The Basics

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Coordinates

The first thing you have to understand about chess is notation and coordinates. This is how all chess players record how they move the pieces and where the pieces are. The coordinates tell where a pieces is on the board.

As you can see along the bottom of the board there are the letters a-h, and along the side are the numbers 1-8. so a coordinate is listed Letter-Number. Such as the white king is on e1 and the black queen is on d8. a move is then listed as Piece-Letter-Number And the pieces are by the first letter of the name of the piece. The exception is knights which are represented by N. So a knight moving to f3 would be Nf3. Also pawns are just listed as the square they would move to. So a pawn going to e4 would be e4. When capturing you write piece x square. Square being where the piece captured. so a bishop taking the knight on d5 would be Bxd5. Pawns capturing are written as  letter of the square moving from x square moving to. So pawn taking d5 from e4 would be exd5 The one move thats written difrerently is castling. It is written 0-0 if you are castling on the kings side and 0-0-0 If you're castling queenside. Also before each move is listed the move number. Note that one move is whites turn and blacks turn. For example here are the first three moves of one of my games...

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 Nf6

A last note - Moves thought smart have an ! after them and questionable moves have a ?

The Opening

Your first move of the Game is one of the most important parts of the game. By what your first move and your opponents first move is you decide whether the game is agressive or passive, whether you are attacking or defending, and much more. The best thing to do For the opening is to move your C, D or E pawns two spaces or to move your kingside knight. These moves Allow you to get out some pieces and attack the center of the board. Attacking the center is important because if you control the center it is much easier to attack your opponent and to stop his attacks.  I don't have room on this page to explain these openings in detail but I'll give you some information on each.

e4

e4 is the most popular first move for white in chess. It is extremely flexible, however this flexibility can go both ways. This opening has so many different variations that it is not recomended for beginning players. Another disadvatage of this opening is that it is so commonly played that many players have specialized traps against it. However it allows you to get your queen and bishop out quickly and prepares to take control of the game. Most opponents will play the sicilian defense against you. So with out further ado I will show you a basic sicilian defense game. Oh and if you have trouble following the game play it out on a chessboard. I couldn't vizualize things for my first year playing chess so don't worry.

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 g6  4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bb5 Nd4 6. 0-0 Nxb5 7. d5! The whole point of the sicilian is to control d5. White was playing the grand prix attack and in this opening you sometimes let your opponent get d5. I personally do not think this is wise. If you are interested in more about the sicilian do a web search for it. It is a good opening to play for black.

d4 

d4 is a very powerful opening and it is much easier to force your opponent to play your variation then with e4. However, d4 has the downside of opening your king to attack by a black bishop or queen and does not allow as many pieces to move to good squares as e4. That said I think it is a good opening even for beginners and is an interesting way to play. d4's lines are very complicated and long so I think it would be best for you to reasearch them on your own.

c4

c4 is a good opening to start out with for everybody because you can play it as white or as black against e4. c4 is the first opening for white you will find that is not called by its first move. In fact c4 is called the english opening. It is an opening where you first play a pawn and then a knight. I would suggest that those starting out in chess use this or the next opening. so now I will show you a simple game with the english...

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 Bc5 5. Bg2 d6 6. 0-0 0-0 7. d3 Re8 8. e4

This stops the threat of e4 from black attacking the knight dangerously. If you wonder why they didn't play it before, for instance on move 5 instead of d6, it's because the knight comes to g5 and with three pieces attacking the pawn it is lost. 

Kings Indian

The kings indian is tied with english as the best opening for beginners. Then again it may even be better because the english is hard if your opponent knows what hes doing. The Kings Indian can be played for both sides except with black it can't be played against e4. Anyway here is a simple game with it. Note that when I say Nbd7 I mean the Knight on the b-file moves to d7 as opposed to the knight on the f-file   

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg6 4. 0-0 0-0 5. d3 Re8 6. Nc3 d6 7. Re1 Nbd7  8. e4 e5

As you can see both players played differently but ended up with similar postions. The pawn moving to g3 or g6 and then the bishop moving behind it is known as the fianchetto. The fianchetto is a powerful way to defend your king but if the bishop is lost while your opponents queen is still on the board you must be careful.   

Thats about all there is to the basics. In our next section we will cover strategies and tactics.

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