Staunton Chess Set, (cc attribution) Free Chess Lessons

In the previous post we have seen how each square of the chess board can be identified by a letter and a number. In chess notation we also identify the pieces. Apart from the pawns each type of piece is identified by an upper-case letter. Most of the time this is the first letter of the name of the piece which makes this notation language dependant, but English-speaking players use K for king, Q for queen, R for rook, B for bishop, and N for knight (since K is already used).

Now the moves can be notated by the letter of the moving piece followed by both the starting and ending position separated by a hyphen. When the piece makes a capture, an x is used instead of the hyphen.
Castling is indicated by the special notations O-O for king-side castling and O-O-O for queen-side castling. A pawn promotion is followed by a letter to indicate the chosen piece.
If a move places the opponent’s king in check the notation “+” is added. Checkmate is indicated by a “#”. At the end of the game the game result is added (1-0, 0-1 or ½-½).

As an example of this long algebraic notation the moves of Fool’s Mate can be notated as:
1. f2-f3 e7-e5
2. g2-g4 Qd8-h4# 0-1

Now continue by learning the Short algebraic notation.

Tower of London Chess Set by D-Kav
All sizes of this photo are available for download under a Creative Commons license.

I like chess and I also like chess sets. Some of these sets are so beautiful, but not always that practical. While learning to play chess I suggest to use a more normal chess set.

Before we are going to learn the algebraic chess notation we have to identify each square of the chessboard with a unique coordinate. The files are labelled with the lower-case letters a through h, from the left of the player with the white pieces. In addition the ranks are numbered from 1 to 8. The result is that each square of the board is uniquely identified by its file letter and rank number, as shown for some example squares in the diagram below.

Another nice chess set by cygnoir
All sizes of this photo are available for download under a Creative Commons license.

This post gives an overview of all the Chess Lessons currently on this site that are intended for the beginning players.

Learning the moves and the rules

1. The starting position
2. The Rook
3. The Bishop
4. The Queen
5. The King
6. The Knight
7. The Pawn
8. En passant
9. Castling
10. The end of the game

1. The squares of the chess board
2. Long algebraic notation
3. Short algebraic notation
4. Chess Notation Symbols
5. An illustrative example game

1. Some tips
2. Think before you Touch
3. An illustrative example game
4. Take free pieces
5. The value of the pieces
6. Capture exercises
7. Defending
8. Twofold attack
9. Stalemate
10. Chess lessons start at the end
11. Basic checkmates
12. Scholar's Mate
13. Fool's Mates
14. Mating with the Queen
15. Mating with the Rook
16. An illustrative example game
17. A typical beginner's game
18. Mate in one exercises

Chess playing while waiting for a room by romainguy
All sizes of this photo are available for download on Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

The following game is a very illustrative game between two junior players, Jennifer and Johanna, with an ELO rating of about 900. They know how to play and they are not really beginners, but make some mistakes that are rather typical for intermediate players. Let's have a look!

Home made minimalist Chess set, by Benjamin Rossen

This is a home made attempt to bring a chess set back to the essentials. It is certainly in which each piece is represented by one of the most simplest forms it can take.

Now that we have learned how the chess pieces move it is time to pay some attention to the end of the game.
During one of the previous chess lessons we have learned that the game is decided with a Checkmate, but not every game ends with a Mate. One of the players often resigns before the actual Mate is being accomplished.

Furthermore if no legal move can be made, but the King is not checked, the game necessarily is at an end. This situation is called Stalemate and the game ends in a Draw.
A draw can also be reached by mutual agreement, when both players assume they are not able to win the game.
It is also a draw when during these fifty successive moves no capture nor the advance of a Pawn has been performed. or if exactly the same position (with the same player to move and the same castling possibilities) occurs three times in the game, the player to move can also claim a draw.

Chess clocks and time
Especially for the more official games the game is often played with chess clocks. These clocks count the time that each player separately takes for making his own moves. The player who has used all his available time also looses the game. Some additional rules especially with respect to these chess clocks but also for some more complex situations can be found in the FIDE handbook.

The chess lessons continue with 'think before you touch'.