The Everything Chess Basics Book (2 page)

Internet chess is fast gaining popularity and USCF members can go to U.S. Chess Live (
www.uschesslive.org
) to play chess online. Chess Live features Grandmaster Simuls, “Battle of the Minds,” Master Challenges, interactive chess exercises, rated tournament play, and more. The World Chess Hall of Fame and Sidney Samole Museum has been located in Miami, Florida, since 2001. The Hall features chess history and houses a growing collection of artifacts comprising some of the world’s most interesting and important pieces of chess history, such as the Paul Morphy silver beverage set and the playing table from the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match. (The Web site is
www.worldchesshalloffame.org.
) Sid Samole was a pioneer in the invention of the commercial chess computer. He founded Excalibur Electronics, a well-known manufacturer of chess computers and other electronic games, and is the benefactor of the Museum.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to USCF’s Executive Director Frank Niro, Jami L. Anson, Jean Bernice, Tom Brownscombe, George DeFeis, Paula Helmeset, Al Lawrence, Kathleen Merz, Michele Stowe, Chess Author Bruce Pandolfini, and Hall of Fame Grandmasters Arthur Bisguier and Lev Alburt for their help, guidance, and patience. Thanks also to those wonderful modern inventions, the personal computer and e-mail.

Top Ten Reasons
to Learn the Game of Chess

1.
You can build mental acuity through strategic play.

2.
It’s an easy-to-learn game that provides a lifetime of fun.

3.
In existence for more than 1,400 years, chess is the most popular game in the world.

4.
Chess doesn’t depend on athletic ability—it’s a game of mental skill.

5.
You can learn to play at almost any age.

6.
It’s perfect for a rainy day!

7.
Joining clubs will help you build your social circle.

8.
Chess is one of the few games based solely on individual skills.

9.
When you can’t find an opponent, you can play online against the computer.

10.
Impress your friends by beating them quickly!

Introduction

CHESS IS A MENTAL EXERCISE that can be pursued for its own sake or for some other reason. The skills required to play a strong chess game include the ability to visualize, the ability to memorize, the ability to recognize patterns, the ability to use analytic logic, the ability to plan ahead, the ability to make decisions, and the ability to accept the consequences of your actions. Is it any wonder that chess is being touted as a useful subject for study in many schools?

Yet chess is nothing more than a board game. It has no inherent value beyond that. The previously mentioned skills are not necessary to play the game. They only become necessary if one is interested in playing chess well. This is comparable with skill in music. And like music, the casual player can appreciate superior skill in chess.

The Everything
^®
Chess Basics Book
is your introduction to the game that has challenged and fascinated so many people for so many years. In it you will learn a bit about the history of the game as well as some of the fascinating diversity available within the chess world. You will learn what chess is, how to read and write in the universal chess language, and how to play the game.

The meat of this book is in the middle, where all good chess players would expect to find it. (One of the basic principles of strong chess play is to control the middle of the board.) You can learn to play chess in one short session. It can take the rest of your life to really master its intricacies, but don’t let that scare you away.

Don’t expect that reading this book will make you a strong player. It won’t. Instead, you are shown the many building blocks that are the foundation of good chess play. These building blocks are strategic and tactical principles that allow you to pick out a plan based on the pawn structure or find a combination based on your awareness of an exposed king and a couple of tactical patterns. You are shown what the pieces can do singly and in combination, and given guidelines to think about regardless of the position you might find your pieces in.

These basic principles are the hallmark of the strong player. They were discovered over several hundred years by many chess pioneers and are the property of all modern chess masters. But they are really nothing more than an expression of the inherent logic of the game. For example, the great strength of the fast-moving bishop is its ability to get from one place to another in a hurry. Therefore, a bishop that cannot get anywhere at all, much less in a hurry, is something to be avoided. Thus you try to saddle your opponent with a bad bishop, while trying to get rid of your own bad bishop.

After learning the basic principles of chess, you should be able to enjoy playing over the games of the masters, appreciating the nuances they employ to make their ideas work. You should also be able to enjoy a game with almost anyone, even if that only means understanding why your position is bad.

Once you have mastered the basics, it’s up to you how far you want to progress at chess. So enjoy the game in whatever way you like. Your life will thereby be enhanced.

Chapter 1
What Is Chess?

Chess is a strategic game designed for two players who battle each other with an army of sixteen chess men each. The bottom line of the game is to keep your king from being checkmated while trying to checkmate your opponent’s king.

Early Chess

Chess is a descendant of a game called Chaturanga believed to have originated in India in the sixth century and which may have been related to a much older Chinese game. Writings about this oldest form of chess were found around A.D. 600.

Chaturanga is a Sanskrit word that refers to the four arms of the old Indian army—elephants, cavalry, chariots, and infantry—from which come the four types of pieces in that game. Checkmate may come from the ancient Persian phrase
shah manad
, meaning “the king is helpless [or defeated].”

Early Forms of Chess

Chaturanga spread eastward from India to China and then through Korea and Japan. It appeared after the Islamic conquest (A.D. 638–651) in Persia, where it was first called Chaturanga, and then Shatranj, which is the Arabic form of the word. The spread of Islam to Sicily and the invasions of Spain by the Moors brought Shatranj to Western Europe. It reached Russia through trade from several directions.

Chess seems to have spread rapidly along the routes of commerce: first to Persia, then to the Byzantine Empire, then throughout the rest of Asia. By the end of the tenth century, the game was well known throughout Europe and had attracted the serious interest of kings, philosophers, and even poets.

Muslims, it seems, welcomed chess, and the Arabs extensively studied chess, analyzed games, and wrote in great detail about chess. The Arabs probably developed the algebraic notation system (see Chapter 6).

Europe Embraces the New Game

Chess reached Europe probably between the seventh and ninth centuries. Excavations at a Viking grave site off the south shore of Brittany have uncovered a chess set; tenth-century chess figures of Scandinavian origin, still made in the traditional Arabic form, have been excavated at Vosges, France. In the Middle Ages, chess was played according to the Muslim rules with the queen and bishop as comparatively weak pieces, able to move only one square at a time.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, puzzle solving in chess became a particular pastime—for example, finding a solution such as a forced checkmate in a given number of moves. Overall, strategies became more refined as knowledge of how to play at higher levels was passed down and built upon.

Subsequently, Italians began to rule the game, wrestling the supremacy of the game from the Spanish. Then came the French and the English during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when chess spread among the common folk—until then the game was principally played by royalty and the aristocracy. With the public now playing chess, the level of play improved considerably. Matches and tournaments were played with great frequency, and prominent players of the game developed schools and followers.