Learn how to set up a chessboard and special moves

Today, we will learn how to set up a chessboard. Of course, when you want to play a game of chess you have to know the starting squares of all the pieces. There is a picture:

As you can see the white and black pieces are set up in the exact same way, so there are no imbalances. Ok, let's explain. Firstly, we have to see the bottom- right corner of the chessboard. If it is a white square, then you are setting it up in the right way. If it is black then you have to turn the chessboard till it is white. This rule must be followed by both white and black. Also, when you are setting up the white pieces, you have to make sure that you are setting the pieces in the 1st and 2nd rank and have the a rank at your left and when setting up the black pieces, have them set up in the 7th and 8th rank, with the h rank on your left. Now, let's see the pieces. In the corners we have the rooks. Then, right next to them are the knights, next to them are the bishops and then we have the Queen and the King and its the same from the other side. The pawns just go in front of all the pieces. Now, you might ask me how do I know in which square does the King and in which the Queen go. Well, it's as simple as this: the Queen always likes to be on the square that is matching with her outfit. With that, I mean that the white Queen always starts on a light color square and the black Queen on a dark one. Then the Kings will go on the square that's left, the opposite color one. You should also know, that in their first moves, pawns, have possibility to move 2 squares instead of one! Only in their starting places! They are not obliged to move 2, but they have the possibility. In addition, the white pieces always move first! This might seem a bit difficult to learn, but trust me, you will grasp on to it really quickly.

Now, let's look at the 3 special moves that I mentioned in the last post. Namely: Promotion, Castling and En Passant.

We will firstly look at Promotion. So, it is a special move performed by the pawn. You might have wondered what happens when a pawn reaches the other side of the board. It promotes! It becomes a knight, or a bishop, or a rook or a queen! Yes, you can have 2, 3, 4,... up to 9 queens! Once it reaches the 8th rank (for white) or the 1st rank (for black) you have (you cannot leave it as a pawn) to take the pawn off the chessboard and replace it with a piece mentioned above. Careful, you cannot promote to a king!

Here, white's pawn on c7 is able to promote on c8. You usually get a Queen, as she is the most powerful piece:

Now, white should be able to win this position easily, as we will see in a later post.

Now I will show you the Castling move. Both the King and the rook participate in this move. It is a move that is usually done early in the game. The purpose of it is to get your king to the edge of the board (somewhere safe) and also bring the rook out of the corner, into the action:

I know... I know, it seems confusing, but hear me out. In white's side of things, white is able to Castle Kingside (Kingside is considered the e, f, g and h files and Queenside the a, b, c and d files).

The way it is performed is that we bring out king 2 squares towards the rook (g1 for white and g8 for black) and the rook lands right besides the king, moving 2 squares (f1 for white and f8 for black). The pawns will act as the king's shield and the rook will be out of that corner. Castling Queenside (in this case, black is castling queenside) is a bit different: The king still moves 2 square towards the rook (c1 for white and c8 for black) but this time the rook moves 3 squares and lands besides the king (d1 for white and d8 for black). This is the position that would occur if both sides castled:

Note that some parameters have to e considered when castling:

Firstly, castling is prohibited when either the King or the castling rook has moved.

Secondly, castling is prohibited if the squares that the king passes through or lands to are attacked by enemy pieces.

Thirdly, castling is prohibited if there are pieces in the way of the King and castling rook.

Lastly, castling is prohibited if the King is in check.

Now, we are going to learn the final special move: En Passant.

It again involves the pawn. So, it is a rule that takes place in specific positions, so you probably won't get to use it quite as often. Here is my definition:

When a pawn (we'll call it A) advances 2 squares and lands right next to an enemy pawn (we'll call it B), then B can capture A as if A had only moved one square.:

As you can see the white a2 pawn advanced to the a4 square. Then the black b4 pawn has the possibility of capturing it, as if it had only moved one square, which it does.

NOTE that you can only perform en passant at the move your opponent moved the pawn to a position which can be captured en passant:

In this position, black just moved his c7 pawn to c5. White can either take the black pawn via en passant, move his pawn to d6 (sorry I do not have it on the picture) or move his king. Let's say he decides to move his king and black does so as well:

Now, only the white king is able to move and now, the pawn cannot capture en passant, since it didn't do it on the turn black played that pawn move.

That's all folks :) Hope you enjoyed it. I don't exactly know what I will write about for tomorrow, so it's gonna be a surprise! C ya.