Take Me Out

You can take an opponents piece off the board by landing on the square currently occupied by that piece. This is generally called taking a piece, taking material, or capturing a piece.

The examples use the layout on the left. Let’s assume it is white’s go. Look at the white Knight. It is capable of taking either the black Pawn on the 7th row (rows are counted up from the bottom), or the black Rook on the 6th row. The white Bishop on the 5th row is also capable of taking the black Pawn.

Although pawns can only move forward, they can only take pieces by moving diagonally forward. This often confuses chess beginners, and therefore I have included a video to explain.

Incidentally, which chess pieces could black take? The Rook in the top left corner could take white’s Bishop. The Queen could take the Pawn or the Knight, and the Rook on the 6th row could take white’s Pawn.

In chess, you are not forced to take a piece. As a beginner chess player, it is often tempting to take as many pieces as possible. It is advised that a piece be taken only if it provides a strategic advantage.

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Bouncing Check

To win the game of chess, the beginner must understand the concept of “check” and “checkmate”. Beginners often find this difficult to grasp as it requires you to think one step ahead.

The King can never be taken. The game of chess ends when the King is in a position that he can be taken on the next move, and can do nothing about it. That is called checkmate.

Let’s assume that white just finished their turn, and had moved the Queen into the current location. Note that the Queen is now directly threatening black’s King. White must verbally announce “check” at the end of their turn to alert black of the current situation. When a player is in check, they must play a move that takes the King out of check. If this can not be done, the King is said to be in checkmate and the game is lost.

Beginners may ask what black can do in the above situation? Well there are actually three options. First, black could move the King one square to the right, moving it out of the way of white’s Queen. Second, black could move the black Queen diagonally right from its current position, placing it in front of the King, thus shielding him from white’s Queen and at the same time putting white’s Queen under attack. Finally, black could take white’s Queen with the Rook.

So to sum up, there are three ways beginners can get out of check: moving, blocking or taking.

One more important note… a player can not put their own King into check during their turn. In the above example, white can not move the Pawn while black’s Bishop remains in place.

How Does it All End?

As indicated above, the game ends when King is in checkmate. There are two other methods of ending a game of chess:

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation where one player is not in check, but they have no legal moves left to play. This may occur when a player has lost most of their pieces, and the only piece left to move is the King. If the King has nowhere to move that will not place him into check, stalemate is called, and the game ends in a draw.

Check out this diagram as detailed in Ken Jarkness’s 1967 Official Chess Handbook. Assuming it is blacks turn, it can be seen that black can not make a move without placing the King into check. In this situation, the game is a draw, which is very unfortunate for the white player. Beginners must therefore beware… do not force the opponent into stalemate if you are winning.

Resignation

A player can resign at any time by tipping over the King. This is typically done when a player knows that they will lose in a certain number of moves. Resignation is not advised for the beginner player as beginners may not have thought of all available moves.