You have come to the right place now that you have taken the decision that you want to start playing chess. In this lesson I will teach you some basic concepts and will help you better understand what you need to do to really understand chess and start playing your first games on a decent level.
What is chess?
So let’s start with understanding what chess is. Chess is a strategic game that offers a lot of fun but also offers a lot of benefits that can be used in life and in your career. So there is good reason to start learning chess however it can feel a bit overwhelming at first but I am here to help.
Chess is board game played by two players on an 8×8 grid known as a chessboard. Each player controls 16 pieces, including a king, queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Chess is both tactical and strategic. Tactics involve short-term plans like capturing pieces or delivering checkmate, while strategy focuses on long-term plans, like controlling the center and protecting the king. The game encourages deep thinking, pattern recognition, and planning several moves ahead. Chess is played in casual and competitive settings, including international tournaments and online platforms. Its blend of logic, creativity and complexity. It is not a surprise that chess is one of the most wellknown games in the history of humankind.
What is the goal of chess?
The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent’s king, meaning the king is in a position to be captured, and there is no legal move to escape.
Understand the chessboard
Chess is played a board that consist of 64 squares. It will be a board that consists of 8 x 8 squares. This is the battlefield where your pieces will try to capture or checkmate the opposing king. A standard board will look something like this:
There is a right way to setup a board. If you have the chessboard in front of you, no matter which side you play, the lower right corner of the board should always be a white square. So the h1 field is always white and so is the a8 field.
The columns of the chessboard are called “files” and the rows of the chessboard are called “ranks”. Is that important to know? Maybe not really but in chess it could be refered to so now you know.
During the set up it is important to keep in mind that the white queen always stands on a white square. And the black queen always stands on a dark square. White starts at ranks 1 and 2 and black will start at ranks 7 and 8.
The setup of the board are always the same. Both player will setup their side of the board in exactly the same manner. The pieces will face each other in the same order. So the queen of both players will face each other (so both in file D), so will the king (both in file E), the knights and the bishop. There is no other way to setup the board in classic chess.
Although there are other ways to play and practice chess we will teach you how to do classic chess as any variant of chess will follow the majority if not all of these rules as well.
Learn how the pieces move
If you want to take the most out of chess understanding how each piece moves is fundemantal for success. The king, queen, rooks, bishops, knights, and pawns all have unique movement patterns, and learning them is the first step to playing confidently. In the next lesson I will teach you more about this. Understanding the movement and all rules will help you succesfully play a game of chess. In lesson 2 I will teach you all the movements and lesson 3 will be focussing on the special rules in chess.
Understand basic opening strategies
Rather than memorizing specific openings, beginners should focus on basic principles like:
- Control the center: Place pawns and pieces in the center of the board to control space.
- Develop your pieces early: Move knights and bishops into play quickly.
- Protect your king: Castle early to safeguard your king and connect your rooks.
In order to become a stronger player later on memorizing specific openings will definitely benefit you. Therefore in Lesson 5 I will help you better understand a couple of classic openings. These opening will help you strengthen your attack but will also help you to understand what your opponent might be planning to do so you can anticipate on that. The opening of your chess game could make all the difference.
Play Regularly
The more you play, the better you get. You can start of with some quick games, don’t worry about losing, it is about gaining experience. Start with a Blitz game first and see how you will hold up. Blitz games are quick 5 minutes per player games, so it will not take longer than 10 minutes. Do a couple of rounds to better understand what you find difficult and start reading up on that. Once you get more confident try longer games. The goal is not to start winning but to gain experience.
Solve Chess Puzzles
Once you get the hang of playing and applying all the rules of chess accordingly then it is a good moment to start working on your end game. In Lesson 6 I will help you better understand end game scenario’s and if you are up to it I have also prepared some Chess Puzzles for you to really deepen your skills. Chess puzzles are a great way to gains certain experience quick without having to play full elaborate games of chess. They take you seconds or minutes to solve and are great fun doing when you happen to have a couple of minutes time. Here on the website of Chessnologic we also have a daily Chess Puzzle for your to pratice.
Review Your Games
After playing, review your games to identify mistakes and areas for improvement can be very benefical. Many chess platforms like Chess.com and Lichess offer game analysis tools. In Lesson 4 I will teach you what Algebriac notations are and how you can read them to apply to you own games. Once you have learnt this you will be able to apply this to all of your games and afterwards reinact your game at home to understand the mistakes you have made. This is a great learning tool many Grandmasters have used to learn from their losses.
Now you should have a better understanding of what chess is and how you can develop your skills further. With the next lessons I will help you gain more indepth knowledge to strengthen your chess game.