Chess Lesson 2: Special Rules, Check and Openings

Finish Lesson 1 first: find e2, tell a pawn's straight move from its diagonal capture, take turns, and never leave your own king under attack. If any of that feels shaky, go back and practise.

This lesson covers, in order: special moves, worked examples, spotting mate threats, opening ideas and draws. Each example is its own position, not one continuous game, and finishing a demo is not the same as winning a game.

Castling moves the king and a rook in a single turn. It is allowed only if neither piece has moved, nothing stands between them, the king is not in check, and the king does not pass through or land on an attacked square. The king moves two squares towards the rook and the rook jumps to the king's other side. Kingside castling is short, queenside castling is long. Both sides castle in the demo.

En passant: when an enemy pawn moves two squares from its start and lands right beside your pawn, on your very next move you may capture it diagonally as if it had moved only one square. Miss that move and the chance is gone. Promotion: a pawn reaching the last rank must become a queen, rook, bishop or knight — almost always a queen.

Black plays d7–d5, two squares, landing beside the white pawn on e5. White immediately plays e5–d6 and removes the black pawn on d5. Note that d6, where the white pawn lands, was empty.

If White plays anything else instead, the chance is gone for good. And even when the pattern fits, en passant is illegal if it would leave your own king under attack.

White plays e7–e8 and promotes to a queen. Promotion happens as part of that move, and the new queen can move like a queen right away. You do not need to have lost your queen first.

You may choose a queen, rook, bishop or knight — never a king, and the pawn cannot stay a pawn. The play board shows the choices. Occasionally a knight is better because it gives check or avoids stalemate.

A king under attack is in check and must escape at once: move the king, capture the attacker, or block the attack. If none of these is possible, it is checkmate and the game ends.

The demo is Scholar's Mate: White's queen and bishop both aim at f7. Black's Ng8–f6 chases the queen but leaves f7 unguarded, so it is mate. The right defence was g7–g6, blocking the queen's path to f7. Learn this trap so you can defend against it, not so you can rely on it.

Three simple opening principles: take the centre (the squares e4, d4, e5 and d5); develop your pieces by bringing the knights and bishops out to squares where they control more; and castle early when you can, to keep the king safe. If your opponent is giving check or threatening a piece, deal with that first.

The demo plays e2–e4, e7–e5, g1–f3, b8–c6, f1–c4, f8–c5: pawns first open lines for the bishops, then knights and bishops come out. Neither side has castled yet. This is one teaching line of the Italian Game, not a forced order, and there is no rule that knights must come out before bishops.

Look at the diagram: it is Black to move, the black king on h8 has every neighbouring square covered, yet it is not under attack right now. Black has no legal move at all, so it is stalemate — a draw, not a White win, even though White has an extra queen.

If the same position occurs three times, or 50 moves pass with no capture and no pawn move, a player may claim a draw; at five repetitions or 75 moves the draw is automatic. If the last move happens to be checkmate, the mate stands. A "same position" means the same pieces and also the same side to move and the same castling and en-passant rights.

Another draw: neither side can possibly checkmate, for example king against king. Players may also agree to a draw where the event rules allow it. Note that "50 moves" means 50 by each player, not 50 combined.