The Chess Game was invented thousands of years ago and right throughout its history it has become known as the king of board games. Such people as Napoleon, Charlie Chaplin, Einstein and Nikola Tesla where renowned for their chess skills.

Not only can the game of chess provide you with hours of pleasure it is great for exercising the intellect and the game is known to be able to improve someone's analytical thinking their creativity and judgment.

Although during the past Chess was mainly played by those of a high standing such as courtiers etc., today you will find that the game attracts people of all ages and all works of life from around the world. Not only do many people find chess intriguing, but it also gives them a chance to pit their wits and skills against another.

All that anyone requires to be able to play chess is a chessboard and chess pieces, you can even play online if you want (all you need then is a computer). A normal chessboard is 8"x 8" with alternating black and white squares.

There are a total of 32 chess pieces, 16 white and 16 black. One player will play with the white pieces (WHITE player) and their opponent gets the black (BLACK player). The 16 pieces are made up of the King, Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights and 8 Pawns.

At the start of any game the pieces are placed in their initial places as follows:

1. The player places each of his pieces along two rows of the board (ranks) closest to him.
2. The 8 pawns are placed in the front rank with the rest of the pieces placed behind them closest to the player.
3. Starting from the outside of the board and working into the middle the pieces closest to the player should be placed in the following order Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King, Bishop, Knight, Rook. The order they are placed in for the WHITE player is from left to right on the board and for the BLACK player from right to left. Thus you end up with the opponents same piece in each column (file) facing each other on the board.

To help describe the chess positions an "algebraic chess notation" was invented and is easy to learn as it helps the players to identify squares and pieces that are on the board during a game. Below we describe how it works.

When viewing from the WHITE player's point of view the left most file (column) is known as "A" and the next one "B" and so on until we reach the right most file (column) known as "H". The rank (row) which is closest to the WHITE player is then called "Rank 1" or the "First Rank" and then comes "Rank 2 (Second Rank)" and so on until we reach the 8th Rank which is the rank (row) closest to the BLACK player's pieces.

Chess play can be complicated as each piece moves in a different manner. The object is to take the oponnents king, but this piece itself is fairly liminted in movement and can only move to an adjacent square. The Queen is the most versatile piece and can move any number of squares in any direction. The bishop can move any number of squares on the diagonal. The knight is the most interesting and moves in an "L" shape - up 2 squares and over 1 (or up 1 and over 2) in any direction. The rook can move any number of squares forward, backward, left or right. The pawn can advance only 1 square unless it is his first move then he can move two sqaures forward provided no other pieces are in the way.

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Lee Dobbins writes for http://chess-moves.info where you can learn more about the art of playing chess.