Chess Crossword Puzzle for Kids

Chess is a board game for two players. It is played on a square board, made up of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares in each row and column. Each player starts with 16 pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king.

The goal of the game is for each player to try and checkmate the king of the opponent. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the opposing king which no move can stop. When checkmate happens, the player who is being checkmated loses, and the other player wins.

During the game, the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the board. One player ('White') has pieces of a light color; the other player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. There are rules about how pieces move and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. The player with white pieces always makes the first move. Because of this, it is mostly agreed that White has a small advantage, and White wins more often than Black in tournament games.

Chess is popular and is often played in competitions called chess tournaments. It is enjoyed in many countries, and is a national hobby in Russia.

History

Most historians agree that the game of chess was first played in northern India during the Gupta Empire in the 6th century AD. This early type of chess was known as Chaturanga, a Sanskrit word for the military. The Gupta chess pieces were divided, like their military, into the infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots. Over time, these pieces became the pawn, knight, bishop, and rook. The English words chess and check both come from the Persian word "shāh" meaning king.

The earliest written evidence of chess is found in three romances (epic stories) written in Sassanid Persia around 600AD. The game was known as chatrang or shatranj. When Persia was taken over by Muslims (633–644) the game spread to all parts of the Muslim world. Muslim traders carried the game to Russia and Western Europe. By the year 1000, it had spread all across Europe. In the 13th century, a Spanish manuscript called Libro de los Juegos described the games of shatranj (chess), backgammon, and dice.

The game changed greatly between about 1470 to 1495. The rules of the older game were changed in the West so that some pieces (queen, bishop) had more scope, it was easier to get pieces into more powerful places, and the game was more exciting. The new game formed the basis of modern international chess. Chess historians consider this to be the most important change since the game's invention.

Rules

The rules of chess are governed by the World Chess Federation, which is known by the initials FIDE. The rules are in the section Laws of Chess of the FIDE Handbook. FIDE also give rules and guidelines for chess tournaments.

Chess is played on a square board divided into eight rows of squares called ranks and eight columns called files, with a dark square in each player's lower left corner. There are 64 squares on a chess board. The colors of the squares are laid out in a checker (chequer) pattern with light and dark squares. To make speaking and writing about chess easy, each square has a name. Rank are numbered from 1 to 8, and each file is lettered from a to h. The letter assigned to a file comes before the number. Each square has its own name, such as g1 or f5. The pieces are in white and black sets. The players are called White and Black, and at the start of a game each player has 16 pieces. The 16 pieces are one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.

Definitions: vertical lines are files; horizontal lines are ranks; lines at 45° are diagonals.

Each piece has its own way of moving around the board. The X marks the squares where the piece can move.

The knight is the only piece that can jump over another piece.

Check and checkmate

If a move that attacks the opposing king is made, the king is said to be 'in check', and the piece (or pieces) giving the check are said to be 'checking'. The player whose king is in check must make a move that escapes the check. A player cannot move into check. The options when a player is in check are moving the king, capturing the threatening piece, or moving another piece between the threatening piece and the king.

To win the game one player must checkmate the other player. Checkmate happens when the other player's king is in check and there is no way to get out of check. The word checkmate is often shorted to "mate". Most games end with one of the players resigning (giving up) when their position is so bad that there is no way to avoid losing.

Special moves

Once in every game, each king can make a special move, known as castling. When the king castles, it moves two squares to the left or right. When this happens, the rook is moved to stand on the opposite side of the King. Castling is only allowed if all of these rules are kept:p120

Neither piece doing the castling may have been moved during the game.

There must be no pieces between the squares the king and the rook.

The king may not be currently in check. The king can't pass through any square attacked (that any of the other player's pieces could move to) by the opponent as well. As with any move, castling is not allowed if it would place the king in check.

En passant ('in passing' in French) is a special capture. It is only available when a pawn moves forward two squares past an opposing pawn on an adjacent file. The opposing pawn must be on the 5th rank from its own side. Then the opponent's pawn can capture the double-mover as if it had only moved one square forward. This option is open on the next move only.

Ways a game may end

Checkmates are rare in competitive chess. The most common ends are decisions made by one or both players.

Checkmate. When a king is in check, and cannot get out of it.

Resignation. A player may resign at any time, usually because their position is hopeless. A way to say that someone resigns is for the player to place their king on its side on the chessboard.

Out of time. If player's clock time is over (exceeding the time control). Strictly speaking, this is not part of the rules of the game, but part of the rules of tournament and match chess where chess clocks are used.Chapter 8

Forfeit: A player who cheats, does not follow the rules, or does not follow the rules of conduct for a tournament can be forfeited. Sometimes, both players are forfeited.

Competition rules

The FIDE rules for competitive chess include all the rules above, as well as several others.p92 et seq

If a player wishes to adjust a piece on the board, they must first say "J'adoube" (I adjust) or the equivalent. Apart from that, if a piece is touched it must be moved if possible. This is the 'touch and move' law.p425 If no legal move is possible with the touched piece, the player must make a legal move with another piece.Section 4p90 et seq When a player's hand leaves a piece after moving it then the move is over and may not be changed (if the move was legal).

There are a few famous cases where players appeared to break this rule without being punished. The most famous example was by the then World Champion Garry Kasparov against Judit Polgar in a top-class tournament.

Competitive games of chess must be played with special chess clocks which time a player only when it is their turn to move. After moving, the player presses a button on the clock, which stops the player's clock and starts the opponent's clock. Usually the clocks are mechanical, but some are electronic.Article 6p92 et seq Electronic clocks can be set to various programs, and they can count moves made.chapter 8

The moves of a chess game are written down by using a special chess notation. This is something that players must do for any competitive game.Article 8 & Appendix E Usually, algebraic chess notation is used. In algebraic notation, each square has one name, regardless of whether you are looking from White's side of the board or Black's. Here, moves are written in the format of: initial of piece moved – file where it moved – rank where it moved. For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to the g-file and 5th rank" (that is, to the square g5). If there are two pieces of the same type that can move to the same square, one more letter or number is added to show the file or rank from which the piece moved, e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3". The letter P showing a pawn is not used, so that e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4".

Stages of a game

A game is divided into three stages: the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame.

The first moves of a chess game are called the opening. A chess opening is a name given to a series of opening moves. Recognized patterns of opening moves are openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian defence. They are listed in reference works such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. There are dozens of different openings. They range from gambits in which material, such as pawns are offered for fast development (e.g. the King's Gambit), to slower openings, which lead to a maneuvering type of game (e.g. the Réti opening). In some opening lines, the sequence thought best for both sides has been worked out to 20–30 moves; most players avoid such lines. Expert players study openings throughout their chess career, as opening theory keeps on developing.

Development: to place (develop) the pieces (mostly bishops and knights) on useful squares where they will have the most powerful impact on the game.

Control of the center: the center is the most important part of the board. The player who controls the center can move their pieces around freely. The opponent, on the other hand, will find their pieces cramped, and difficult to move about.

King safety: keeping the king safe from danger. Castling (see section above) can often do this.

Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “Chess” (revision 10870121, 2026-05-26), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.