Covski posted:

Basics of chess: The pieces

This post covers the movements of the pieces and any special rules regarding them. I've also added the idea of "personalities" I covered in the beginning of the thread which I find is a useful approach to basic chess strategy as a beginner - if a piece is in the spot it "wants" to be in according to its personality, it's usually decently strategically placed.
Basics of chess: The pieces

Pawns:



Even though pawns are the individually least valuable pieces they are arguably one of the most important ones, and by far the piece with the most special rules attached to them.

Usually, pawns can move one square forward. (It's important to note that unlike all other pieces, pawn moves are permanent in that they cannot move backwards) However, the first time a pawn moves off their starting rank, they may choose to advance two squares instead.

Pawns are also the only piece that captures in a way that is different from their normal move - diagonally in the direction they are able to advance.

The humble pawn have a potentially game winning superpower: Promotion. If a pawn manages to reach the very opposite side of the board, it can be exchanged for any other kind of piece except for a king. In almost all cases you will want to promote the pawn to a queen, except in a few extremely specific situations.



If this wasn't enough, pawns also have an obscure counter-move to the two square advance mentioned earlier. On the following move only, an opposing pawn in the appropriate spot can capture as if the advancing pawn had only moved one square: This is known as "en passant." This weird little rule (which comes up way too seldom in my opinion) was added at the same time as the two-square move was introduced, and I like to think of it as a sort of day-1 nerf after a major balance patch.

Sidenotes and personality:

Likes: Working together with other pawns, punching above his weight, reaching the edge of the board and being promoted
Dislikes: Being alone
General ideas: Pawns should usually as far as possible, be kept in "pawn chains" with their brethren - an isolated pawn is usually a weakness. However, promoting pawns by reaching the edge of the board is often a winning move in the late game.

Knights:



Knights have an odd movement pattern that might take some get used to. It is unique in that it is the only piece that can jump over other pieces, but its movement pattern also means that it has a deceptively hard time reaching some squares close to it.

Sidenotes and personality:

Value: 3 pawns (roughly, depends on the state of the board)
Likes: Being in the middle of the action, forking things
Dislikes: Being on the rim (it makes him grim), being hassled by pawns
General ideas: Knights are most effective in the centre of the board where they can attack/protect the maximum amount of squares, preferably in a spot where they cannot be threatened by opposing pawns.

Bishops:



Bishops are long range pieces that move and attack along diagonals. Since they can only move to squares of the same colour that they start on, they are often referred to as white-square or dark-square bishops.

Sidenotes and personality:

Value: 3+ pawns (roughly, depends on the state of the board)
Likes: Hiding behind pawns on open diagonals, attacking things at long range
Dislikes: Anything on the wrong coloured square
General ideas: Bishops do very well as a long range threat, but can also be useless in situations where most enemy pieces are on different coloured squares.

Rooks:



Rooks are another long range piece - it is a lot more flexible than the bishop, but its starting position usually means that it won't come into play until a bit later in the game.

Sidenotes and personality:

Value: 5 pawns
Likes: Sitting on open files, protecting passed pawns, consuming enemy pawns on their home ranks, castling
Dislikes: Going to work, diagonals
General ideas: Rooks are very strong, but usually don't come into play until the mid game. They're great both at protecting things in front of them as well as being a powerful threat on any open file. When possible, they should usually have an open line to the other rook.

Queens:



The queen is the most powerful piece on the board, its movement pattern being a combination of the rook and the bishop.

Sidenotes and personality:

Value: 8-9 pawns
Likes: Being important, mating, making glorious game winning sacrifices
Dislikes: Protecting pawns, moving out too early
General ideas: The queen is by far the most important piece on the board besides the king, and should not be wasted protecting non-critical pieces. Her high value is also her main weakness: You can usually not afford to trade away your queen unless it is in exchange for your opponent's, or if it is guaranteed to win you the game.

Kings:



The king is the most important piece, as it's safety is paramount to not losing the game. However, an active king can become a very powerful tool in the late game.

Its main restriction is that the king is never allowed to move into check.



The king has a special move in combination with the rook: Castling. As long as neither the king or the rook has moved, and there are no pieces between them, you castle by moving the king two squares towards the rook and the rook to the square on the other side next to the king. Note that you cannot castle if your king is in check, nor if the king would have to move through check to perform the castling.

Sidenotes and personality:

Value: INFINITY
Likes: Being safe, saving the kingdom in its hour of greatest need.
Dislikes: Being unsafe, being placed in check
General ideas: In the early and middle game, king safety is one of the absolute highest priorities. However, the king becomes a very strong piece in his own right in the late game, and is critical to many late game mating positions.

Checking:



When your king is placed in check, you must immediately remove the check on your next turn, either by moving the king out of check, blocking the check with another piece, or by capturing the checking piece. If you have no legal way to move out of the check, you lose the game.

In the above position, the black king can escape the check either by blocking with the knight, or moving the king out of the check by moving behind the white knight. Note that the king cannot capture the white knight, as it is illegal to move the king into the check. In this example, the white king would have been mated if it had been on any square on the a-file.

Covski posted:

Algebraic notation



Notation isn't very fun and can be a bit bothersome getting used to but it is a necessary evil for discussion chess moves, especially in an online format such as this.

Each square on the chessboard is identified by a coordinate system. The vertical columns (files) are labelled, a-h, the horisontal rows (ranks) are labelled 1-8.

For the newbie game, we will be using long algebraic notation. Each move is denoted by the letter of the piece (K for king, Q for queen, R for rook, B for bishop, N for knight, pawns don't get a letter), the initial square, and the square that they move to. For example: Bd2-f4 denotes that the bishop on d2 moves to the square f4.

If a capture is made, this is denoted by an x instead of a -. For example: Bd2xf4 denotes the bishop on d2 moving to square f4 and capturing.

A check is denoted by a +, and checkmate by #. Castling is indicated by 0-0 (kingside) or 0-0-0 (queenside). Promotions are indicated by adding the letter of the piece the pawn promotes to. (for example, h7-h8Q)

Covski posted:

Basic opening ideas:

Since the game is starting soon, time to go over some thoughts on what it is you want to achieve in the opening of the game.

But first, let's mention the idea of tempo. Tempo (Italian for "time") basically means the amount of productive moves you have been allowed to make compared to you opponent, and can be thought of as the hidden resource of chess. Any time you do a passive move or use more moves than necessary to accomplish something, you are said to lose a tempo. Contrarily, you can win a tempo by forcing your opponent to do a passive or unproductive move. White, always going first, starts with a tempo. This is the reason that playing as white is considered an advantage, amounting to a few percent higher win rate in high level games.



The two main priorities in the opening is achieving some amount of control of the centre of the board, and developing your pieces as effectively as possible.

The four squares in the middle of the board (d4, d5, e4, e5) are crucial since control of these squares limit your opponent's ability to develop his pieces and stage attacks. Historically, the main way to control the centre was to occupy it directly with supported pawns, while the defining characteristic of modern chess is the idea of indirectly contesting the centre with long range pieces, most commonly bishops. Which of these methods is superior is largely a question of personal preference and style.

In the above position (known as the King's Indian Attack, for the record) white stakes a claim to the centre with his king pawn, which attacks the d5 and f5 squares. The knight supports the attack on d5, while at the same time protecting the centre pawn.

Black, on the other hand, attacks the d4 and e5 squares with his bishop while at the same time threatening a future exchange of pieces with the white knight. As an aside, this way of developing the bishop by moving up the knight pawn is known as a fianchetto, and is very popular in modern chess. It is much less popular in other disciplines, such as football. (I straight up stole that joke from Chessmaster, sorry.)



Okay, so why is development important? Basically because a piece that isn't attacking or defending anything (directly or indirectly) is pretty much useless. The more active and well-placed your pieces are, the harder it is for your opponent to make agressive moves, while you retain as many options as possible for going on the attack.

In the above example white and black has made an equal number of moves, but white is way ahead in development. All white's minor pieces are out and active in central squares, while black's pieces are sitting passively in their starting squares and are in some cases even blocked in by his own pawns. Sad!

This ties back into the concept of tempo - in this case white is way ahead because blacks wasted a lot of tempo on unproductive or even counterproductive moves.

There's a lot more to be said about openings, but this should hopefully be a decent enough starting point for now. As always, please ask if you have any immediate questions!

Artelier posted:

I'm not too familiar with chess openings but have read up a little on the Wiki, and I think moving e2-e4 is a pretty common and strong move.

Artelier posted:

I'm not too familiar with chess openings but have read up a little on the Wiki, and I think moving e2-e4 is a pretty common and strong move.



Our pawn hits the centre of the board, and it opens up our bishop and our Queen.

Coolguye posted:

Not voting because I'm not playing, but this is the most common opening in chess, period, and there's a very, very good reason for that.

quote:

Players aren't allowed to read the observer thread or the opposing team's thread, observers aren't allowed to post in the team threads.

Covski posted:

CascadeBeta posted:

While I think e4 is correct as well, are there any other moves that are worth considering?

Covski posted:

Ugh, having thought about it a bit more I'll be amending the rules to allow chess.com as a source for information as well. Me changing the rules as I figure out what works is basically a trademark of mine by now anyway.

Sorry if you have to remake your Good Post Yorkshire

Yorkshire Tea posted:

So I played chess when I was about 10 or so and was never very good.

I get notation and how the pieces move but I'm not really able to see more than two moves in advance.

Like reading the last thread and watching people observe that white were at an advantage was mystifying to me.

AlphaKretin posted:

Same, pretty much, except I only got notation as a result of this thread (granted it was the first cause to really try at all).

Yorkshire Tea posted:

I get notation and how the pieces move but I'm not really able to see more than two moves in advance.