Video of 1st time practicing chess: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MjUOqkoZ8ogax2Wl2x7yW6WUwR5mOO1U/view?usp=sharing

For the first 2-3 weeks, Anthony and I are planning on learning what each piece does, different traps, and multiple openings.

At the start, I decided to spend some time to fully learn and understand how each piece moves. I also learned a bunch of different chess terms that I would need to know in the future.

Here is what I’ve learnt:

1. Pawns: The Pawn is the weakest piece in the game. It may only move one vacant square directly forward, two vacant squares directly forward on its first move, and capture one square diagonally. If the Pawn is able to make it to the other end of the board, it is allowed to promote.
2. Bishops: The Bishop moves and captures pieces along diagonal squares. It can’t jump over other peices.
3. Knights: The Knight moves and captures pieces two squares vertically and one square horizontally. It CAN jump over other peices.
4. Rooks: The Rook can moves and captures any number of squares horizontally or vertically without jumping.
5. Queens: The Queen is the strongest piece in the game. It can move any number of squares in any direction. It can’t jump over other pieces.
6. Kings: The King is the most valuable piece in chess because if your King dies you loose the game. It can move one square in any direction and is not able to jump over other pieces.

Terms I learnt:

• Material: Material is the value of pieces. For example, Pawns are worth 1, Bishops and Knights are worth 3, Rooks are worth 5, and Queens are worth 9.
• Promote: When a pawn becomes either a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight. This only happens when the pawn reaches the enemy end of the board.
• Fork: When one piece attacks multiple enemy pieces simultaneously.
• Pin: A tactic you can use to restrict one or more of your opponent’s pieces. There are 2 different types of pins: relative pins and absolute pins. A relative pin is when you pin an enemy piece to anything but their King. An absolute pin is when you pin an enemy piece to their King.

Anthony and I also played a number of games where we would call out what piece we play. This might seem useless right now, but when we start playing chess blindfolded we are going to need to know how to call out which piece to move.

See you next week!