Chess pieces and their names. How to arrange pieces on a chessboard

Hello, friends. You are Uncle Valera Paranichev.

Theater, as we know, begins with a hanger. Chess - from a chessboard. The initial arrangement of chess pieces on the board must be correct, otherwise your entire the game will go awry and not according to the rules.

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If you want to start playing quickly, don't rush. You are a chess player, and chess begins with the basics.

Initial arrangement of figures

IN classical chess Before the start of the game, the pieces are located on the board in a strictly defined way: all the pieces are located on four horizontal lines. White on 1 and 2, black on 7 and 8. Rooks on the edges, then knights and bishops.

In the center, on the d and e verticals, are the king and queen. It was in relative position king and queen is where confusion most often arises. To make it easier to remember, the rule is this: The queen is located on a square of its color. Accordingly, the king is on the field of the opposite color.

The pawns are arranged in a row along the second and seventh ranks. There are 8 of them on each side.

I recommend that from the first steps you name your moves according to the names of the fields. Usually, when analyzing a game, chess players say this: “Knight f three.” This phrase means the knight's move on f3. Or: The queen hits de five” - the queen captured the enemy piece located on the d5 square.

Pieces and moves

We have separate articles on chess pieces. Therefore, we will limit ourselves short review. In total, each side has 16 figures. Each player has at his disposal a queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, 8 pawns and, of course, a king.

King– can make moves on one square
Queen- at any distance
Rook– moves vertically and horizontally
Elephant- diagonally
Horse- walks in a zigzag. More precisely, with the letter G. That is, two fields forward and one field to the side. Read more in this article
Pawn- can move either one field forward, or two - from the initial position. Read more about pawn moves in this article.
The king, queen, rook, knight and bishop can move in any direction. Pawn - only forward.

How to place pieces on the board

I recommend placing the pieces on the board, starting with the king and queen. Then minor pieces, rooks, and then pawns. While you are still a beginner chess player, such a sequence will help you remember the value of chess pieces.

This is not strictly necessary, of course. Just advice from an experienced chess player.

How to play for a beginner

The move e2-e4 opens the way for two pieces at once: the queen and the bishop. In addition, White's first move begins to fight for control of the center of the board.

Accordingly, it is reasonable for Black to respond to e2-e4 with e7-e5. The arguments are similar to those stated above.

Develop easy pieces - bishops and knights. It is better to bring the knights closer to the center of the board - to the squares f3, c3, f6, c6.

The center of the board - squares e4, e5, d4 and d5 - is the decisive springboard for the fight for advantage. Try to keep these fields in sight of your pieces

Try not to delay castling. For the king's safety.

Avoid rash moves with extreme pawns, especially on two squares. This weakens the position.

There must be good reasons for introducing the queen early into the game. This strongest piece has great potential, but due to its value it can become an object of attack. You will have to constantly divert the queen from exchanging for a less valuable piece.

It is clear that this is very general principles, stated briefly. Dozens of monographs have been written to describe various chess strategies. If you are a beginner, there is a time for everything.

Let us emphasize once again: The initial arrangement of pieces on the chessboard in classical chess is strictly defined. In other types of chess, for example in Fischer chess, the arrangement is arbitrary. But that's a completely different story.

There are only 64 squares on the chessboard, but real chess battles can take place on them. One half of the cells is black, the other is white - 32 former and 32 black. According to chess rules, a cell is called a field.

Black and white are conditional colors. In the photo, some of the figures and the board are made using malachite. However, green figures and fields are conditionally black

Before arranging chess pieces, you need to position the chessboard correctly.

On the left side the board is installed correctly, on the right - incorrectly

There is a funny incident connected with an incorrectly placed chessboard that happened in ancient times somewhere on the border. It was on the border that two gentlemen periodically met and played chess with each other. One fine day, a customs officer became interested in the game and noticed that the board was positioned incorrectly. Those. The “chess players” didn’t even know the rules of chess, but simply pretended to play the game. As it turned out later, the imaginary chess players were smugglers - they hid contraband goods (gold, diamonds :) in chess pieces).

Naming chess fields (cells)

If there are fans of the game “Battleship” among our readers, then they probably drew an analogy with chess - each field has its own address. For example, a1, b7, e4, etc.

Each chess field has its own unique address. It is highly advisable that you visually remember where each field is located. In the future, this will be useful when studying the recording of chess moves. Please note that squares d4,e4,d5,e5 form the so-called center of the board. It is for the cent that the struggle is waged in the beginning. chess game(debut).

To quickly remember the names (addresses) of the chess fields, it makes sense to print out the drawing (A4 format) and hang it on the wall.

Names and designations of chess pieces

There are 6 types of figures in the opponents' arsenal:

• The pawn is His Majesty's soldier.
• Knight - the cost of a knight is equivalent to 3 pawns;
• Bishop - its cost, like that of a knight, is 3 pawns;
• Rook - heavy artillery (5 pawns);
• Queen - 9 pawns;
• The king is priceless, because without him the game is impossible.

From left to right: king, queen, bishop, knight, rook, pawn

It is advisable for any beginning chess player to learn how to write down chess moves as early as possible; for this you need to know chess notation. Chess notation is a system symbols, used to record a chess game or the position of pieces on a chessboard. Already now you can familiarize yourself with the designations of chess pieces.

Arrangement of chess pieces

Now let's see what the initial arrangement of chess pieces on the board looks like.

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This is exactly how the pieces should be arranged if we are talking about chess in the classical sense. However, other variants of pieces are also possible when it comes to Fischer chess - otherwise called “random chess”. For now we are interested in the classic arrangement, so we need to remember it. Otherwise, confusion may arise, as in chess game for children .

To make it easier for you to remember the arrangement of the figures, you can arrange them in a certain sequence. Watch the video for one of the options.

At the beginning of a chess game, there are 32 pieces on the board - 16 white and 16 black. At the end of the game, the minimum number of pieces can be two - a white and a black king. Kings are the two most important pieces on the chessboard. The time has come to figure out what they can do - the whole truth about the chess king.

Chess is a very old game and was not invented here. She was born in distant India a long time ago, in the 6th century AD. The ancient version of chess was called "chaturanga", which translated from Sanskrit (the language of the ancient Indians) means "four divisions of the army." It was already very similar to our chess. The game was played on a board of 8x8 cells (only they were single-colored; the division into black and white appeared much later in Europe).

At this time, all the pieces familiar to us were already formed and only the queen appeared later. The main difference was that the game involved not two players, but four, each of whom lined up their “troops” in the corner of the board: infantry (pawns), cavalry (knight), war elephants (bishop) and chariots (rook). The army was led by a Raja - an Indian king. The figures were of four colors: black, green, yellow and red. Which piece to move was determined using a die (pawn - 1, knight - 2, rook - 3, bishop - 4, king - 5 and 6). The game was played until all the opponents' pieces were destroyed.

Chaturanga move rules:

The pawn moves the same way as now, only it is not possible to jump over the third line on the first move. Having reached the last line, she can only turn into the figure that is already among those “killed” by the enemy.

The horse walks the same way as it does now.

The bishop moves diagonally or forward, but only one square.

The rook moves along the verticals and horizontals one square.

The queen is missing.

The king walks as he does now.

How to place the pieces is shown in the figure (we played together, so the pieces were placed in adjacent corners).

In the same treatise, Biruni gives a legend about the origin of chess. Allegedly, a certain Brahmin invented them and offered to play them to the king. The king was delighted new game and wanted to reward the Brahmin. "Ask for whatever you want!" - he said. And the Brahmin asked to give him grains: put 1 grain on the first square of the chessboard, and on each subsequent cell put twice as many grains as on the previous one. Those. for the second - 2, for the third - 4, etc. In mathematics this is called " geometric progression"). The king at first agreed to this condition. But it soon turned out that all the grain in his country was not enough to fill the entire board. Moreover, if you calculate the number of grains using the formula, it turns out that the entire world grain harvest collected over the entire The history of mankind is not enough for this!

From India, chess was brought to neighboring countries: in China this game became known as Xiangqi, in Japan - shogi, in Thailand - makruk. And the Persians and, after them, the Arabs called this game shatranj. The Persians changed the rules somewhat, and chess became more like chess. Dice were abandoned. Instead of four players, two began to play, using a double set of pieces. Since this resulted in two rajahs (in Persia they began to call him “shah” as their ruler), one of them was somewhat “demoted in rank” and the second rajah became a queen. The queen was a very weak piece. He could only move diagonally and only one square. The Persians introduced the rule that the game would last until the king was checkmated. If the word "chess" is translated from the Persian language, it will turn out to be "the Shah is dead."

From Persia, this game came to Europe in the 9th century, where its rules gradually changed until they became the same as we are used to now. But the original version of the game came to Russia not from Europe, but through Central Asia. Therefore, the names of Russian chess pieces retain a literal translation from Arabic or Persian. And only later, in the 11th century, European chess rules reached Rus'. It is because of this that many pieces received a double name - one from old Russian chess, the second from European chess.

Let's look at the meaning of the names of chess pieces in more detail.

The word "pawn" has the same root word as "foot", "infantry". This name means "foot soldier".

In other European ones. In languages, the translation of the name of this figure is the same. But in Germany the name of the pawn "bauer" does not mean soldier, but "peasant".

Horse

In ancient chess, this piece represented the “cavalry” - a rider on a horse. Over time, her image was simplified, leaving only the horse. But in many European languages ​​the chess knight continues to be called a rider. In France, a chess knight is a cavalier, in England it is a knight.

But in other languages ​​the “human component” has disappeared from this figure. We simply call it “horse”. And, for example, in Germany (springer), Poland (skoczek), Croatia (skakač) its name is translated as “jumper”, “jumper”.

Elephant

In ancient chess, this was a piece representing a war elephant with a rider. Its name was translated literally in Rus', it turned out to be “elephant”.

But in Europe, the name of the unknown animal “elephant” (in Persian “phil”) turned into “jester” (“ful”). In ancient European chess books you can see that this piece was depicted as a man in a hat with bells. Until now in France, “elephant” is called fou (fu), i.e. jester

Later in different countries this person, close to the king, received more honorary titles: bishop (bishop) - in England, runner (Läufer) - in Germany, messenger (goniec) - in Poland, shooter (střelec) - in the Czech Republic, hunter (lovec) - in Slovenia and Croatia, officer - in Bulgaria and Greece. And before the revolution, it was also customary for us to call this figure " Officer"Only later was the ancient Russian name"elephant". But the appearance of the figure was left the same, European. Therefore, a chess bishop does not look like an elephant (an animal with a trunk), but like a man in a tall hat (a bishop, an officer).

Rook

In the Indian game, a rook is a war chariot (rathi). She was depicted with a team of horses and the driver who ruled it. Apparently, this is where the Persian name for the chariot came from - rokh. The same Roc from the Arabian Nights fairy tales. And they also began to depict the figure in the form of a bird. And in Rus' this bird was mistaken for a stylized bow decoration of an ancient Russian vessel - a boat. This is where the figure got its name.

A appearance and another name for this figure is tour, - came to us from Europe. In French it means "tower" (tour). The French also call a chess piece the same way. In almost all European languages, its name has the meaning of “siege tower”, “fortification”: rock (rook) - in English; tower (Turm) - in German; vezha, tower (wieża) - in Polish.

You can start learning chess different ways. You can master the game with the help of a mentor ( loved one, friend or acquaintance), using a tutorial, at a chess school, or through special courses, of which there are plenty on the Internet today. Whatever training option you choose, you need to start with the basics - know how many pieces there are in chess (and there are 32 of them) how moves are made and so on. Only after this can you move on to studying gaming strategies.

How many squares are there in chess

The most exciting thing about a chess game is, of course, the process itself. But in order to play certain combinations, you need to at least navigate what you see in front of you. There are a lot of questions that novice players ask - what is chess, how many squares are on the game board, and so on. Starting positions are not that difficult to learn.

The board has square shape and consists of 64 alternating black and white cells. The pieces are located on this playing field. At the beginning of the game, they occupy the two lower horizontal rows on the side of each of the opponents. Chess is usually played by two people, although grandmasters can play several games simultaneously. A total of 32 pieces take part in the game, 16 for each player. The infantry - pawns - line up in front. Pieces of a higher rank are placed behind, from the king to the rook.

Since they once came to the world from India, the purpose and names of the figures are quite colorful. There is not only a king-prince and a military commander-queen, but also two knights, bishops and rooks.

How many moves in chess

Not only ordinary players, but also researchers are interested in the question of how many moves in chess can be made during a game. There is even such a term as “Shannon number”. In the mid-20th century, US mathematician Claude Shannon was able to calculate the approximate smallest number of moves that will not be repeated. The scientist suggested that on average each player calculates about 30 options before the next move. As a result, Shannon's number turned out to be incredibly huge - 10 to the 120th power.

Any movement of the pieces must obey a common goal. Try to think through your game concept and make the right moves in chess. Otherwise, you will lose positions and pieces too. For example, you should not unnecessarily move pawns covering the king. Moreover, during the debut, masters advise trying to move closer to the center of the field. This will help you keep the situation under control.

Before you need to learn a large number of theoretical material, familiarize yourself with the rules, goals, and techniques of the game. It is also important to learn the names of the pieces in chess and their initial location.

There are six different names of figures. Two people play chess, one of whom plays with pieces white, and the second - with black figures. Each partner's army consists of sixteen pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Each figure moves differently.

Figures

The king is considered the most important chess piece, because if there is no way to protect the piece from an opponent's attack, it means the game is defeated. The king piece moves vertically, diagonally, or horizontally on one field.

The queen or queen can move to any square vertically, diagonally, or horizontally. Also refers to strong pieces on the board. At first, the queen piece could only move diagonally one square. This piece only became strong in European chess. Modern chess theory classifies the queen as a “heavy piece”.

A rook or tour can make moves vertically or horizontally on any number of squares. The rook is classified as a “heavy piece”. This figure has the appearance of a fortress tower.

The bishop or officer piece moves diagonally onto any number of squares. Before the start of the game, the chess player has one light-squared bishop and one dark-squared bishop. Due to the characteristics of the board, bishops can only move strictly diagonally a certain color. The elephant is classified as a “light piece”.

The knight moves on the chessboard in the letter “G”. she immediately moves two cells horizontally or vertically, and then another cell (field) vertically or horizontally, only perpendicular to the first direction.

In modern chess, the knight is the only piece that does not move in a straight line and is classified as a “jumping” piece. The knight can move outside the plane of the chessboard, and can also jump over pieces from its own army and over enemies. In theory, the knight is classified as a “minor piece.”

The pawn piece can move vertically forward one square. In the initial position, eight pawns occupy the second rank, covering the pieces.

Video lesson: “names and value of chess pieces”