Chess
Traditional
How to set-up
1. To start you need to have a board for Chess. You can use a standard 8x8 gridboard.
2. One player plays white, the other plays black. Each player has 16 game pieces of his own color.
3. The game pieces for each player consist of : One king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.
4. White always starts first.
5. You can use original Chess pieces and a Chess board or you can also use the Bead Game Box.
6. If using the Bead Game Box, we recommend that you mark the beads according to what pieces they are going to be, so that it is easy to identify them.
How to play
1. The pieces are set as shown in the picture.
2. Each game piece has a unique way of moving.
3. The moves of a king.
4. The moves of queen.
5. The moves of a knight.
6. The moves of a bishop.
7. The moves of a rook.
8. The moves of a pawn.
How to win
1. If a player who has to move has no legal move, the game is over. It is either a checkmate (a loss for the player with no legal moves) if the king is under attack, or a stalemate (a draw) if the king is not.
2. Either player may resign, allowing to win for the other player.
3. A player who has cheated, or violated the laws of the game, or violated the rules specified for the particular tournament may be forfeited.
4. Draws are most commonly reached by mutual agreement between the players. Traditionally players have been allowed to agree a draw at any time in the game.
5. A stalemate happens when the player whose turn it is to move is not in check, but has no legal move.
Tips & tricks
1. Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an opponent's piece, which is then captured and removed from play.
2. One time in every game, each king is allowed to make a special move, known as castling. Castling consists of moving the king two squares along the first rank toward a rook (which is on the player's first rank).
3. And then placing the rook on the last square the king has just crossed. Castling is permissible under the following conditions :
4. 1.) Neither the king nor the rook have been previously moved during the game.
5. 2.) There can't be any pieces between the king and the rook.
6. 3.) The king can't be in check, nor may the king pass through squares that are under attack by enemy pieces, nor move to a square where it is in check.
7. When a pawn advances 2 squares from its starting position and there is an opponent's pawn on an adjacent file next to its destination square, then the opponent's pawn can capture it en passant (in passing) and move to the square the pawn passed over.
8. (This can only be done on the very next move, otherwise the right to do so is removed).
9. When a pawn has advanced to the eighth rank, as a part of the move it is promoted and must be exchanged for the player's choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color.
10. In most cases, the pawn is chosen to be promoted to a queen, but in some cases another piece is chosen - this is called underpromotion.
History
1. It is believed that Chess has originated in India, some time before the 7th century, being derived from the Indian game of Chaturanga. Chaturanga is also the likely ancestor of Eastern strategy games like xiangqi, janggi and shogi.
2. The rules of Chess were finally standardized in the 19th century. The first generally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886. Since 1948, the World Championship has been controlled by FIDE.
3. FIDE awards titles to skilled players, the highest being the grandmaster. Chess is also a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee.
4. A study made in 2012 found that chess players now make up one of the largest communities in the world - 605 million adults play chess regularly. Chess is played at least once a year by 12% of British people, 15% of Americans, 23% of Germans, 43% of Russians, and 70% of Indian people
1. Four Seasons Chess is a variant of Chess played by 4 players. Each player has his own color - White, black, green and red.
2. The game is played on an 8x8 square board having two diagonal lines that cross the eight central squares. The diagonal lines don't serve any purpose, they can be ignored and you can use a standard Chess board.
3. Green moves first and play progresses in this order - green, red, black, white.
4. Both mate and stalemate are considered a loss. A mated player's king is removed and his pieces taken over by the mating player. All of a stalemated player's pieces are removed from the board.
5. The last player remaining wins the game.
1. Jeson Mor translates to 9 horses in English. It's a variation of Chess originating in Mongolia.
2. The game is played on a 9x9 square board. Each player has 9 chess Knights. They move exactly as in standard chess. They are initially placed on the first rank of each player. One player plays white, the other black.
3. The players try to place one of their knights onto the central square of the board (Square E5), and then leave that square to win the game.
4. A knight can be moved to a vacant square or it can capture an enemy knight.
5. Just occupying square E5 isn't enough to win the game. In order to win, the knight must also leave the square. A knight on E5 can also be captured.
6. You can also win by capturing all of the opponent's enemy pieces.
1. Senterej is a variant of Chess coming from Ethiopia. An 8x8 board is used, originally the board was in the form of a red cloth.
2. The initial starting positions are the same as in regular Chess.
3. In Senterej both players start playing at the same time without waiting for turns. This phase is called the mobilization or werera. Both players may move their pieces as many times as they like without concern for the number of moves the opponent makes.
4. During this phase the players watch each other's moves, and retract their own and substitute others as they think best. Players only start to take turns after the first capture.
5. After the first capture, the game plays like standard Chess, with the only difference being the placement of the game pieces.
1. This variation plays exactly like normal Chess, but it has some differences with the game piece layout.
2. White has the usual layout like in normal Chess.
3. Although black has only one King, seven knights and sixteen pawns.
4. You can see the piece layout here.
5. This variation was played in Columbia University Chess club back in the 1960's.
1. Maharajah and the Sepoys is a variant of Chess originating in India. It is also known as the The Mad King's Game and Maharajah chess.
2. The gameplay is just like normal Chess, but the differences are in the game piece count.
3. Black has a full, standard set of Chess pieces in their usual position.
4. White has only one piece called the Maharajah. It can move either as a Queen or a Knight.
5. Black's goal is to checkmate the Maharajah. White's is to checkmate Black's king. In this variation there is no pawn promotion.
6. The starting position for the Maharajah is E1.
1. Shatar is a variation of Chess played in Mongolia. The rules are similar to standard chess with a few differences.
2. The King does not castle.
3. The pawn does not have an initial double-step move option, except for the queen pawn or king pawn.
4. The knight can't deliver a mate.
5. The game always starts by white playing out 1... d4 and black responding with 1...d5. This is the only time in the game a pawn may advance two squares.
1. Hiashatar is another Chess variation from Mongolia. It's played on a 10x10 board. The pieces are the same as in Chess with the exception that there is an additional piece which is called - the bodyguard.
2. The starting position is the same as in Chess, except that a bodyguard each is placed between the king and bishop and between the queen and bishop with a pawn in front and there are two more rows in the middle.
3. Pawns move like the pawn in Chess except that it can make an initial triple step.
4. Bodyguards move like a Queen, but can only move one or two squares.
5. Any piece a king's move away from the bodyguard can only move one square. The only piece immune to this power of the Bodyguard is the Knight.
6. In Hiashatar there is no castling and Pawns can be promoted only to Queen.
1. Most rules of Chess apply to this variation, including the starting positions of the pieces and the movement of the pieces.
2. The difference here is the objective of the game.
3. Checkmate doesn't exist in this variation. Think of each different game piece as a different spiecies of animal. You have to avoid the extinction of any of your species. That means that you have to keep at least one of each kind of piece on the board.
4. As in normal Chess, you can promote a pawn to any piece, but in this variation, you can even promote it to a king.
5. If you lose any one of your species, you lose the game.
1. The rules are the same as in standard chess, but there is an exception with the game pieces.
2. Each player starts with his queen's knight off the board (Square b1 and b8) are left vacant.
3. During the game, a player can use a turn to drop this knight onto any empty square, even to deliver checkmate.
