Rules For Chess

Each piece has a point value. This means that some pieces are more valuable than others. This point system is based upon the importance or how well pieces can move.

The point value for pawns is 1 because they aren't a very powerful piece alone.

Bishops and knights have a point value of 3. So, if a bishop was to capture my knight and then I captured their bishop with my pawn, then it was an equal trade because the pieces have the same points value. They are equally powerful. They are stronger than pawns.

Rooks have a point value of 5. They are very powerful pieces and are stronger than bishops, knights, and pawns.

Queens have a point value of 9. They are the most powerful piece and are stronger than rooks, bishops, knights, and pawns.

Kings do not have a point value because once they are captured, the game is over.

Pawns can only move forward, however they can only attack forward diagonally by one square.

With this setup, the white pawn is next to the blue knight and red bishop. The pawn can only attack the red bishop because it is forward diagonal by one square.

Since the pawn can attack the bishop, it captured the piece and moved to its position. Other than attacking, a pawn can only move forward.

No piece can hop over another piece unless it is a knight. Piece movement is limited by the surrounding pieces.

Focusing on the white queen, the movement is very limited because it cannot hop over its own pawns or knights.

Here is where the queen can move to and which pieces it can attack in this position. Main point is that you have to create openings so that strong pieces can move more squares across the board.

Moving the knight allows the queen to cover more squares on the board. It's all about tactics.

When starting a game, the idea is to push the pawns to allow room for the back pieces to develop and become active on the board.

Pushing this pawn up two squares is a very popular first move because it allows your bishop to escape and become active on the board. You must do this with the rest of your pawns so your other pieces can move around and attack black.

Checkmate is the ultimate goal of chess. It is when the opponent's king is being attacked and cannot move to any safe squares without getting captured.

As you can see in this scenario, the king is being attacked and cannot move anywhere else without being captured. He cannot capture the queen either because it is being defended by the bishop. So the black king is in checkmate.

Here is another scenario. Why is this checkmate?

It's because the king is getting attacked by the white rook. He cannot take the rook because he is not close enough. He can't go to his surrounding white squares, green lines, because the white knight is attacking them. Since the black king cannot find a safe square, this is checkmate.

Check is close to checkmate, however when you attack the opponent king, the king has a safe square to move to.

In this scenario, the white queen is attacking the black queen. This is check, not checkmate because the black king can move to the green arrow box and still be safe.

Here is another scenario. The king has no safe squares. Why is this check and not checkmate?

This is check, not checkmate because you can move the labeled pawn down a square and block off the bishop. The bishop cannot capture the pawn because it is being protected by another pawn because pawns can only attack forward diagonally. So technically, moving this pawn up would also be attacking the white bishop.