The chess piece called "horse" or, correctly, "horse" mentioned by the hero of Georgy Vitsin in the Soviet comedy of the 70s "Gentlemen of Fortune" is not the only popular term used in the old Indian game. It is with the study of chess knights and bishops that the classes of future grandmasters usually begin. Later, castlings, openings, zugzwangs and other terms appear.
Go horse
Teaching beginners in any chess section or school always starts with the coach's story not only about the fascinating history of this kind of intellectual sport, but also about the meanings of the pieces and other terms. He will tell, in particular, about how to correctly not only move and hit, but also called the chess pawns and, most importantly, the pieces. That there is a queen and not a queen; elephants, not officers; horses, not horses; rooks, not rounds; and also the king is the most important and significant on the board.
Additionally, the figures are divided into "light" and "heavy". The former include the same knights and bishops, the latter - queens and rooks. The king in chess is always out of competition, all other pieces and pawns must defend him at any cost. Actually, these eight pawns and eight in the sum of the pieces (bishops, knights and rooks each player has a pair) are the so-called material for a full-fledged sports battle in a one-on-one format.
"Material" can both create your own defense, and make an attack on other people's possessions. Pawns and pieces move, that is, they make moves, from one square to another - horizontally and vertically. Some - kings and much more mobile queens, also know how to move diagonally. And the bishops are only diagonally. The exception to the general rules of playing the game are knights, which are allowed to move along the board exclusively with the letter "G".
Discord board
The square chess field, which is identical horizontally and vertically, is colloquially called a "board" and consists of 64 cells. Half of them are occupied by white and black pieces and pawns, the rest are squares for moves. The board is also made in the form of a square, 32 cells in which are white, the same number are black. The conditional central horizontal line dividing the positions of the white and black chess troops is called "demarcation".
It is customary to write moves on a special form both in Latin letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h (designations of horizontal fields from which they are made), and in Russian K, L, S, F, Kr - abbreviated horse, rook, bishop, queen and king. In addition, when recording, numbers from 1 to 8 are used, indicating the vertical squares to which the pawn or piece has moved, and from 1 to infinity, indicating the number of the move in the game. Castling is written in zeros. Examples of moves: 1.e2-e4 (starting maneuver of the pawn through the cage), 11. 0-0 (short castling), 35. Qd3-d7 + (the queen made a check).
Checkmate
The names of these situations are common and are often pronounced not only at the blackboard, but also in everyday speech. In the game, "check" refers to an immediate threat to the king from an opponent's piece or pawn, which can only be avoided by moving away, covering or eating the "offender". Checkmate is also a direct threat to the king. But it is no longer possible for the main figure of the "chess kingdom" to escape from it. After one of the sides announces “checkmate”, the game is considered won.
Other most common game situations:
- stalemate - the king is not declared a check or checkmate, but he has no opportunity for a move, a draw is fixed;
- zugzwang - an unenviable position of one of the sides, since any of its moves automatically worsens the situation on the board;
- castling - simultaneous change by the king and one of the rooks of their initial positions: with the “short” position, the king “jumps” the rook and goes into cover to the flank closest to itself, with the “long” one - to the queen's;
- "fork" - a move after which two opponent's pieces are threatened with capture;
- “children's checkmate” - a hopeless position of the king in the opening itself, obtained during the attack by the queen and the bishop and is characteristic of novice players;
- "blunder" - a very gross mistake, oversight that led to the loss of a piece or even defeat in the game.
Spiers over the board
Starting the game, making starting moves in it, the chess player plays the opening. Its varieties are various gambits, defenses and beginnings. Leaving the opening and developing his pieces to the maximum, the player automatically goes to the longest phase of the game - the middlegame. And it ends - with a victory, a draw or a defeat of one of the participants - in the endgame. Even if you have a winning position, you can be defeated. To do this, it is enough to get into time trouble. That is, have little time to think about the situation on the board. Then let the flag fall on your chess dial.
