Chess For Dummies. Eade James

FIGURE 2-9: The queens take their seats.

       The queen’s moves are simply the combination of the rook’s up-and-down, side-to-side moves and the bishop’s diagonal moves – basically, she can move any number of squares in any direction. Her only restriction is that she can’t jump over pieces. The queen captures an opponent by taking the opponent’s place on the board.

To get an idea of the queen’s strength, just put one in the middle of an empty chessboard – which, by the way, is a situation that will never happen if you’re playing chess by the rules! When placed in the center of the board, the queen can cover 27 squares and can move in eight different directions, which you can see in Figure 2-10.

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       FIGURE 2-10: The queen’s reign covers much of the board when placed at the center.

      The queen covers fewer squares when placed on the side of the board, so her powers are slightly reduced in that case. However, it’s far too dangerous to post the valuable queen in the center of the board too early in the game, where members of the opposing army can harass her. Far more commonly, you see chess masters post the queen in a more conservative position early and wait to centralize her later, when pieces have been exchanged and the danger to her reduced.

       The queen is not only the most dangerous chess piece, but also the most powerful! Moving her into positions where she can be easily attacked is generally frowned upon. Let your other pieces and pawns fight the early fight, and bring the queen into the game after some of the dust settles. If your opponent moves the queen to your side of the board early on, take heart! The move is probably a mistake. Look for ways to move your pieces so they attack the exposed queen and force her to retreat.

      THE BIRTH OF THE QUEEN

      The queen evolved from the Indian vizier who was the king’s chief minister or advisor. Originally a weak piece, the queen was given its great powers toward the end of the 15th century. Whether this bestowal was an act of chivalry or just another attempt to speed up the game remains unclear. It seems certain, however, that medieval Europe was accustomed to powerful queens – and this reality can also explain the gender change.

      Moving One Square at a Time: The King

      The king isn’t the most powerful chess piece (the queen is – see the preceding section for details), but he’s the most important (and in conventional chess sets, he’s the tallest). When someone attacks your king, you must defend him. If your king is attacked and you can’t defend him, then you have checkmate … and the game is over (see Chapter 4 for information on checkmate). But you never actually capture the king; you simply force him to yield. Thousands may die on the battlefield, but royalty respects royalty. (Yet don’t forget that the king can capture, just like the other pieces, by taking over an opponent’s square!)

Figure 2-11 shows where the king resides on the chessboard at the start of the game.

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       FIGURE 2-11: The kings, seated on their thrones.

The king can move one square in any direction, except for the one-time possibility of castling (see Chapter 5 for details on this special move). The kings may never get too close to one another but must remain at arm’s length (at least one square away) because one king may never put the other in check. You can see the king’s possible moves for yourself in Figure 2-12.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

       FIGURE 2-12: The Xs mark the king’s possible moves from his location.

       You may expect a king to lead his troops into battle, but that analogy doesn’t quite work because the king usually hides away in a corner behind pawns until it’s safe to come out. Generally, when the king becomes active, the endgame (when most pieces have been captured) has begun. During the endgame, the king can become very powerful, and you should consider bringing him to the center. But a king in the middle of the board during the middlegame is a recipe for disaster (check out Chapters 14 and 15 for details on middlegame and endgame strategy).

      Galloping in an L-Formation: The Knight

      The knight is a tricky piece, and getting comfortable with its movements usually takes a little practice. As its shape suggests, the knight derives from the cavalry of the armies of old. Because it can’t deliver checkmate against an opponent with only its own king to help, the knight is a minor piece, as is the bishop – but the knight’s powers are very different. Unlike the long-range bishop (which I describe earlier in this chapter), the knight loves combat in close quarters and is usually the first piece moved off the back rank and the first to come into contact with the opposing army. The knight is indeed hopping mad and ready to fight!

Figure 2-13 shows the knights’ starting place.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

       FIGURE 2-13: The knights begin here.

       I like to think of the knight as a medieval knight on horseback with a lance. You can’t throw a lance very far, but if the bad guys get too close, they’re likely to get stabbed. Oddly, if an enemy can get past the lance and closer still to the knight, the knight is defenseless. (The knight would need to dismount, drop its lance, and draw a sword to fight at very close range – but this is too time-consuming, besides being against the rules of chess!) Strangely enough, although the knight is a strong attacking piece, it can’t control the squares right next to it.

The easiest way to understand the knight move is to think of it as an L-shape in any direction: two squares up and one over, or one square down and two over, or any such combination of two squares plus one. The knight captures just as the other chess pieces do, by replacing the piece or pawn occupying the square it lands on – not the players it jumps over. Figure 2-14a illustrates where the knight can move from the center of the board. The knight controls eight squares when positioned in the center of the board as opposed to two when it’s in one of the corners, as Figure 2-14b illustrates.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

       FIGURE 2-14: The knight’s possible moves, from the center and from a corner.

       The knight must always move to a different-colored square than the one it occupies. This forced alternation between colors on every move is true of no other piece. If the knight is on a light square, it must move to a dark square, and vice versa.

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