several scenarios when the game can end in a draw:
– If the king isn’t threatened, but the player can’t make any move regardless of that.
– None of the players can checkmate the other because there are simply not enough pieces to do that (for instance, each is left with just the king and a few pawns).
– None of the players is able to capture a piece in 50 consecutive turns
– The same situation repeats on the board for three times in a row.
– The players simply decide to call it a draw
How online chess is played?
In our online version of chess, things are very easy and clear. You have to click on the piece you want to move and then on the square you want to move it to. If you attempt a false move, the game won’t let you do it, which is particularly good for those who are just starting to play chess and haven’t learned all the rules yet. You can also choose to play either an unlimited game where the move takes any amount of time or the time-limited mode where you have just a certain number of minutes to make your move otherwise the turn will pass to your opponent.
Sleek and vibrant design, intuitive controls and simple interface will surely make up for the lack of an actually chessboard since you’ll be able to start a
game anytime, anywhere – the only thing you need is a steady web connection. Enjoy chess online and improve your skill in this game with every session!