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The Object of the Game

We've made it all the way to the seventh part of the tutorial and we still don't know what the object is? I guess we better cover that now. You already know what the basic idea of the game is, that was described in part one, now let's explore that in detail to make sure that we understand it.

Ok, quick recap. The object of the game of chess is to take down the big guy, otherwise known as the king by making it so that he's being attacked and he has nowhere to run to. This is what is known checkmate . Remember that word because you will be hearing a lot of it. The reason that this is how you must win is because the king is not aloud to walk into an attack so that on the next move he may be taken. In other words, the rules are that you are not aloud to kill yourself. Pretty logical I would think. Now move on the some terms that you'll want to know because you'll be hearing a lot of them. Know them well. :-)

Check

Check is the term that is used when you attack the opponent's king. The reason that you do this because the game cannot continue until the check is dealt with and thus you are just letting him know, "Hey, I'm gonna take your king off if you don't do something about it". NOTE: In competitive chess, which although you may not enter for a while, you should know something about. When you check your opponent's king, you are not required to say check. This is because the players at this level generally see when they are egin checked and do not want to be disturbed.

Some other things to point out: When recording games, a check to either player's king is indicated by a "+". This was mentioned in the notation section. Below is an example of a check to white's king.

Checkmate

Checkmate is what it is said once the king is being attacked and he has nowhere to escape being attacked, and thus on the next move will be captured. Note that the killing of the king is never carried out, nor does the king move after checkmate is called. The game is simply left in that position. If your king is being attacked, or checked, there are three ways that you might escape it. They are:

1. Move the king to a safe square. This is known as fleeing
2. Capture the piece that is attacking your king.
3. Move a piece so that it is in between the attacking piece and your king. This is known as interposing . An example of interposition:

If none of the three ways to escape check are possible then it is a checkmate and the game is over, the game going to the person who played the checkmate. Also, if your opponent makes a move that does not save their king but they could have, you are not aloud to take their king, they must move back and play a move to save their king. Below are a few examples of checkmates. NOTE: I have left off the opposing kings in the following examples because they are not important in the mating position.

White's rook on b7 blocks off all the flee squares of the king while the other rook delivers the check and covers the remaining flee squares, white wins.

This one is a little different. Black queen delivers both the check and cuts all the flee squares. White can't take the queen because it is protected by the bishop, so if he took, black would just take his king. Black wins.

Now you know what the object is and are ready to move on to some other rules of the game as well as some interesting cases that I've left until now so that you'll better understand it. After, you'll be able to take a look at some chess strategy and be able to go show all your friends what you've learned. Let's go to part 8.

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