The complete chess course from beginning to winning chess 21st century edition (2016)

Table of ContentsFrom the Editor Introduction Book One – The Basic Rules of Chess How the Pieces Move Check and Checkmate Castling Additional Powers of the Pawn How the Moves Are Recorde

The Complete Chess Course

From Beginning

To Winning Chess!

by

Fred Reinfeld

21st Century Edition

Fred Reinfeld Chess Classics

Peter Kurzdorfer, General Editor

2016 Russell Enterprises, Inc.

Milford, CT USA

The Complete Chess Course From Beginning to Winning Chess!

© Copyright 2016 Donald Reinfeld and Judith Reinfeld Fred Reinfeld Chess Classics – Peter Kurzdorfer, General Editor

ISBN: 978-1-941270-24-0 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-941270-25-7 All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any manner or form whatsoever or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission from the

publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Published by:

Russell Enterprises, Inc.

PO Box 3131 Milford, CT 06460 USA

http://www.russell-enterprises.com info@russell-enterprises.com The publisher and editor wish to express their thanks to David MacEnulty for his permission to use the explanation of English Algebraic

Notation as set forth in his book My First Book of Chess Tactics.

Cover design by Janel Lowrance Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

From the Editor

Introduction

Book One – The Basic Rules of Chess

How the Pieces Move

Check and Checkmate

Castling

Additional Powers of the Pawn

How the Moves Are Recorded

Relative Values of the Chess Forces

How Games Are Drawn

Book Two – The Nine Bad Moves

(1) Neglecting Development of Your Pieces

(2) Exposing Your King to Attack

(3) Making Too Many Queen Moves in the Opening

(4) Grabbing Pawns Thoughtlessly

(5) Weakening Your Castled Position

(6) Getting Pinned

(7) Failing to Guard against Captures

(8) Underestimating Your Opponent’s Threats

(9) Losing a Won Game

Book Three – How to Play the White Pieces

(1) How to Control the Center

(2) How to Exploit Your Superior Development

(3) How to Exploit Your Superior Mobility

(4) How to Exploit Black’s Premature Opening Up of the Position

(5) How to Exploit Black’s Premature Counterattack

(6) How to Exploit Black’s Weakening Pawn Moves

(7) How to Exploit Black’s Errors of Judgment

(8) Opening Mistakes White Should Avoid

Book Four – How to Play the Black Pieces

(1) How to Exploit White’s Weaknesses

(2) How to Seize the Initiative

(3) How to Play against Gambits

(4) How to Defend against a Powerful Attack

(5) How to Seize the Attack

(6) Opening Mistakes Black Should Avoid

Book Five – How to Win When You’re Ahead

(1) Superior Force Should Win!

(2) The Power of Pawn Promotion

(3) King and Pawn Endings

(4) Endgames with a Piece Ahead

(5) Endgames with the Exchange Ahead

(6) Rook and Pawn Endings

(7) Endings with Minor Pieces

(8) Sundry Endings

(9) How to Simplify into a Won Ending

(10) Exceptions: Material Advantage Doesn’t Always Win

(11) Beware of Overconfidence!

Book Six – How to Fight Back

(1) Counterattack – How to Meet the Crisis

(2) Resourceful Defense – How to Simplify

(3) Half a Point Is Better than None

(4) The Defense Fumbles

(5) How to Fight Back: Practical Examples

King’s Gambit Declined

Falkbeer Counter Gambit

Latvian Counter Gambit

Two Knights’ Defense

Max Lange Attack

Four Knights’ Game (including Three Knights’ Game)

Book Eight – How to Play the d-pawn Openings

Queen’s Gambit Declined

Albin Counter Gambit

Queen’s Gambit Accepted

Miscellaneous Double d-pawn Openings

Nimzo-Indian Defense

Queen’s Indian Defense

King’s Indian Defense

From the Editor

Mid-20th century best-selling author Fred Reinfeld introduced thousands of players to thewonderful game of chess through his tireless efforts His books were ubiquitous and covered everyconceivable aspect of the royal game

I was one of countless chess players representing several generations who grew up surrounded byReinfeld books We couldn’t get enough of them! He not only taught us how to play the game well, butalso implanted in us his enthusiastic passion for learning the game

Fred’s books are peppered throughout with words and phrases in italics to emphasize ideas.Moves are punctuated with single, double, and even triple exclamation marks and question marks tospan the entire spectrum of emotions the moves conjure up

He had a way of reducing the most intricate, complicated combinations to their basic components.After Reinfeld explains a combination, it makes sense

Thus I am pleased and honored to be a part of bringing back my old mentor to new generations ofchess players Russell Enterprises Inc is engaged in a project of resurrecting the immortal Reinfeldclassics, republishing them with the modern algebraic notation in place of the archaic Englishdescriptive notation that was popular years ago to make them accessible to 21st century chessplayers

This undertaking, begun under General Editor Bruce Alberston, has been passed on to me So I get

to reread these wonderful old books, change the notation in ChessBase, type up Fred’s snappy prose,and look out for potential errors

The few analytical errors that crop up from time to time are easily checked with the monster chessengine Fritz, which Fred never had access to In those far-off pre-computer days, you analyzed eachand every position, including any variations you thought up, with nothing more than a board andpieces, using your knowledge of the pieces’ potential

Thus the few errors are no reflection on the author’s ability or knowledge at all I have calledattention to only the most egregious ones, indicated by an asterisk, and appearing on page 288 Theycertainly do not detract at all from the fresh charm he imparts on each and every position he looks at

The Complete Chess Course in particular was originally brought out as a series of separate

books that Fred later combined The only part that is slightly out of date is his treatment of theopenings, which are rather nạve by modern standards; however, that should make no difference at theintermediate or even national master level, as I know all too well

Absorb the material included in this volume and you will play chess at a fairly high level Or readthrough it all and enjoy Fred’s masterful explanations; you will certainly be entranced by hisenthusiasm for the intricate relationships the pieces experience in the context of a game or even astandout plan or combination

The section on notation is the only portion of this work that Fred Reinfeld did not write Since heused the old English descriptive notation exclusively, that section has been replaced with the gracious

permission of David MacEnulty from his My First Book of Chess Tactics.

Peter KurzdorferOlean, New YorkOctober 2015

Although seven of the eight sections of this book were originally published as separate volumes,they were written with their coordination as a complete chess course in mind Conveniently prefacednow by a new summarized review of the basic elements of chess, the resulting comprehensive wholeprovides the instruction that any chessplayer needs to develop a respectable degree of skill

The integrated progression of subjects is treated in the following order A player who knows theelements but little more about chess may not need the introductory steps revealed in Book One, but hedoes need to be warned about the types of mistakes – neglected development and the like – thatbeginning and intermediate players make so frequently He can then go on to study opening play in itslarger aspects, and examine its consequences in the ensuing middlegame From this point he proceeds

to study the endgame stage, which evolves out of the middlegame previously studied And finally,having seen the logical relationship which binds together opening, middlegame, and ending, thestudent is now ready to go back to the initial stage and study the chief openings in rewarding detail

With this overall scheme in mind, the reader is in a better position to appreciate the detailedtreatment in each section

Book One is a summary of chess fundamentals that provides the first springboard into the “royal”game for beginners, and also serves as a refresher for the more advanced player

Book Two is a study of the nine most common mistakes made by chessplayers These include suchtypical errors as failing to guard against hostile captures, underestimating the opponent’s threats, andmaking pawn moves that weaken the castled position Many examples are given to show how theseand other mistakes prove disastrous in the opening and middlegame

Now that the reader has been made aware of the kinds of mistakes he must avoid, he is ready tostudy the problem of planning the opening so as to get a promising middlegame position First thesubject is treated from White’s point of view (Book Three) Dealing with such problems as control ofthe center, how to exploit superior development and mobility, and the like But it is at least equallyimportant to deal with opening problems from Black’s point of view, and this brings us to Book Four;here problems of counterattack and defense are emphasized

These studies of middlegame play lead logically to a treatment of the endgame stage, for whateverhappens in the final part of the game is the consequence of what happened earlier in the opening andmiddlegame As a rule, the chief practical problem of endgame play is how to win with a materialadvantage which has been obtained in the middlegame In Book Five the different types of endings areclassified and studied; many practical examples are explained, and the reader acquires an excellentgrasp of the vital problem of converting a material advantage into victory

But to know how to make use of advantages is not enough; so in Book Six we go on to the relatedproblem of how to make the most of disadvantageous positions This section contains many valuablepointers that will help the reader to salvage many an apparently lost game

Now that opening, middlegame, and endgame have been surveyed, what remains? It is now time

to survey the chess openings in some detail, paying particular attention to the way in which openingmoves are intertwined with the ensuing middlegame play This material appears in Books Seven and

Eight Each opening is presented with explanations of is basic ideas – the plans of each player, their

middlegame goals, the clash that follows their attempts to enforce their disparate conceptions

Throughout, my aim has been to give the reader a better idea of the fine points of chess as it isplayed by the masters The appreciative comments I have had from readers encourage me to believe

that a much wider circle of new readers will enjoy this material and apply it profitably in their owngames.

Fred Reinfeld

Book One

The Basic Rules of Chess

Chess is played by two opponents, “White” and “Black,” who take turns making their moves.White always makes the first move The chessboard (Diagram 1) has eight horizontal rows (“ranks”)and eight vertical rows (“files”) Each row is therefore made up of eight squares.

All 64 squares are used in the play, and in order to make it easier to tell them apart, they arealternately light colored (“light squares”) and dark colored (“dark squares”) (D)

The Chessboard

At the beginning of a game, each player has 16 chessmen, always placed as in Diagram 2 (D)

The Opening Position

White always takes the light colored chessmen; Black has the dark colored chessmen The names

of the forces shown in Diagram 2 are:

An important point to remember is that in the opening position the right-hand corner squarenearest to White must be a light square.

Another important point about the opening position: the two queens face each other along the samevertical row (“the d-file”) Each queen is placed on a square of its own color, the white queen on alight square, the black queen on a dark square

Both kings likewise face each other across the e-file

The king bishop is placed next to the king, on the f-file.

The king knight is placed next to the king bishop, on the g-file.

The king rook is placed next to the king knight, on the h-file.

The queen bishop is placed next to the queen, on the c-file.

The queen knight is placed next to the queen bishop, on the b-file.

The queen rook is placed next to the queen knight, on the a-file.

The white pawns are set out on the second row (“the second rank”), in front of the pieces just

named

The black pawns are set out on the seventh row (“the seventh rank”), in front of the pieces just

named

Each pawn is named for the file it stands on

Thus, the pawn on the e-file (where the kings begin the game) is the e-pawn.

How the Pieces Move

Each of the men moves in a different way In describing the moves it is necessary to refer toranks, files, and also diagonals (A diagonal is a row of squares of the same color all going in thesame direction In Diagram 2 the row of light squares from White’s king rook to Black’s queen rook

is a diagonal.)

The King

The king (subject to limitations that are described later on) moves one square in any direction.(D)

White’s king has eight possible moves, indicated by an “X.”

The king captures the same way it moves; when it captures an enemy piece it displaces that piece(occupies the square of the captured unit) (D)

White’s king can capture any one of the black men.

The Queen

The queen is the most powerful of all the chess forces Like the king, the queen can move in anydirection – but with this important difference: the queen can move the whole length of any availableline, as long as there is no obstacle in the way (D)

The queen can move to any of the squares indicated by an “X”; it moves in only one direction at a

time.

There are two possible obstacles: friendly pieces, which the queen cannot displace or leap over;

or enemy pieces, which can be captured by displacement (D)

The white queen can capture the black rook or bishop or either black knight.

The Rook

The rook (next most powerful piece after the queen) moves horizontally (on ranks) or vertically(on files) – one direction at a time (D)

The rook can move to any square indicated by an “X.”

The rook captures hostile pieces by displacement, but it cannot displace or leap over its ownforces The rook captures in the same way it moves (Some players call the rook a “castle,” but

“rook” is the proper term.) (D)

The rook can capture the bishop or knight, but not the pawn.

The Bishop

The bishop, moving in one direction at a time, moves and captures diagonally (D)

The bishop can move to any of the squares indicated by an “X.”

The bishop captures hostile pieces by displacement It cannot displace or leap over its ownforces (D)

The bishop can capture either of the black pawns.

The Knight

The knight is the only piece that can leap over other units – his own or the opponent’s The knight

is also the only piece that has a move of fixed length It moves a total of three squares – in either one

of two ways:

(a) One square forward or backward; then two squares to the right or left

(b) One square to the right or left; then two squares forward or backward

The knight captures only on the terminal square of his move, displacing the piece it captures (D)

The knight has the option of moving to any square indicated by an “X.”

This is one of the eight possible moves available to the knight in Diagram 11.

Note that the knight changes the color of its square each time it moves It goes from a light square

to a dark square or from a dark square to a light square (D)

The white knight can capture Black’s bishop.

The knight leaps over two pawns to capture the most distant pawn.

The Pawn

The pawn is the only unit that is limited to moving in only one direction: straight ahead

With one exception (to be noted shortly), a pawn moves one square forward unless its path isblocked by one of its own units or by a hostile unit

The path for white pawns (as seen in Diagram 2) is directly forward from the opening position.How a white pawn moves is shown in detail on Diagrams 15 and 16 (D)

The white pawn is about to move.

The white pawn has moved.

The path for black pawns (likewise seen in Diagram 2) is also directly forward from the openingposition How a black pawn moves is shown in Diagrams 17 and 18 (D)

The black pawn is about to move.

The black pawn has moved.

The pawn has one important option When any pawn is moved from its opening position – even ifthis occurs at a late stage of the game – that pawn on its first move has the option of moving onesquare or two Thus, in Diagram 2 (the opening position) all the pawns, while on the second rank (forWhite; seventh for Black) have the option of moving one square or two (D)

White has accepted his option by advancing his e-pawn two squares.

Black has done likewise.

White has accepted the option of advancing his e-pawn two squares Black, however, has advanced

his d-pawn one square.

The pawn’s capturing methods differ from the way it moves

The pawn moves by advancing straight along a file In capturing, however, the pawn can take a

hostile unit only if it is located on either of the diagonally-forward adjoining squares – that is, one

square forward to the right or left (D)

The white pawn can capture the black bishop.

The pawn cannot capture a hostile unit which is directly in front of it (D)

The white pawn cannot capture the black bishop.

Check and Checkmate

The king is the most important piece in chess

The basic method of winning a game of chess is to attack the hostile king in such a way that it

cannot escape This is called “checkmate.” (The king is actually not captured; its inability to escape

from attack is what constitutes the checkmate.)

Any attack by a piece or pawn directly on a king is called a “check.” When a king is checked, it

must immediately get out of check The king cannot be allowed to remain in check.

If it is a player’s turn to move and his king is not in check, he cannot make any move that exposesthe king to check The king must never come within the capturing range of hostile pieces

There are three ways to get out of check:

(1) to capture the unit that is giving check;

(2) to move the king out of the line of attack – but not into the line of attack of some other unit;(3) to interpose one of your own units between the king and the hostile unit that is giving check.

If none of these three methods can be applied, then the king is checkmated

In Diagrams 23 and 24 the black king was in check, but it was possible to get out of check InDiagram 25 the attacked king is able to escape; but in Diagram 26 the attacked king is checkmated.(D)

White’s queen is checking the black king Black has a choice of three different ways of getting his

king out of check.

Black has captured the white queen, getting out of check Black could also have moved his king, or

interposed his rook.

Black’s king is checkmated White’s queen is giving check and Black’s king cannot capture the white queen, which is protected by a white bishop Having no flight square, or way of interposing

a friendly unit, Black’s king is trapped.

Black’s king is in check from White’s rook but it has a “loophole.” By playing his king diagonally

forward to the right, Black escapes from the check.

The positions in Diagrams 26, 27, and 28 are all examples of checkmate In each case thechecking piece cannot be captured; the attacked king cannot move out of the capturing range of thehostile forces; and no friendly unit can be interposed on the line of attack between the checking unitand the checked king (D)

Black’s king is in check from White’s rook and has no escape, as its own pawns block the exit This

White can give a discovered check with his bishop by moving his rook.

By moving his rook, White has opened up an attacking line for a discovered check by his bishop.

Double Check

This is a discovered check with an added feature: the piece that unmasks an attacking line for thediscovered check also gives check (D)

By moving his bishop to give check, White can give double check with his queen.

As Black’s king cannot move out of check, he is checkmated The double check was devastating.

The double check is the most difficult kind of check to meet, as capture or interposition isimpossible For if either checking unit is captured, the other unit continues to give check Similarly,

an interposition to one check still leaves the other check functioning

The only possible reply to a double check, then, is to move the attacked king Where this is notfeasible, the king is checkmated

Castling

We have seen what happens when the king is exposed to attack The special move known as

“castling” offers a valuable method for safeguarding the king against attack

Castling is the only move in chess which is really two separate moves – a king move and a rookmove Castling, as well, is the only move that each player can carry out only once during a game

It is possible to castle with the king and king rook (kingside castling) or with the king and queenrook (queenside castling) Diagrams 33 and 34 show how kingside castling is accomplished (D)

Before kingside castling (king and king rook)

After kingside castling

To castle kingside, a player moves his king two squares, landing next to the king rook

He then moves his rook to the other side of the king When castling is completed, the castled kingand rook are on adjacent squares, as in Diagram 34

Queenside castling is illustrated in Diagrams 35 and 36 (D)

Before queenside castling (king and queen rook)

After queenside castling

Requirements for Castling

Castling is permanently impossible if:

(1) The king has already moved (Diagram 37) or;

(2) The rook intended for castling has already moved (Diagram 38) (D)

Black cannot now castle because his king has moved from its original square.

White can castle kingside (His king rook is still on its original square and has not moved.)

When Castling is Impossible

Castling is impossible when:

(1) The squares between the king and rook are not all vacant (Diagram 39)

(2) A player’s king is in check (Diagram 40)

(3) The king has to pass over a square commanded by an enemy unit (Diagram 41)

(4) The king will land on a square commanded by an enemy unit (Diagram 42)

While castling is impossible as long as any of these conditions apply, castling becomes feasible

as soon as all limiting conditions are removed (D)

White cannot castle because one of the squares between his king and king rook is still occupied.

White cannot castle because his king is at the moment being checked by the black bishop.

Black cannot castle because in order to do so his king would have to pass over a square controlled

by White’s dark-square bishop.

White cannot castle because the square on which his king would land is controlled by Black’s

dark-square bishop.

Additional Powers of the Pawn

The pawn is the least valuable of all the chess units, yet it has one power which enhances itsvalue considerably in special situations

Pawn Promotion

If a pawn reaches the last square in a file, it is promoted – must be promoted – to a friendly queen

or a rook or a bishop or a knight White the player has the option here, he usually chooses a newqueen, as this is the most powerful of all the chess units This process, known as “promoting” or

“queening” a pawn, is illustrated in Diagrams 43 and 44 (D)

White’s pawn is about to advance to the eighth rank and be promoted White has decided to take a

new queen, giving check at the same time.

White has queened his pawn, giving check and forcing the black king to move White will then

capture the black rook.

Pawn Captures en passant (“In Passing”)

This is a special capturing option which a player can exercise when any of his pawns have

reached the fifth rank (for White, or the fourth rank for Black) This is possible only if all the

following conditions are present:

(1) The pawn that will do the capturing must be on the fifth rank (for White, or the fourth rank forBlack)

(2) The pawns involved must be on adjacent files

(3) The pawn that will ultimately be captured must still be on its original rank (seventh for Black

or second for White)

(4) The pawn that is to be captured advances two squares (Diagram 46)

(5) In reply, the opposing pawn captures the first pawn as if it had advanced only one square

(Diagram 47).

Remember that only a pawn can capture in passing, and only a pawn can be captured in passing.(D)

Here is a situation in which only pawns are involved; they are on adjacent files; the black pawn is

on its original rank, the White pawn has reached the fifth rank It is Black to move.

Black exercises his option and advances his pawn two squares White can now capture Black’s

pawn “in passing,” producing Diagram 47.

White has captured in passing as if the black pawn had only advanced one square and had been

captured in the normal manner.

As a rule, capturing in passing is optional However, if a player does not make the capture inpassing at the first opportunity, he loses his option

There are two cases when capturing or not capturing in passing is compulsory If the only way toget out of check is by means of an en passant capture, then the capture must be made Likewise, ifcapturing in passing would expose one’s king to attack, then the capture cannot be made

How Moves Are Recorded

Fred Reinfeld’s original work was in what is known as “English Description Notation.” Thatmethod of recording chess games is no longer used The modern method is called “English Algebraic

Notation.” The following section is reprinted, with permission, from My First Book of Chess Tactics

by David MacEnulty

NAMING THE SQUARES

To understand this book, you must understand algebraic notation

Fortunately, algebraic notation is easy to learn The first thing to learn is how we name squares.The chessboard is a square arrangement of sixty-four smaller squares, laid out in eight rows ofeight squares each

The rows going sideways are called ranks

Ranks are numbered 1 through 8

The rows going up and down the board are called files

Files are named after the first eight letters of the alphabet, a through h

Squares are named after the file they are on and the rank they are on Each square has only onename, which is made up of a letter and a number

As an example of how we name squares, the five-point star in this diagram is on the d-file and also on the 4th rank So the star is on the square we call d4.

The “d” is a lowercase letter, and the letter comes before the number We would not write this as D4, nor would we write it 4d In chess we always name the file first, and it is always a lowercase letter.

What square is the four-point star on?

The four-point star on the previous page is on g2.

NAMING THE PIECES

There are six different pieces in the chess army Below are the names of the pieces, the symbol used

in notation, and a picture of what it looks like on our diagrams

Note that we use only upper case letters as symbols for the pieces That way there is no confusionbetween the upper case B for bishop and the lower case b for the b-file

You may have noticed that even though the word knight is spelled with a ‘K’ as the first letter, we usethe letter N as the symbol That’s because we need the letter K for the king

Other symbols used in chess:

x in the writing of a move indicates that the move involves a capture

+ at the end of a move indicates that this move puts the opposing king in check

+ + at the end of a move indicates a double check See Book 2, page 40

# at the end of a move indicates that this move gives checkmate

0-0 is used to indicate castling on the kingside, where there are two squares

between the king and rook

between the king and rook

1-0 means White wins

0-1 means Black wins

½-½ means the game is a draw

! indicates a strong move

!! indicates a brilliant move

? indicates a weak move or a mistake

?? indicates a blunder, possibly a losing move

!? indicates an interesting move.

? ! indicates a dubious move

READING AND WRITING CHESS NOTATION

Reading and writing chess notation is simple once you know the names of the pieces and the names ofthe squares

There are various forms of notation, but the most popular form, and the easiest to understand, is

algebraic notation

First, we begin with a number The number simply tells us which move we are on So, if there is a 1

in front, it’s the first move If there is a 5 in front, it is the fifth move

Next comes the symbol for the piece that is moving: K for king, Q for queen, B for bishop, N forknight, or R for rook We do not give the symbol for the moving unit if it is a pawn

Finally, we name the square the piece is moving to

In this diagram, White has moved a pawn from e2 to e4, and Black has moved a pawn from e7 to e5 Since this is the first move for each side, we write this as:

1e4 e5

White’s move is on the left Black’s is on the right Since these are pawns, we do not use the symbol for the moving unit.

On move two, both sides brought out a knight Now the moves are written like this:

1 e4 e5

2 Nf3 Nc6

Note that we use the letter N for knight.

White’s next move will be

3 d4

Diagram after move 3 on the next page.

Is this what you thought it would look like?

The position after 3 d4

For Black’s third move, he takes the pawn on d4 We write this as

3 … exd4 (see diagram)

The 3 means it is the third move of this sequence The three dots signify that it is Black’s move The ‘x’ means that a capture has taken place.

This move can also be written as ed Since no piece is named, we know this is a pawn move Since the capture involved two files, a pawn has just changed files, which only happens when a pawn is making a capture.

In this book, the moves are often written in paragraph form The moves we have shown so far wouldlook like this: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4.

If two similar pieces can both get to the same square, you must note which one is moving Forexample say you have a knight on c3 and another knight on d2 Since they can each move to e4, if one

of the knights moves to e4, we need to know which one Say the knight on c3 moves to e4 This would

be written as 1 Nce4 That way we know it is the knight on c3, and not the knight on d2, that is moving

to e4

One final note: We will be using the “figurine” icons of each piece (See the “Picture” column onpage 22.) Using Figurine Algebraic Notation, the moves shown above look like this: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4

Relative Values of the Chess Pieces

It is essential to know the values of the chess units to avoid giving up a unit of greater value inreturn for a unit of lesser value

In addition, you will discover that when you have an advantage in the values of your units (amaterial advantage), it is generally possible to force checkmate or the queening of a pawn.Consequently you have to understand clearly the nature of your material advantage if you capture ahostile unit without giving up one of your own in exchange

Here are the relative values of the chess units:

Rook 5points

Bishop 3 points

Knight 3 points

(The king is not included in this table, as it cannot be captured.)

The queen is clearly the most valuable piece by far

Bishop and knight are of equal value Giving up a knight for a bishop (or the reverse) isconsidered an equal exchange

If a player captures a rook in return for a knight (or bishop), he is said to “win the exchange.” If

he captures a knight (or bishop) in return for a rook, he is said to “lose the exchange.”

How Games are Drawn

Most chess games end decisively – victory for one player, defeat for his opponent

But there are times when the result is indecisive; neither side wins; the game is a “draw.” Thereare several ways in which a drawn result may be arrived at

Perpetual Check

This is the term for an endless series of checks which the opponent cannot avoid Many a playerhas escaped from a lost game by giving a perpetual check Thus, in Diagram 53 White, who is so farbehind in material that he would lose under normal circumstances, can ward off defeat by resorting to

a perpetual check (D)

White plays for perpetual check:

1.Qe8+! Kh7 2.Qh5+ (D)