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1d184b4c | 1 | p.boxed |
2316f8b8 BA |
2 | | Orthodox rules (with shuffled starting position). |
3 | ||
4 | h3 Basics | |
5 | ||
6 | p. | |
7 | Chess is played between two players, one moving the white pieces and the other | |
8 | the black pieces. A "move" consists of a piece's movement on the board. | |
9 | White and black moves alternate until a specific situation occurs (checkmate, | |
10 | stalemate, or draw criteria met; this is detailed later). | |
11 | White pieces always make the first move. | |
12 | ||
13 | p. | |
14 | Each piece has a particular way to move, but almost always captures by moving to an | |
15 | occupied square (with only one exception, detailed later). | |
16 | ||
17 | figure.diagram-container | |
18 | .diagram | |
19 | | fen:rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR: | |
20 | figcaption Standard initial position. | |
21 | ||
22 | p. | |
23 | Board coordinates: squares are always identified by a couple (letter, number). | |
24 | The letter starts from 'a' and indicates the column, while the number starts | |
25 | at '1' and indicates the row. | |
26 | Since the chessboard is 64 squares, 8x8, this results in a coordinates system | |
27 | from a1 to h8. 'a1' is the bottom left corner square from the white pieces | |
28 | player perspective, while 'h8' is in the upper right corner. | |
29 | ||
30 | h3 Regular moves | |
31 | ||
32 | h4 Pawns | |
33 | ||
34 | p. | |
35 | They are the weakest pieces on board, but the most complex to move. | |
36 | From their initial rank they can either jump two squares forward (vertically), | |
37 | or advance only one square in this same direction. After that first move they | |
38 | only advance one square at a time, vertically, moving up. | |
39 | ||
40 | p. | |
41 | Pawns capture by moving forward (upper on the board) one square diagonally, | |
42 | when an enemy piece sits on that square. | |
43 | ||
44 | p. | |
45 | When reaching the last rank, pawns must promote into any (friendly) | |
46 | other non-royal piece: queen, rook, knight or bishop. | |
47 | ||
48 | p. | |
49 | Moves notations: "pawn" is implicit, so for a simple move we only write the | |
50 | destination square (because only one pawn at most can move forward to a specific | |
51 | square). Thus, 1.e4 means "pawn from e2 to e4". However, in case of captures | |
52 | the situation could be ambiguous (two pawns on the same rank), so the column | |
53 | is specified too: "fxe6" (for example). | |
54 | As you can see capture is marked by a cross symbol: "x". | |
55 | ||
56 | figure.diagram-container | |
57 | .diagram | |
58 | | fen:k7/8/8/1prp4/1P1P4/8/6P1/7K: | |
59 | figcaption Possible pawn moves: g3, g4, dxc5, bxc5 | |
60 | ||
61 | p | |
62 | | For a piece movement, we just prepend the upper-case piece initial before the | |
63 | | previously described notation. A rook taking something on f3 square writes: | |
64 | | Rxf3. There are rules for ambiguous situation, but discussing them now would | |
65 | | be too far off-topic. Please visit for example the | |
66 | a(href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_notation_(chess)") | |
67 | | Wikipedia page | |
68 | | for full information on this subject. | |
69 | ||
70 | h4 Rooks | |
71 | ||
72 | p. | |
73 | They move either horizontally or vertically, as far as they want while the path | |
74 | is free of pieces. If this path ends with an enemy piece, it can a priori be captured | |
75 | (a priori because if the move ends up with the king in check, then it's illegal). | |
76 | ||
77 | h4 Knights | |
78 | ||
79 | p. | |
80 | They are the only units able to jump over other pieces (without capturing them). | |
81 | They do "L" moves: two squares in one direction (horizontally or vertically), | |
82 | and then one square in an orthogonal direction. | |
83 | ||
84 | figure.diagram-container | |
85 | .diagram | |
da06a6eb | 86 | | fen:k7/2p5/5q2/2b5/4N3/2R3r1/3P4/7K f6,d6,c5,f2,g3,g5: |
2316f8b8 BA |
87 | figcaption Possible knight moves from e4. |
88 | ||
89 | h4 Bishops | |
90 | ||
91 | p. | |
92 | They move diagonally, as far as they want while the path is free of pieces. | |
93 | If this path ends with an enemy piece, it can a priori be captured. | |
94 | ||
95 | h4 Queen | |
96 | ||
97 | p This piece combines the movement of a rook and a bishop, with the same conditions. | |
98 | ||
99 | h4 King | |
100 | ||
101 | p. | |
102 | This piece moves like a queen, but only by one square at a time. The final square | |
103 | must be either vacant or occupied by an enemy piece (therefore captured). | |
104 | ||
105 | p. | |
106 | The king cannot be captured, but a move may ends up attacking enemy's king. | |
107 | It is said to be "under check" (or "in check") and the opponent must either: | |
108 | ul | |
109 | li move the king to a safe square, or | |
110 | li capture the attacker, or | |
111 | li intercept the attacking line. | |
112 | p Depending on the situation one or more of these counter-measures could be impossible. | |
113 | ||
114 | p Leaving our king in check after a move is forbidden. | |
115 | ||
116 | TODO: diagram let king in check capturing queen, bishop pinned | |
117 | figure.diagram-container | |
118 | .diagram | |
119 | | fen:r6k/4q3/8/8/8/B7/8/K7: | |
120 | figcaption Bxe7 is illegal (it allows Rxa1). | |
121 | ||
122 | h3 Special moves | |
123 | ||
124 | p Apart from pawn promotion which has already been introduced, two special moves exist: | |
125 | ul | |
126 | li. | |
127 | castle: if both the king and the right-most (from white player perspective) rook | |
128 | haven't moved yet, and if nothing stand in the path from king to rook, and if the | |
129 | squares f1 and g1 are either free or occupied by the king or rook implied, then | |
130 | the king can go to g1 while the rook moves to f1. Note that since positions are | |
131 | shuffled one of these two pieces may apparently not move. | |
132 | The same can be done on the other side (left-most rook), and end squares are c1 | |
133 | for king and d1 for rook. The former is small castle, and the latter large castle. | |
134 | Notation: small castle writes "0-0" while large castle is "0-0-0". | |
135 | li. | |
136 | en-passant: after a pawn has jumped two squares, if an enemy pawn stands just next | |
137 | to it then it can capture the jumping pawn "en passant", exactly as if it had | |
138 | advanced only one square. The move is noted as usual, but with "e.p." in the end | |
139 | to indicate the special move. | |
140 | The capture is possible only right after the pawn jump: not later in the game. | |
141 | ||
142 | figure.diagram-container | |
80b15df1 | 143 | .diagram.diag12 |
2316f8b8 | 144 | | fen:nr1kb1r1/ppp3pp/8/2Pp4/8/7P/PP3PP1/1R3KBR: |
80b15df1 | 145 | .diagram.diag22 |
2316f8b8 | 146 | | fen:nr1kb1r1/ppp3pp/3P4/8/8/7P/PP3PP1/2KR2BR: |
18f9c763 BA |
147 | figcaption. |
148 | Left: black just played d5 (jump from d7). | |
149 | Right: after cxd6 e.p. and 0-0-0. | |
2316f8b8 BA |
150 | |
151 | h3 End of the game | |
152 | ||
153 | p. | |
154 | The best-known way to end a game is by "checkmating" the enemy king. | |
155 | This means that you end a move in a situation where the king can be captured, | |
156 | and your opponent has no way to avoid the capture. | |
157 | The checkmating player has one point and the other zero, so the score writes 1-0 | |
158 | or 0-1 depending if white pieces or black pieces mated. | |
159 | ||
160 | figure.diagram-container | |
161 | .diagram | |
162 | | fen:rnbqkbnr/ppp2Qpp/2np4/4p3/2B1P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNB1K1NR: | |
163 | figcaption Famous mating pattern: 1-0 | |
164 | ||
165 | p All other ways to end the game lead to a draw (1/2-1/2): nobody wins: | |
166 | ul | |
167 | li when a player has no legal move but is not under check, | |
168 | li. | |
169 | when a position is repeated three times with the same castling right and | |
170 | same player in turn, | |
171 | li when 50 moves are played without pawn movement or capture. | |
172 | p. | |
173 | Note: this last way to end a game is not implemented, because it quite seldom occurs, | |
174 | does not generalize so well to variants (it depends), and more important because | |
175 | games played on this website are not official tournament games. If you feel like | |
9a3c9f79 | 176 | manoeuvring for 200 moves and your opponent isn't bored, then why would I stop you? :) |