Highlights
At first glance, the timeless game of chess can seem simpleespecially when compared to the wave of challenging board games that have emerged in recent decades. It comes with no encounter deck or status effects, just eight pieces and pawns for each player and an understandable set of rules.
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Yet for all its apparent simplicity, chess is a game with hidden depths. From a balanced starting position, a game of chess can go just about anywhere. Indeed, there are actually more possible chessboard positions than atoms in the universe, and some of these require specialist terms to understand the state of play.
Everybody makes mistakes. Indeed, victory in chess is as much about avoiding mistakes for longer than your opponent can as it is about strategy and long-term planning. Whether it's forgetting to move a vulnerable queen, overlooking a Scholar's Mate, or simply making a mouse slip, it's fair to say that screwing up is a universal experience.
Yet some mistakes are worse than others. Blunders are critical errors of play that jeopardize not only a piece, but risk the entire state of play. It's possible to recover from blunders, but the less made, the better.
Sometimes playing chess is about delivering a carefully choreographed checkmate that leaves an opponent blindsided. However, when gamers find themselves on the back foot, even the best players may choose to take desperate measures in order to achieve a temporary advantage or even to force an end to the game.
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A desperado move can see a heroic piece give itself up for the greater good, sacrificing itself because it is trapped (but willing to go down fighting, capturing material in the process). Such a suicide run may not be entirely tactically sound, but it can make the best of a bad situation, and may even lay the groundwork for a stalemate, preferable to an outright loss.
The vulnerable king is hardly known for his agility, being limited to moving one square in any direction. This makes it just about possible for the royal figure to dodge checkmate (at least until the endgame). Nonetheless, during castling, in which the king performs a kind of switcheroo with one of his rooks, he can jump more than one space.
Castling at a critical moment can change the course of the game. However, there are restrictions. Castling is not possible if the king or rook have already moved, or if the spaces that the king would move through are under attack by enemy pieces. As such, this defensive maneuver should be carefully timed for maximum effect.
Assigned a single point of value each by chess players, the unwieldy pawns can seem unassuming to new players. After all, their pattern of crawling forward and capturing diagonally can make them seem clunky compared to their more agile compatriots. It's unsurprising, then, that many players throughout history have chosen to sacrifice these diminutive soldiers.
Yet, pawns have a trick up their sleeve: en passant, the so-called French move. Under the right circumstances (e.g., after a white pawn has moved forward two squares and is on the same file as a black pawn), the latter pawn can outflank the former, delivering a sneaky capture sure to throw any unfamiliar opponent off their game.
"No pain, no gain" is a common saying and one that also applies to chess. Rather than losing pieces through mistakes or blunders, a gambit involves the calculated sacrifice of material in order to serve a long-term goal.
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Many popular openings are gambits, including the made-famous-by-Netflix Queen's Gambit. For instance, the BlackmarDiemer Gambit sees white sacrifice a pawn in order to partly open up the f-file and obtain a tempo (making their opponent waste a move). As such, it allows for players to quickly develop their pieces, putting white well on the road to victory.
A good chess player can make the most of the options available to them on a board, but there are times when those options are limited. They might be forced to move their king in order to dodge an opponent's checkor they might be unable to move a piece because it blocks an attack on their king.
This latter situation, known as an absolute pin, can effectively lock down an opponent's vital pieces. This can allow a player's material to advance unimpeded, moving into squares that would normally leave it open to capture during the mid-game. Pulling off an absolute pin is all about exerting control, and players who are unable to avoid falling victim to one are likely to struggle to best their opponent.
The power of chess pieces like the rook, bishop, and queen, which pose a threat across dozens of squares in many directions, was effectively dramatized in Harry Potter when Ron Weasley bore the brunt of a queen's attack. The destructive potential of these pieces can be further enhanced by using them to carry out a skewer.
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During a skewer, one player attacks a valuable piece belonging to their opponentspecifically, a valuable piece with a lesser piece on the same rank or file. Any chess player familiar with piece value (queens being worth 9 points, rooks 5, and so on) will naturally save the prestigious piece. As such, cannot avoid the loss of the less valuable material. Performed properly, a skewer can shred an opponent's position, resulting in a significant material advantage.
It may be the wrong kind of cutlery, but a well-executed fork can feel like a knife in the heart to even the most seasoned chess player. Essentially, a fork attacks two pieces at once, forcing an opponent to waste precious time deciding which piece they wish to lose. Some opponents will even resign in shame when confronted with an especially devastating fork.
The cream of the crop of forking attacks is the royal fork. This overwhelming blow uses a single piece (a knight or bishop is often employed) to perform a simultaneous check and attack on the queen. As the king must be moved to evade the check, this leaves the queen open to capture, changing the course of a game.
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8 Chess Terms Every Player Should Know - GameRant