I can't play chess. How to learn to play chess from scratch

Chess is a sports game recognized in 100 countries. The IOC recognized them as a sporting event in 1999, and in 2018 they made their debut at the Winter Olympics. Chess is characterized not only by excitement, but also by powerful physical training and the remarkable intelligence of opponents.

Why learn chess games? This helps train mental abilities and mental skills, such as:

• Concentration of attention.
• Solving complex problems.
• Critical thinking.
• Pattern recognition.
• Strategic and tactical planning.
• Spatial imagination.
• Logic and analysis.

The game teaches that there is a consequence after every action. That decisions made based on prediction and reasoning have better results than impulsiveness and thoughtlessness.

Besides learning competitive skills (in chess you learn how to attack and defend at the same time), there are parallels between mathematics, music and chess.

Self-study of chess from scratch

To learn how to play at home on your own, it’s a good idea to start by breaking down the rules into their component parts. When learning moves, it is easier to use only one piece on the board.

The best way to learn the game is to play. Defeats are invaluable lessons and experiences. You will soon learn that each piece has a certain value.

From the personal experience of many players, chess can be easily learned through online applications. There are also a number of online learning resources available. It all depends on which method is preferable: learning on the go or starting from the basics.

Now let's look at online learning options:

• Chess-online (Chess.com). The best free chess app for all types of devices and website to start learning chess, play online with opponents of your level. Excellent analysis of your games using the machine analysis function. This resource provides absolutely everything, from training from scratch to daily training for masters. Their video lessons on opening theory, middle game tactics, checkmate strategy, pawn structures, attacking initiative, etc. provide insight into how to maximize your game. The site will help anyone who is trying to learn the basics and also wants to improve their abilities.
• Youtube channels. It is enough to type in the Youtube search the necessary query for learning from scratch, and the system will offer a huge variety of channels and video clips. Choose the most interesting material and watch with pleasure.
• Special literature. Buy a book that outlines the rules and fundamentals of chess. I won't recommend any as there are so many and most of them are great. Look for one with a lot of pictures and little text. Most educational books “for children” also work for adults.

Description of the figures, how they walk

1. King– the most important of all the figures is the one with the crown and cross.
2. U queen there is also a crown - this is the second tall figure.
3. Elephant- a figure with a pointed hat.
4. LaDue also easy to remember, it looks like a castle tower.
5. Horse very easy to remember.
6. Pawns– it won’t be difficult to remember them, they are the “smallest” and most numerous.

Here are a few rules that are useful to master from the very beginning:

• The king must always be protected; he moves one square in any direction.
• The queen is the most “universal soldier”, moving across the board in all directions.
• Elephants have a large range of movement, but only strictly in a straight line, in perpendicular directions.
• Rook is often underestimated by new players. She moves “crosswise” across the board - diagonally, like the “king” in checkers.
• The horse is good for thoughtful, unexpected attacks, its movement is known to everyone - the Russian letter “G” in all directions.
• Pawns are good at capturing enemy pieces. They are limited in their movements - only one cell forward.

Video lesson

Various playing techniques

Basic playing technique:

• You choose the color of the pieces (white or black, or other contrasting colors), the opponent takes the opposite color.
• You take turns making moves. White pieces go first.
• Goal: The first player to capture the opponent's king wins the game.

Install the board correctly. The game is played on a chessboard consisting of 64 squares - eight rows and eight columns.

The strategy for a beginner is to capture as many important enemy pieces as possible so that it is easier to get to the king. This is done by moving the pieces around the squares where half of the opponent is located. A piece is captured by removing it from the field.

You've probably heard the word "Shah" right? This means that you (or your opponent) have put your king (or your opponent) in a position where it cannot move anywhere without being captured.

Now let's talk about pawns. There are some exceptions to the one move rule: if a pawn has never moved before, it can move two squares the first time it moves. In addition, a pawn cannot capture an opponent who is in front of it. But if there is an enemy piece diagonally in front of her, she can go there to capture it. Another advantage of the pawn: if it reaches the other side of the board, where it cannot move forward, it can be exchanged for any other piece (except the king).

There is another special movement called castling. It concerns the position of the king and rook. This may be confusing to a beginner at first, so you can learn it later once you have mastered the basic rules.

Now use your pieces! In particular, do not allow knights and bishops to linger in their positions, as they are useful early in the game.

Bring your king to a safe area. The king in the center of the board is a vulnerable king.

Manage the center! “This is an important concept for new students.” The 4 central squares are important for control.

Keep in mind that only the horse can jump over the squares. Remember that all pieces can move backwards, with the exception of pawns.

The whole strategy of the game is to force the opponent's king into a trap. It doesn't matter how you do it - you just have to do it once to win!

You can't focus all your attention on the attack, otherwise you might be lulled into a false sense of security and leave room for your opponent to exploit it. There are many ways to strengthen the defense - placing your pieces in active positions (bishops and rooks are especially good). Defend your half carefully and, above all, keep your pieces coordinated. The last thing you want is to lose your queen because you failed to defend it or played hastily.

Poor batch opening usually leads to negative results. Work on moving your center to give way to the bishops and engage the knights. Worry about the queen and rooks later. There is no one universal first move, although some are worth considering over others. There are players who prefer defensive, passive positions, or aggressive, dynamic strategies. In the early stages, focus on defensive, passive play.

Analyze positions for tactics. Grandmasters usually benefit from tactics. Your goal is to outsmart your opponent and find ways to make the most of your pieces. Learn the basics of forks, pins, skewers and other tactical concepts. The Tactical Coach feature on Chess.com is invaluable. Chess relies heavily on finding similar patterns in different positions. Using these ideas will greatly increase your power.

How long will it take to study

To speed up your learning, try the following:

1. Play chess at least 1 hour daily.
2. As you gain more experience, add 30 minutes of tactical puzzles and 30 minutes of live chess a day.

The study itself will take about 1 month, if you pay attention to the game for 30-60 minutes daily. Further progress will not be long in coming, as the game will completely captivate you!

How to teach a child to play chess

In many ways, teaching children is an easier task than teaching adults. In the age of accessible Internet, children can easily learn to play chess on their own. The tactics above are designed for players of all ages.

Video story

Training in sections

In various clubs and sections they teach how to play chess “officially,” that is, with an explanation of all chess terms and names of strategies. They provide and show all possible techniques and moves. Self-taught players, as a rule, play intuitively, building their own logical chains. They are not strong in terms, but they play at a very high level.

Famous chess players of the world and Russia

• Sisters Polgar, Judit and Susan are Hungarian craftsmen. The youngest of the sisters, Judit (41 years old), is currently the strongest chess player on the planet. Her advantage is that she participates and wins only in men's championships. Judit received the title of male grandmaster at the age of 15, surpassing the achievements of many venerable champions. Her older sister Susan is now developing chess in the USA, she is also an international master.
• Antoaneta Stefanova is a 38-year-old Bulgarian world and European champion in chess and rapid chess. In 2002 she became an international grandmaster.
• Xie Jun is a Chinese chess player, honored coach and world champion (47 years old). She became a champion at the age of 10 and started playing at the age of 6.
• Alexandra Kosteniuk is the champion of Europe and Russia. Her motto: “Chess is great” and “Beauty and intelligence are inseparable.” Guided by him, she promotes chess, being a model and “chess ambassador”, trying to spark interest in this game throughout the world.
• Anatoly Karpov (66 years old) and Garry Kasparov (54 years old) are the most famous grandmasters in Russia. Currently, they are actively involved in political activities. In the past - multiple champions of the world, Europe and Russia.
• Khalifman Alexander (52 years old) is a three-time winner of the World Chess Olympiad. Now he trains the younger generation and is the author of books on chess strategy.
• Magnus Carlsen (27 years old) is the current absolute world champion from Norway, one of the youngest grandmasters on the planet.
• Anand Viswanathan (47 years old) is the current Indian strongest world champion in rapid chess. Anand plays very quickly, spending minimal time thinking about moves, even when competing with the strongest chess players in the world.

How to become a chess professional

Have you already learned all the rules of chess and are on the path to improvement? Here's what you need to do next:

• Learn algebraic notation. This system is used by chess players to record games or the position of pieces on the board in order to read and recreate any game later.
• Study the value of the pieces. Not all chess pieces are equally strong in a game. Learn to determine their value and importance in a particular game, then you will understand whether it is worth sacrificing.
• Watch and analyze the games of grandmasters, past and present. Watch a professional game between masters.
• Start by studying the games of antiquity from the 1600s to the early 1900s, they are easier to understand. Some examples of masters of that era: Adolf Andersen, Paul Morphy, Wilhelm Steinitz, Johannes Zuckerert, Emanuel Lasker, Jose Raul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine.
• Solve puzzles that will help you recognize and identify tactical opportunities and your weaknesses.
• Learn to use a chess engine and artificial intelligence for analysis. Today, the most useful tool for gamers is computers. For Windows and Linux, a popular GUI is Arena. With its help, you can watch games in PGN format, which can be downloaded from various sites. Record your games for later analysis. Do the same when watching a live game and understand the positions yourself.
• Follow the professional chess world. Know the current champions and world champions, seasoned and young players. Follow world tournaments.

Chess... Are there those who have not heard the name of this game? I think no. Many have seen a board with squares, a smart and concentrated expression on the faces of the players who take turns moving different pieces in the hope of winning against the enemy by saying the long-awaited word “checkmate”. Let's take a closer look at this game.

This is a game played on a 64-square board with 16 white and 16 black pieces, which develops tactical abilities, strategic thinking, combination vision, visual memory and much more. Chess is based on logical thinking, since during a game you are focused on finding optimal solutions to the current situation on the board and predicting your opponent’s moves for your own advantageous placement of pieces. Thus, developed logic will enable you to find a cause-and-effect relationship and find the very essence of certain things. This will help you stand out in society with your foresight and be pragmatic. In addition, the development of intellectual abilities is guaranteed to you!

The name of the game itself consists of two Persian words - “check” and “checkmate”, which, in turn, means only one thing - “the king is dead”. As for history, the data shows that the game called chess comes from India and is quite old - it is at least 1,500 thousand years old (an impressive figure, isn’t it?).

Board and properties of pieces

Chess is a board game, so all actions take place on a board that is divided into cells, or, in other words, fields – 8 × 8. Vertical rows (fields that are below and above you on the board) are designated by letters of the Latin alphabet starting from "a" to "h", from left to right. The horizontal rows (located to the right and left of you) are designated by numbers from 1 to 8 - the unit is at the bottom, and all the numbers from it go to the top, right up to the eight at the top.

The game begins with each chess player having the same number of pieces, which are in a certain order. Players have the following sets of pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, a pair of bishops, two knights and eight pawns, painted in the color that the chess player represents (white or black). The figures are placed in the order shown in the figure below.

Moves

White always goes first - so the player who owns the pieces of that particular color makes the move. How does each of the figures mentioned above move? Let's look at this in more detail:

• you can move to a square that is not occupied by your own piece, or you can take the place of someone else’s, having previously “killed” it;
• the king can move one square in three directions: horizontally, vertically and diagonally;
• the queen moves in the same three directions, but having freedom of movement, not limited to one square, but has all the space at her disposal;
• rook - a move to any distance but only in two directions: horizontally and vertically;
• Bishop – unlimited movement in only one direction – diagonal;
• the knight moves to a square that is located at a distance of 2 vertically and 1st horizontally or 1st vertically and 2 horizontally from its position (letter “G”) and has its own unique opportunity - to jump over all ( both your own and others’ pieces and stand on any square;
• a pawn has the ability to move one square of the board forward vertically, and when capturing another piece one square diagonally. If the pawn (at the very beginning of the game) has not made a single move yet, then it has the opportunity to move two squares forward vertically. Another possibility for a pawn is to transform into any piece if it reaches the opponent’s last rank.

Situations in a chess game

• Check is a situation when the king is under attack from any of the pieces and is obliged to eliminate this situation with the next move in order to be able to continue the game;
• Checkmate – it is impossible for the player to prevent the check from being placed by any move and the king is “killed”. At the same time, the opponent who managed to “kill” the king pronounces the phrase “checkmate” - this is the goal of the game;
• stalemate is a situation when a player, during his turn to move, cannot make a move that would comply with the rules, but the king is not in check.

Tips for those who want to learn to play chess from scratch on their own

• always analyze everything that is happening on the board - remember that not only you, but also your opponent has a strategy and most (if not every) of his moves are aimed at threatening your king, so try to predict moves and be focused;
• Don’t rush to put “check” just to say this phrase more often. It will be more appropriate if you approach the attack not with a single piece, but in a comprehensive manner, thinking through the options for “escape” of the enemy king and creating your own “ambush” there;
• understand the value of each of the pieces and keep in mind that the essence of the game is to checkmate the king, and not to kill other people’s pieces, at the cost of your own losses;
• here is advice akin to sports like boxing and many others - try to control the center, it is in this part of the board that all the most important events take place, which are often decisive;
• keep in mind that protecting the king is important in the game, because without reliable protection it is impossible to fully attack the enemy;
• after you become stronger tactically, practice - play together with acquaintances, friends, parents, studying various situations in a “live” game, and most importantly... do not forget to enjoy the game, experiencing both the joy of victories and the bitterness of defeats, which turn into invaluable experience and the basis for future victories.

I hope that we have answered your question about how to quickly learn how to play chess correctly for beginners. Read additional literature and you will succeed!

Chess is played on a 64-square board: 8 horizontal rows, numbered, and 8 vertical rows, designated in Latin letters from A to H. The fields of the chessboard are divided into black and white, they are painted in dark or light colors, respectively. Each field has its own address - the intersection of a vertical letter and a horizontal number. The board is positioned between the players so that the dark corner square is to the left of the player, for example, square A1 for white, square H8 for black.

Rules of the game of chess. , their initial position

Two people play chess, each has a starting set of 16 pieces, one has a light color - white, the other has a dark color - black. At the beginning of the game, the chess player has the following pieces: king, queen, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 2 rooks and 8 pawns. The player playing white places his pieces on the first two horizontal lines, the black ones are located on the 7th and 8th horizontal lines.

I will describe how to place the pieces using White as an example: you place your 8 pawns on the second rank, the rooks in the corners, next to them are the knights, behind them are the bishops, and in the center of the first rank are the queen and the king. In order not to confuse which central squares of the first line the queen and the king are located on, there is a rule - the queen loves her color, that is, if you play with white, then the queen goes to the white square D1, if with black, then to the black - D8.

Chessmen. From left to right - King - Queen - Bishop - Knight - Rook - Pawn

Rules of the game of chess. Moves

A move is the movement of one's piece from the field where it stands to another free field or a field occupied by an opponent's piece. In the second case, someone else’s piece is removed from the board, one’s own piece is put in its place, and this action is called capturing, or simply “eaten a piece.” You cannot go to the fields where your own figure stands. Pieces, with the exception of the knight, cannot jump over their own or others. Each figure moves according to its own specific rules.

So, how do the figures move:

— Pawn moves only forward, if this is her first move, then she can move two squares, in the future she can only move 1 square. The pawn eats on 1 square diagonally, obliquely forward.

Move with a pawn, next move - capture someone else's pawn

A pawn has the opportunity to eat someone else's pawn if the opponent's first move passes a square, stopping on which it could be eaten - this is called an en passant capture. When capturing en passant, someone else's pawn is removed from the board, and yours is placed on the square where the pawn could have been eaten.

Move with a pawn, and the next move - capture on the aisle

If the pawn reaches the last rank (for white it is the eighth, for black it is the first), then it is transformed into any other piece, with the exception of the king, at the request of the player. For example, your pawn reaches the end, you remove it from the board and place a queen on the same square.

— Rook moves to any field vertically or horizontally (left - right, top - down).

— Elephant moves to any square diagonally, and if the bishop initially stood on a white square, then it is called a light-squared bishop and it moves only along the light squares of the diagonals. Likewise with the dark-squared bishop.

— Queen- the strongest piece in chess, can move to any square vertically, horizontally and diagonally.

— King- can only walk 1 square in any direction.

But he cannot move to broken squares - these are squares on which your piece can be eaten by your opponent’s next move.

The king has a special move in interaction with the rook, it is called castling. If the king has not moved since the beginning of the game, then he can castle with the rook. The king moves 2 squares to the side, and the rook stands next to it.

Short castling
Long castling

— Horse moves with the Russian capital letter “G” in any direction, that is, two squares vertically and one horizontally or two horizontally and one vertically. The knight is the only chess piece that can jump over both its own and other people's pieces.

Rules of the game of chess. Goal, win or draw

The chess players take turns making moves, with White making the first move. The game of chess continues until a victory or a draw. You win if you checkmate your opponent. To better understand what checkmate is, let's start by looking at the concept of check.

Shah- this is a move after which the enemy king finds himself on the square you beat, that is, under the threat of being eaten. Such a move means giving (declaring) check to the king. The king who is in check must eliminate the check with his next move, for example, move to another square or defend against the check with his piece or eat the piece that gives the check.

Check with bishop

Mat- this is when the king is in check and cannot eliminate this check, that is, the player who made an irresistible check checkmated his opponent.

White checkmate

The game ends in a draw if there is no way to checkmate, for example, one has only a king left, and the other has a king and a bishop or a king and a knight. It is impossible to checkmate with just one knight or bishop, so a draw is recorded. If one of the players puts Pat, then this is also considered a draw.

White makes an erroneous move and it turns out to be a draw, since there is a Pat on the board.

Pat- this is when a position appears on the board in which the opponent cannot make a move. A stalemate is similar to a checkmate, with a very important exception; a checkmate involves a check, while a stalemate does not.

The most common misconceptions regarding the rules of chess can be found.

Garry Kasparov once called chess a torture for the mind. But people have been addicted to this game for at least one and a half thousand years. It is firmly entrenched in the culture of mankind and develops tactics, logic, strategy, combinational vision, and visual memory. For beginners, they have created many applications where you can learn chess almost from scratch, practicing directly on your phone. Perhaps with them you will reach the highest level of skill and be able to play chess blindfolded. And then one day you will break the record of the Hungarian player Janos Flesz, who, with his eyes closed, won 32 out of 52 games that were played simultaneously.

Chess tactics for beginners

ChessKing developed it based on Sergei Ivashchenko’s book “Textbook of Chess Combinations”. 1275 training exercises on twelve topics. Practice all of them at once or choose in the settings and work on a specific direction: learn to make a double check, checkmate with a queen, “eat a knight” and master other game moves. Go through those exercises where you made a mistake before. The difficulty of the tasks is calculated from ten to ninety.

While you are solving the problem, the computer will tell you how correct your move was in a particular situation. There is a step-by-step game analysis function. The program is designed simply and tastefully. Half a million downloads. Rating 4.7.

Chess training - from simple to complex

Another educational application from ChessKing, where beginners are offered to learn how to play professionally and become a 2nd category chess player. The course covers 100 chess topics. From easy ones (board, simple endings) to levels that open after learning the basics (exploiting opponent's mistakes, short games and traps, etc.). The program has hints. The application has more than 500 thousand downloads. Rating 4.6.

Chess strategy for beginners

The program positions itself as a course for those who are familiar with the rules, but do not know the basic techniques of the game. Here you can learn the basic laws of the endgame, basic tactics. All topics were studied by chess masters. The exercises are divided into levels, so you can constantly hone and improve your skills. The appendix contains five blocks of theory and practice, each with several subtopics: the laws of pawn endings, the fight for the center and others. The application has one hundred thousand downloads. The average rating on the Market is 4.6. The downside of all applications from ChessKing is that part of the course is available only on a paid basis.

ChessCoach / Chess coach

“Challenges” are divided into three levels: easy, medium and difficult, with 10 exercises in each. The section is updated daily. Every day you are awarded ten coins for entering the game. You can spend them on hints, one costs five coins. You can earn another +1 coin by solving a challenge problem within 30 seconds. There are checkmate and checkmate training – they offer checkmate tests in one, two, three or more moves. There are nine types of training in the “Middlegame” section: double strike, destruction of defense, trap, perpetual check and others. All of them are also divided into levels. The app has ten thousand downloads. Rating 4.2.

Chess for kids – Play & Learn

To study here, you need minimal knowledge of English. Although it’s not difficult to figure out what’s what without them. The application was developed by the creators of the popular chess website Chess.com.

At the initial stage you will have to solve simple but also difficult puzzles. Registration is required for further training. You can also play with robots of different formats and take hints. There are funny videos for 1-7 minutes on chess pieces, basic moves, capturing enemy positions, building defense, attacking and other useful techniques. The video here has been prepared for beginners, intermediate and advanced levels, choose the one that suits you.

Free 8-Queen app

Chess players consider 8 queens a useful platform for learning and understanding the geometry of the chessboard. The rules are as follows: all the queens are placed on the board so that they do not attack each other. It may seem simple at first glance, but a beginner will have to carefully place each piece so that it does not intersect in positions with the previous ones and leaves free cells for the next ones. The hardest part is finding a place for the remaining queens. This teaches you to calculate your moves. This kind of training will also help the player in the future to see long moves and understand where chess may be in danger. The program has a time counter and incorrect moves are highlighted in red.

Knight move: puzzle

Colorful design of the program. The training begins with small platforms, tips on how to complete the tour. The task is to collect all the coins by making knight moves. At first the game is played only on a green field, then stones appear. You can only step on a green tile twice, otherwise it will collapse and you will lose. You can place your horse on the stones as much as you like. Gradually, the area of ​​the board increases and its shape changes. As the complexity of the levels increases, the user learns to calculate the knight's moves in advance and plan the game.

Defense move

The game has three sites: Forest, Playville and Magic Tree. The last two locations will open after completing all stages of the Forest. But winning is not easy, you need to think through every step in order to prevent your opponent from kicking you off the board. Already at the third initial level, new figures are added, the game becomes more complex and interesting. You can cancel moves and look at the solution to a level if you were unable to complete it. In the settings - turn off sounds or change the type of game.

A minor minus is that the program is apparently poorly translated from English - the training tasks are written with errors, but this does not affect the understanding of the essence. An application with funny chess characters, pleasant background sounds, and unusual design will definitely appeal to children and adults. User ratings are as follows: gameplay, graphics – 4.5, controls – 4.4.

Tiny Battle Chess Free

Amazing fantasy game with 3D graphics. Here you can switch difficulty levels, select figures - orcs, zombies, people. And also look at the opponent’s standard moves - the computer at the initial levels quickly displays strong pieces, so often, for example, a knight can be killed with a pawn already on the 4th-5th move. Due to the brightness and realism of the battles, the game is interesting to children who are just learning chess and do not linger on boring simulation programs. Over a million downloads. Rating 4.3.

One-move

The interface is very simple. You immediately get into the game, solve the problem - you need to checkmate in 1 move. There are 150 exercises in total, with seven attempts for each. The correct move is highlighted in green, the wrong move is highlighted in red. There are no hints here, and the tasks are not easy; some of them will take you more than a minute to think about.

The application has only three buttons: settings, information, next task. The information contains your results. In the settings, you can enable screen locking using a game - choose how many tasks you need to solve to unlock the phone, set the number of attempts, and the time interval before locking.

Chesify: scanner, analysis, game

The application can scan positions on the chessboard from another device or media: computer screen, tablet, phone or photo, book. Several engines are offered for game analysis (mainly they differ in speed). You can see how the scanned game is played by the computer - this way you can see possible strong moves. That is, the program will give you tips for a real game with an opponent.

For those who want to learn chess, this is an excellent opportunity to analyze any variants of the game, learn to see moves for themselves and predict their opponent’s plans. There is also a chess clock for one and two players. Database with scanned boards.

Ratings: 4.5 for gameplay and graphics, 4.4 for controls.

Chess puzzles

The program offers you to raise your level of play by solving chess puzzles: 150 simple, 100 normal and 50 difficult problems. For example, checkmate in one, two or moves. There are hint functions and move undo functions. Using them, you can learn to analyze your mistakes, chess placement, and combinations yourself. There are daily puzzles across three levels. There is also a simulator, it gives 1400 points, points are deducted for each wrong step. You need to play with both white and black at once. The application has been downloaded by more than one million people.

Chess problems, tactics

Another application where tasks are collected. Standard mat exercises in one, two, three moves, several selections of tasks for training a double strike combination. To run the program, you will have to load the general database, then the task data by groups. It’s a little inconvenient, but if you have the Internet, the issue can be resolved in just a minute. It is better to download all the necessary sections at once. The interface is simple, but unusual; there are only three buttons in the menu.For those who don’t pay attention to minor inconveniences, one and a half thousand tasks of different levels await you, on which you can hone your skills. The tasks you have completed are highlighted in green, the remaining ones are highlighted in red.Gameplay and controls were rated 4.4, graphics - 4.5.

Magnus Trainer

Training for beginners and experienced players from the best chess player in the world, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. The program will immediately test you with a few simple questions to tailor the course to your level. The difficulty can be changed in the settings at any time. Only at the first stage there are 29 steps. Thirty more - on the next ones. There are also basics with descriptions of chess moves. The sections include tactics, basic skills, strategy, opening, endgame, calculation and highlights of the author’s games. The lessons are based on famous games of professional players of past years and even centuries. The author on the board shows strong moves and those that threaten your pieces.

Disadvantage: descriptions are in English. You can improve your foreign language or use a translator.

Has your child ever played chess? Would you like to teach him this game from scratch? Then it will be very useful for you to read this article. Even if you yourself are not a chess expert, you can teach your preschooler the basics of this game.

To begin with, you can tell your child the story of the creation of chess (depending on the age of the child, you can change the story a little).

The legend of the appearance of chess

In ancient times, the ruler of India was a young man named Bagram. He never listened to other people's advice, was extremely hot-tempered and proud. Bagram endlessly fought with his neighbors, even if they had stronger troops. As a result, India was close to ruin and people began to starve. The courtiers could not convince the raja (then rulers were called that in India) not to resort to military force.

One day, one of the wise men named Nazir invited Bagram to play a game he invented called “chess.” Each of the two opponents in this game had their own army, reminiscent of a real army of that time - it consisted of foot soldiers, knights, bishops, and rooks. The one who was wiser and more far-sighted won the game of chess, because both armies were equal in strength.

The young ruler liked chess so much that he instantly became a strong player, ordered all his courtiers to learn the game, and began to wage endless battles with them on the board.

And he decided to generously reward the sage for his great invention. But when the ruler asked Nazir what he wanted, he replied: “I need very few grains, it will be enough if I put one grain on the first square of the chessboard, and on each next one 2 times more than on the previous one. And give them to me."

Bagram, surprised by the modest request, self-confidently promised to give Nazir his bag of wheat. But the sage asked him not to rush to answer and calculate how many grains were needed.

When the best scientists counted the required number of grains, their amazement knew no bounds. In total, there were 18 quintillions of wheat, this is a huge amount - more than grains of sand in the Sahara Desert!

Raja realized that Nazir taught him a lesson for his self-confidence. He was amazed by his wisdom and gained great respect for chess. The ruler realized that it was necessary to listen to the opinions of others. Bagram began to constantly play chess, established relations with his neighbors, and now fought only on the chessboard. In India, he began to develop agriculture and handicrafts, and India began to prosper.

Now you can introduce your child to the rules of chess.

Basic elements and rules of the game

Chess board

Show your child the chessboard.

The chessboard consists of 64 dark and light squares called squares. Regardless of the shade of the fields, light ones are called white, and dark ones are called black. The same applies to figures - light ones are called white, dark ones are called black. The colors of the battle arena fields alternate. The board is numbered with horizontal lines from one to eight, and vertical lines with foreign letters from a to h.

It is important to position the chessboard correctly - there should be a black square on the left. The chessboard is a place of battle, where two armies of pieces led by kings fight.

Chess troops

Each opponent has an army of 16 pieces. When a piece moves across the board, it is called a move. Pieces can “eat” enemies, while those eaten are removed from the cells, and the winners are placed in their places.

King

The king is the central figure in the game, but also very weak. He makes very modest moves - one step (field) in all directions, and “eats” in the same way. It is very important to protect and protect the king, because if the king “dies”, the game ends.

Queen

Queen - means military leader, commander. Amateurs mistakenly call the queen the queen. For young children, you can leave this name - it will be more interesting for them to learn chess.

The queen is the strongest piece, it makes straight and diagonal moves on any number of squares, and eats up opponents' pieces in the same way.

Rook

Each player has two rooks, they stand at the corners of the board. This rhyme will help kids remember the move of the rook: “I am stubborn in character, so I only walk straight.” The rook always moves in straight lines and “eats” pieces in the same way.

Elephant

The game involves 4 elephants - 2 for each player (some people mistakenly call them officers). They can only walk along oblique lines - one reigns on white diagonals, the other on black ones.

Horse

Each side has 2 unusual figures - a horse. The horse is a very interesting figure; it is the only one in the game that can jump over any pieces. They say that a knight moves in a "g" pattern - one square sideways and two forwards, or two squares sideways and one forward.

Pawn

Pawns are the most numerous pieces; each opponent has eight of them. Pawns in the army are infantry, the weakest pieces. They can only walk one square in a straight line and are usually the first to die. On their initial move, they are allowed to move either one or two fields forward. They eat other people's pieces diagonally.

Unusual moves in chess

Castling

This is a special and very important move, in which two different pieces (the king and the rook) move at once, the king hides in cover, and the rook is brought to the center for active play. It is carried out like this - the king moves towards the rook, and the rook jumps over him and stands side by side. Each side can make only one castling during the game.

Taking on the pass

The pawn is allowed to "beat" the enemy pawn on the square it jumped over on its first move.