Chess: A Beginner's Guide to Chess Fundamentals

By Sasha Ivanov

CHESS

It's the game of kings. Chess is one of the most strategic and challenging board games in the world. It takes patience, knowledge, and the ability to read your opponent. It's a game with more possible outcomes than atoms in the universe, so calling it dynamic would be

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ingram Publishing
• Release date: Oct 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781761037399

Book preview

Introduction

It’s the game of kings. Chess is one of the most strategic and challenging board games in the world. It takes patience, knowledge, and the ability to read your opponent. It’s a game with more possible outcomes than atoms in the universe, so calling it dynamic would be an understatement. Isn’t it exciting to know that each time you play a game of chess, it’s extremely likely to be the first time that the game is being played the way you play it? It has survived for over one and a half millennia, so it’s safe to say that chess isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon!

It can come across as overwhelming, especially when you are still learning the ins and outs of the game. But once you get the hang of it, chess is a wonderfully stimulating game to play with others. There is, of course, a very competitive side to chess as well. I would say far more so than your average board game, including Monopoly when people flip the board over and family relationships are destroyed!

Chess is the wise and mature grandparent, while Monopoly is the moody teenager. Chess truly is one of the greatest games available to teach our kids and learn ourselves. The strategies used will stimulate your mind in a structured, mathematical manner. It’s all about logic, planning, and prediction. Sometimes, you will have to lure your opponent in, giving them a false sense of comfort while your plot for victory is unfolding. Sometimes, you will make mistakes and lose the game. But these mistakes won’t hold you back. You will learn from them and never make the same mistake twice. It teaches you to win with grace and lose with honor. It teaches you that a bit of friendly competition can be a good thing in your life.

Chess is similar to snowboarding. I know that sounds like a bit of a stretch but hear me out on this one. Like snowboarding, to get the basics is relatively straightforward. After a few attempts, you will be able to perform at the level of a beginner. But in order to become a professional or even an intermediate player, it takes a lot of hard work and practice. Snowboarding is often described as easy to learn and hard to master. Chess is similar in this regard, as you will find out in Chapter 3, where you will be guided through learning the basics of how to play. Chess is welcoming to people of all ages, nationalities, and skill levels. You could be a 60-year-old novice from Ireland or a 20-year-old grand master from Bolivia. There is no discrimination in the game, and you can enjoy and play chess with people from all over the world. I have personally been fortunate enough to travel to parts of the world where English isn’t spoken, but there was a chessboard nearby. I couldn’t communicate with my opponent using traditional language, but we could play a few games and laugh and enjoy ourselves, nonetheless. It opens doors and crosses all culture lines.

By the end of this book, you will be able to understand what it means to move your bishop to G5. You will get excited over your pawn getting promoted to a queen. You will learn how to counter a castle move and effectively move your king out of check. It may all sound like confusing jargon to you now, but it will start to make a whole lot more sense as you read through this book.

But to start off with, we need to go right back to the beginning when chess first came about. Who first thought of it, and how did it spread? How did it become so popular, and what exactly does it mean to be a grand master?

Chapter 1: The History of Chess

Maybe when you think of chess, you picture a group of elderly gentlemen playing in the park as is depicted so well in Hollywood films. The atmosphere is tense between competitors and new challengers as they walk around eyeing out their competition. Although some people do play chess in the park, it is just a tiny fraction of chess players out there. No matter who you are—what age, background, race, class, gender, or geographical location—you can always learn to play and enjoy chess. The history of chess runs back further than most people would believe. The earliest version of what is chess today has been traced back to India around 500 AD!

This