RECREATIONAL Sports • Chess is a recreational but also a sport, which

is played on a board. It is a two-player

Recreational sports are those activities where the strategy board game played on a checkered
primary purpose of the activity is participation, with board with 64 squares arranged in an 8x8
the related goals of improved physical fitness, fun, grid.
and social involvement often prominent. Recreational
sports are usually perceived as being less stressful, • Each player begins with 16 pieces: one king,
both physically and mentally, on the participants. one queen, two rooks, two knights, two
There are lower expectations regarding both bishops, and eights pawns. Each piece type
performance and commitment to the sport in the moves differently, with the most powerful
recreational sphere. In theory, there is a clear being the queen and the least powerful the
demarcation between purely recreational pursuits pawn.
and competitive sports, where emphasis will be
centered on the achievement of success and the Note: In addition to checkmate, a player wins the
game if the opponent resigns, or, in a timid game,
attainment of physical skills through rigorous training.
Competitive sport involves not only contests, but it runs out of time. There are also several ways that a
game can end in a draw.
also advances as a central tenet that the athlete or
team will continually seek progress and advancement The objective is to checkmate the opponent king’s
to a higher level. Professional, international, national, by placing it under inescapable threat of capture.
and regional championships and university
competitions are exclusively competitive activities. In II. Origin of Chess
practice, the division between the concepts of
The history of chess goes back almost 1500
recreation and competition at all other levels is often
years. The game originated in northern India in the 6th
blurred.
century AD spread to Persia.
Recreational sport is the aspect of overall fitness often
Chess is believed from the Indian game CHATURANGA
promoted by government health agencies in the
sometime before the 7th century. Chaturanga
larger societal quest for better health and consequent
translates as ‘the four division’, meaning infantry,
reductions in the strain on public health care costs.
cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry, represented by the
Recreational sports, at both youth and adult levels, is
pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn,
advanced as a component of the healthy lifestyle that
knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.
leads to less incidence of serious disease (particularly
diabetes and cardiovascular diseases associated with Persian and Arabic chess
obesity), and greater longevity in the population
generally. In Sassanid Persia around 600 the name became
CHATRANG and the rules were developed further,
The distinction between competitive and recreational and players stated calling Shās! ( Persian for ‘King’)
sport is more often a matter of degree, as opposed to when threatening the opponent’s king, and Shāh māt!
the application of a descriptive label. Competitive (Persian for ‘the king is finished’) when the king could
sport is not always an elite athletic activity; the not escape from attack.
attitude of the individual athlete toward the sport is
an important aspect of how to define it. The best These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to
examples of this categorization are found in the mass other lands. The game was taken up by the Muslim
participation sports such as marathon running and the world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with the
triathlon, which are invariably further subdivided into pieces largely retraining their Persian names, in Arabic
age group classifications. These age group “mat” or “mata” means “died”, “is dead”. In Arabic,
distinctions, in contrast to the elite, often the game became Shatranj. In all other languages, the
professional, competitors, are where the name of the game is derived either from shatranj or
recreational/competitive boundaries are challenged. from shah.

Chess Game…
Europe and the East 1997- The 20th century revolutionized chess with
the invention of databases and chess engines. In 1997,
The game reached Western Europe and Russia by World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov lost a six
at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9 th game-match to the IBM’s Computer Deep Blue.
century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout
Europe. Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the 2007-2018- Chess website and online games are
Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a invented and become more and more popular.
famous 13th century manuscript covering Shatranj, Chess.com’s website was launched in 2007, lichess’s
backgammon and dice named the Libro de los juegos. website in 2010 and chess24’s website in 2014..

Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others Chess Rules

carried it to the Far East, where it was transformed
into a game often played on the intersection of the PIECE MOVEMENT
lines of the board rather than within the squares. Chess has six types of pieces. The (8) Pawns, (2)
Chinese chess and Shogi are the most important of Rooks, (2) Knights, (1) Queen and (1) King. Each piece
the oriental chess variants. However, it was the has its own unique way to move.
changes made in medieval Europe which led to our
modern game. Pawn

In Europe, the moves of the pieces changed in the  Pawn is the most numerous and the least
th
15 century. The modern game starts with these powerful piece on the chessboard
changes. In the second half of the 19 th century,
 Generally, the pawn moves forward only, one
modern tournament play began. Chess clock were
square at a time
first used in 1883, and the first world chess
championship was held in 1886. The 20th century saw  An exception is the first time a pawn is
advances in chess theory, and the establishment of moved, it may moved forward two squares
the World Chess Federation (FIDE). Chess engines
( programs that play chess), and chess data bases  The pawn is the only piece that cannot move
became important. backward

II. Evolution of Chess  The pawn captures an opposing piece by

moving diagonally one square – it cannot
6th Century- The history of chess can be traced back capture by moving straight ahead.
around 1500 years. It started in the North of India,
travelled to Persia from there, and then spread  The pawn also is involved in two special
throughout the Ancient continent. moves. The first is the en passant capture
where a pawn is captured on its initial two
10th Century- Chess made it’s way via the square move. The second is the pawn
expanding Islamic Arabian Empire to Europe. promotion where a pawn is promoted to
another piece when the pawn reaches the
15th Century- Until the end of the 15th century,
other end of the board.
chess changed numerous times, survived sanctions by
the Christian Church as well as complete prohibitions Bishop
from time to time. Until the 1880s the game
developed into the shape of the modern chess game.  Bishop moves in a straight line diagonally on
the board. It can move as many squares as
1880-1950- This period is known as “the romantic wanted, until it meets the end of the board or
era of chess”. Chess player mainly relied on tactics, another piece.
sacrifices and extremely dynamic play.
 The bishop captures on the same path it
1886- The first official World Championship was moves, by landing on the square of the
hosted in 1886 where Wilhelm Steinitz became the opposing piece.
first official Chess World Champion.
Rook move onto a square occupied by a piece of
the same color. The king captures another
 -- The rook moves in a straight line either piece in the same way it moves, by landing on
horizontally or vertically through any number the square of the opposing piece.
of unoccupied.
 There is an additional limit on the movement
 --The rook is also involved in a special move. It of the king. The king may not move to a
is the castling move where a rook and the square which would put the king under attack
king are grouped into a defensive position. by an opposing piece ( called in “check”)
 -- CASTLING. a king is moved two squares The chess board consists of 64 squares over 8
towards the rook and the rook is then moved horizontal ranks and 8 vertical files. The
to the square on the other side of the king. horizontal ranks are labeled with the letters ‘a’
Knight to ‘h’ while the vertical files are numbered
through 8.
 -- Knight is the most special piece in chess,
having a flexibility what makes it powerful 1. Set the board so that the bottom-right square is
piece. white.

 -- Knight is the only piece on the board that Note: Both players will have a white square in the
may jump over other pieces (special). right corner on the edge of the board closest to
them.
 -- The knight’s move is shaped as an “L”. The
knight always lands on a square opposite in  You set up your pieces on the two
color from its initial square. horizontal rows (“ranks”) closest to you. The
major pieces go on the first rank. The pawns
Queen go on the second rank.

 Queen is considered the most powerful piece 2. Place a rook, or castle, on each of your two
on the board. corners.

 It can move any number of squares in a 3. Place the knights next to the rooks.
straight line – either vertically, horizontally or
diagonally. 4. Place the bishops to the inside of the knights.

 The queen captures on the same path it  The left bishop will start on a black space
moves, by bonding on the square of the ( and always remains on white).
opposing piece. 5. Place the queen on the remaining, matching-
King color square.

 King is the most important piece in chess.  If you are the white side, your queen goes
on the remaining whit square in the middle of
 If the king is trapped so that its capture is the first rank. If you are playing black, your
unavoidable, the game is over and that player queen goes on the remaining black square.
loses.
6. Place the king on the last open square of the
 The king has little mobility, so it is also first rank.
considered one of the weakest pieces in the
game. The king can move to any adjacent 7. Place the pawn along the second rank.
square. Special Moves
 It can move one square in any direction:
horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. It cannot
CASTLING STALEMATE

You can move two pieces in the same Stalemate is when a player isn’t able to make
turn. Castling only involves the king and the rook . any legal move while the king is not attacked.

RULES: Ex. If Black only has a king remaining, but has no

legal squares to move onto.
1. Your king has not moved!
DRAW
2. Your king is NOT in check!
A result of a game ending in a tie. Draw
3. Your king does not pass through check! occurs when it appears that neither side will win.
4. No pieces between the king and rook! Draw are codified by various rules of chess
including;
En’passant capture
Stalemate( when the player to move is not in
A special pawn capture that can only occur check but has no legal move),
immediately after a pawn makes a move of two
squares from its starting square, and it could have Threefold repetition ( when the same position
been captured by an enemy pawn had it advance occurs three times with the same player to move),
only one square. and the

RULES: Fifty-move rule (when the last fifty successive

moves made by both players contain no capture
1. En’Passant Capture is ONLY for PAWNS! or pawn move)

2. White pawn 5th rank, black pawn 4th rank. TIME

3. Opponent’s pawn MUST make the double In a game, you’ll be given a certain amount
move. of time for all your chess moves. Run out of time
before the opponent, and you lose.
4. You MUST use the en’passant capture on that
turn! when it is your move, your chess clock runs
down until you make your move and push the
Basic Chess Rules
chess clock, pausing your timer and activating the
PROMOTION opponents. There are tournaments where you can
have an hour for your moves, or 5 minutes, or 15
Promotion in chess is a rule that requires a minutes depending on the tournament you
pawn that reaches its eight rank to be replaced by participate in.
the player’s choice of a queen, knight, rook, or
bishop of the same color. NOTE: Another important thing you have to know
when you want to play in a chess tournament is
CHECKMATE that you have to record all the chess moves on a
scoresheet.
It is the objective of the game. Checkmate is
when the opponent’s king is attacked by one of “It’s always better to sacrifice your opponent’s
your chess pieces and can’t escape, either by men. “
moving the king away or getting protection from
other chess pieces.

CHECK

Check is when you attack the king., but he is

able to escape, or other pieces can protect him.