According to DigoPaul, the Chess is a game that takes place on a board and faces two people. Each player has sixteen pieces that he can move, respecting certain rules, on the board that is divided into sixty-four squares, known as squares. These pieces are a king, a queen, two towers, two horses, two bishops, and eight pawns. The objective is to overthrow the rival’s king, for which it is possible to capture the various pieces of the opponent.
The board alternates two colors in its squares, usually black and white. The pieces are also distinguished by color: one player starts the game with sixteen black pieces and the other player with sixteen white pieces. The way in which each piece can advance across the board is defined by the regulations, and much of the essence of the game is found in the characteristics of its possible movements.
If a player manages to get one of his pieces to the square where his opponent’s piece is, he can capture it. In this way, the opponent loses one of his pieces. The game is defined when a player makes it impossible for the rival king to avoid a capture maneuver: this move is known as checkmate.
Although historically chess pitted one person against another, in recent decades technology has allowed the emergence of computer programs that, through various calculations, “play” chess, determining the movement of the pieces. In this way, a person can play against a computer (computer), or it is even possible that two computer systems face each other.
Chess moves
Pawn
On the chessboard, there is no weaker and more numerous piece than the pawn. Its most frequent movement is towards the front, from one square; however, the one who starts the game can take two steps at once. One of its peculiarities is that it cannot capture other pieces in the same way that it moves, unlike all the others, but must do so diagonally.
Bishop
Its movement is diagonal and it does not have a limit of squares: while it finds empty spaces, it can continue advancing until the edge of the board. Something that follows from this rule is that the bishop can never step on a square of the opposite color to the initial. Since each player has a bishop on a black square and another on a white one, it is common to take advantage of this to name them, although they can also be identified according to their proximity to the king or queen.
Tower
The rook could be said to be like the bishop but in a straight horizontal or vertical line. In addition to the orientation of its movement, a difference that it presents with the latter is that it can be positioned in any square on the board, something that makes it very powerful.
Horse
It is the piece that stands out the most from the group, since it is the only one capable of jumping over other pieces. Its movement consists of moving two squares in a horizontal or vertical straight line, and then advancing one more forming a right angle, as if writing a letter L in its path.
Queen
It is the most powerful piece of the game, as it combines the possibilities of the bishop and the rook.
King
Despite its importance, it is one of the least powerful pieces on the board. Its movements are limited to any of its adjacent squares, therefore it cannot advance more than one step at a time.
Although each piece has an exclusive series of possible movements, it is important to note that there are certain similarities between each other, something logical given the limitations of the design of the board. For example, all the pieces except for the horse must move along a line, be it diagonal, vertical or horizontal, while he must form an angle in his way, as explained above. Another common point that applies to all pieces is that none can move beyond the limits of the board, not even then return.
The horse is also the only piece that can pass over others: all the others need their path to be clear to advance, that is to say that both the final square and all the intermediate ones must be free to consider the movement valid. No piece can end in a cell that is occupied by another of the same color.
