Special moves in Chess

Special moves

1. Pawn promotion

•       If a pawn successfully reaches the 8th rank or …..rank is promoted to a piece

•       To any other 4 pieces that is: Rook, Queen, Knight or Bishop only.

•       BUT not the King and should not remain a pawn once at the end.

•       Most chess players want the promotion to be the queen, why?

•       When a pawn reaches the rank furthest from its starting position.

•      Replace the pawn with another piece and should be on same square for a new piece of the of the same colour.

•       Pawn promotion normally occurs in the endgame why?

•       You can have 9 queens on the chess boards that is if all pawns have been promoted

Practice pawn promotion click here!

2. En passant 

•       En passant is a pawn move

•       En passant French - in passing

•        is a special pawn capture

•       only occur immediately after a pawn makes a move of two squares from its starting square

•        That pawn could have been captured by an enemy pawn had it advanced only one square.

Practice En passant click here!

3. Castling

•       Involves the King and one of the rooks

•       Kingside of queenside

•       King and Rook involved should be on its original position

•       Nothing in between them

•       Procedure- move the King 2 squares towards the rook then the Rook jumps over to the other side of the King

•       You cannot castle if the king or rook has already moved during the game.

•        You cannot castle if the King is in check or would pass through check

•       You cannot castle if the King will be in check at the end of the move

•       You cannot castle if there is a piece in the way.

Practice Castling click here!

4. Stalemate

•        The King is not IN CHECK but its his turn to move

•       He has no moves with his king which do not put him into CHECK.

•       no other pieces to move.

•       The King cannot move anywhere, - this position is a DRAW.

•       we say that it is STALEMATE

Practice stalemate click here!

Check & checkmate

What is check & Checkmate

1. Check

 •       you can win or lose a real game of chess.

•       The King is an important piece

•       A threat to it is also important

•       When the king is threatened, we call it a Check!

•       A King is not allowed to be captured

•       If the King is in check you must attend to the threat before you do anything.

•       It becomes an illegal move to leave the King in check

•       When in check you have 3 options – Block, run away or capture

•       You cannot stay in check

•       + is a sign which represent check when you are writing down the moves (notating)

Click where it is blue to Practice checking !

You have 3 options to get out of check. Run away, capture the piece attacking the King or block the piece attacking the King

Click where it is blue to practice Getting out of check

2. Checkmate

•       If you cannot do the 3 options when you are in check that means it will be Checkmate

•       King cannot escape 

•      It means the King have been trapped

•       Means the game is over!

•       If your King have been checkmated you have Lost the game.

•       Aim of chess is to trap the enemy King

Click where it is blue to practice checkmating!

Opening principles

Best recommended way of opening in chess.

•       Develop your pieces.

•       Open through the centre pawn

•       Don't make too many pawn moves.

•       Don't bring your queen out too early.

•       Don't move the same piece twice.

•       Castle early. Though all based on opponent’s play

•       Develop towards the centre. ...

•       Clear the back rank and connect your rooks.

How chess pieces move

 How pieces move

1. Pawn

•       start in front of the other pieces. # 2nd rank for White or 7th rank for Black
•       It moves forward only

•       8 pawns at the beginning for each team

•       Only moves forward

•       Cannot move backwards

•       One square at a time

•       However, they are allowed to move either 1 or 2 squares forward only on their first move

•        It moves 1 step at a time
•       can move 2 steps only at the beginning and thereafter 1 step at a time.

•       Cannot be advanced if the square ahead is blocked by another piece

•       Captures diagonally
 •    The power of the pawn is in promotion 
•    Once it gets to the last rank it becomes any other piece besides a King

•       Only piece which captures differently from the way it moves
•    It have a special move called en passant which will be covered under special moves

Click where it is blue for Pawn video click here How the pawn moves

Click where it is blue to practice how the pawn moves

2. Bishop

• It moves DIAGONALLY as far as it likes & in straight lines only

• North, East and North West, South East and South West.

•Backwards, forwards as many squares as they like

•Their track should be clear and cannot move beyond a piece

•If on white/light squares that BISHOP will move on white/light only diagonally.

• A BISHOP that starts on a WHITE SQUARE stays on a WHITE SQUARE all its life.

•And a BISHOP that starts on a BLACK SQUARE stays on a BLACK SQUARE all its life as well. “

•It captures the way it moves

         **  Cannot jump

Click where it is blue for How the bishop moves click here

     Click where it is blue to practice how the Bishop moves

3. Knight

•        KNIGHTS are very different

•       Its move is like the capital letter L (not a cursive one)

•       Side step, step or 2 square in 1 direction and then 1 square sideways.  try the way you understand it. Tricky?

•       Any direction sideways, forwards or backwards

•       It captures the way it moves

•       If we place the Knight on e4 how many squares can it go to?

•       it always moves to a square of a different colour

•       KNIGHTS is that they can JUMP over other pieces.

Click where it is blue for How the Knight moves

Click where it is blue to practice how the Knight moves

4. King

•       moves just one square at a time in any direction.

•       If you trap the enemy King you win the game. # Checkmate

•       if your King gets trapped you lose the game.

•       A KING CANNOT move to any ATTACKED square by an enemy piece.

•       you CANNOT move the KING to an attacked square as this becomes an illegal move # Check

•       If you play an ILLEGAL MOVE you have to take the move back and play another move instead.

•       NEVER allow Kings to STAND NEXT TO EACH OTHER!

•       If you make a mistake and move your KING to an attacked square your opponent CANNOT take your KING.

•       you have to go back and play a different move instead.

•       you CANNOT make any move that allows your KING to be captured.

How the King moves

Click where it is blue to practice how the King moves

5. Rook

•       Other prefer to call it a castle but we in chess we call it a Rook

•       It moves in a straight line along the board

•       backwards, forwards or sideways as far as it likes.

•       Long range piece

•       Moves along files and ranks as well

•       Rooks captures the way they move

•       Cannot jump over other pieces

•       If there's another piece of the same colour in its way it cannot move beyond that square.

•       If there's an enemy piece in its way it can capture it but it cannot move any further.

Click where it is blue for how the Rook moves

Click where it is blue to practice how the Rook moves

6. Queen

•       most powerful piece on the chessboard.

•       Moves along ranks & files

•       Moves as many squares as she likes in any direction

•       Cannot jump over other pieces

•       Captures the same way she moves

•       Can do everything a ROOK can do.

•       Can do everything a BISHOP can do.

•       # Rook & Bishop combined

•       It moves like a Bishop as well as a Rook

•       What about if something is on the way?

Click where it is blue for How the Queen moves

Click where it is blue to practice how the Queen moves