The last rule about pawns is called “ en passant,” which is French for “in passing”.If a pawn moves out two squares on its first move, and by doing so lands to the side of an opponent's pawn (effectively jumping past the other pawn's ability to capture it), that other pawn has the option of capturing the first pawn as it passes by.

The different chess pieces, from left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, king. | Image credit: Agzam/Pixabay How to move chess pieces Ranks are rows that go from side to side across the chessboard and are referred to by numbers. Each chessboard has eight ranks, which are numbered from the bottom of the board (where the white pieces start) on up.

Frequently asked chess questions

While most casual players use captured pieces to represent promoted pieces, a pawn can legally be promoted to any piece regardless of whether it has been captured. For example, a player may have multiple queens as the result of promoting pawns, or multiple bishops able to move along diagonal lines of the same colour depending on the square on which the pawn was promoted. Knights: Knights can move only in an L-shape, one square up and two over, or two squares over and one down, or any such combination of one-two or two-one movements in any direction. You can only move one chess piece at a time when it is your turn to move - with one exception! When you castle, you move both the king and the rook in one move.

There are a few special rules in chess that may not seem logical at first. They were created to make the game more fun and interesting. How To Promote A Pawn In Chess Most games are won & lost at lower or intermediate levels through tactical errors of one sort or another. Knights move in a very different way from the other pieces – going two squares in one direction, and then one more move at a 90-degree angle, just like the shape of an “L”. would the, 'idiots guide to chess' be use to me. I have a basic grasp of openings, middlegame and engame (although there is much room for improvement) my online rating here is around 1700ish and my live fluctuates through the 1300 to low 1400's. Any other book suggestions? There are thousands of potential board layouts from hundreds of openings and variants. | Image credit: Steve Buissinne/Pixabay How to promote a pawn?The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on one color (light or dark) and must always stay on that color. Over the years, plenty of studies have been carried out looking at the benefits of chess, and researchers have claimed chess may have the ability to help fight off dementia and improve working memory. Notation was invented so that we could analyze chess games after playing them. Thanks to it, we can register the whole game in writing and reproduce it as many times as we want. We must only write down our moves and our opponent's moves correctly. The closer rank is nearly symmetrical, with rooks (also known as castles) placed on the two leftmost and rightmost corner squares, followed by knights on the inside space next to them, then bishops.

Have fun— Don't get discouraged if you don't win all of your games right away. Everyone loses – even world champions. As long as you continue to have fun and learn from the games you lose then you can enjoy chess forever! The rooks are particularly powerful pieces when they are protecting each other and working together! Now that I have had time to dip into the Dummie book a little, I completely agree with you, Erik. The Idiot's Guide makes me work - and therefore learn. I found myself sliding around and snoozing in the Dummie book. And the organization is terrible. Draws can also occur as the result of advanced rules typically used in professional tournaments, including identical board positions occurring three or five times - rules known respectively as threefold repetition and fivefold repetition - or no captures or pawn moves taking place within the last 50 or 75 moves. The exact rules used can depend on the tournament and agreement between the players.Files are columns that go up and down the chessboard, and, since boards are square, each board also has eight of them. Because numbers indicate ranks, letters indicate files, which are labeled from left to right. Advanced rules can include specific variants that alter the core rules of the game, along with surrounding requirements often used in tournament settings, such as timing and the touch-move rule - which states that once a piece is touched by a player, it must make a legal move. First chess book I read when I was about 800 rated on live chess here at chess.com. The simple advice in the book got me to 1000 within a week or so. Players’ pieces are set up in the two horizontal rows (known as ranks) closest to each player. The second rank - ie. the second row from the player’s perspective - consists of a line of eight pawns, each placed on a single square.