Chess

Would you believe it if I told you the chess pieces were alive and played chess by themselves?

That would not happen in real life, but chess is a very exciting board game to play.

The history of chess is very long, it was first invented in India. There was a violent king in India, and the king was very fond of wars. So the king went to war almost every day. The queen did not like the king going to war. She loved peace and did not like violence, and she was also afraid that the king would die in the war. The queen was thinking about how to stop the king from going to war.

Suddenly, she got an idea. She invented a board game and called chess. The king really liked chess. He spent all day playing chess and he did not go to war anymore.

Later, chess was introduced in China, and it began to spread around Europe. Also, it was introduced to Korea and Japan as well.

Now, people play chess all around the world.

There are six types of pieces in chess. The king can move in all directions (horizontally, vertically, and diagonally), but the king can move only on square. When the king is attacked by an opponent, it is in “check” and must free itself.

If the king cannot free itself (trapped), this is called “checkmate” and the game is over.

However, the queen can move in all directions as many as it likes, and it is the strongest. The bishop can move diagonally, and it can move as many spaces as it likes. The rook can move horizontally and vertically as many spaces as it likes.

The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. It moves in an “L” shape; two spaces (up/down, right/left) and then one space over, perpendicularly (left/right, up/down). Pawns can move only forward and only on space. However, the first time a pawn moves, it can go two spaces. It can move one space diagonally if there is a piece to capture.

A chess board is eight columns long and eight rows wide. (64 squares) The right corner has to be a white square. The white side goes first. In the first row, at the two ends are the two rooks, next to them are knights, and next to the knights are the bishops.

Place the queen and king in the middle. (The queen must be placed in the square that is the same color as itself) All the pawns are placed in the second row. You have to say “check” if your opponent is in check and you lose when your king is in “checkmate”.