Lets play chess. Chess is a game played between two players, played on a chessboard. The board has 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the beginning of the game, each player controls sixteen pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns.

The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, and there is no way to remove or defend it from attack on the next move.

Chess is played on a square board with eight rows called ranks and eight columns called files. The colors of the squares alternate and are called light squares and dark squares. The chessboard is placed with a light square at the right hand corner of the board nearest to each player, and the pieces are set with each queen on its own color.

White always moves first. Each chess piece has its own way of moving. Lets play chess. Learn how to play here.

Article On Learning to Play Chess Quickly

First Steps in Judging and Planning

# Throughout the game there are hundreds of moves to be evaluated and ideas to be planned out. A chess player cannot play a good game up to the end without thinking about every move. Here are a few things that every teach should teach each beginning chess scholar: Always look at your opponent's moves and predict his intentions. Although your opponent could be your friend in life, on the chess board he is your worst enemy and cannot be trusted.

# Always play with a plan. Don't play individual moves all around the board. Remember, you are the general of your army- get your soldiers organized and working together in the fight for victory.

# Before continuing with your plan, defend against any possible traps set up by your enemy.

# Before moving your piece somewhere, picture it there in your mind. Can it be captured by the enemy? Was it defending a soldier before that would not be defending if it moved?

# In the event of any exchanges ask yourself- is it a fair trade? Always consider the value of the pieces and their importance in your position. How many defenders are there and how many attackers?

# Do Not Hurry! Think first before you cross the street. Sit on your hands if you have to before moving. Once you've touched a piece, you must move it. Lets play chess. Brought to you by Chess Dominion

SHOULD I TAKE MY NEW CHESS SKILLS TO A CHESS TOURNAMENT?

After you have learned to play chess, you may want to try your skill at playing other players. Of course you may have chess playing friends who will be more than willing to play you a game of chess, but if you want to really step up and feel as though you have took a giant leap in learning the game, try your hand at Tournament Chess.

Tournament Chess is very exciting, You will meet all different types of people at the tournament. Don't worry if youre not that good at the game yet. There will be others there who may be in the same situation as you. Some people just can't wait to test out their newly learned skill against others who love the game just as much as they do.

So how do you find a Chess Tournament to participate in? If you subscribe to the U.S. Chess Federation's (USCF) Chess Life magazine, you can browse the back of the magazine and see a whole listing by state of where to go and play at tournaments. You can also go online and search for the USCF and locate the listing of where tournaments are played in your state.

After you have located a tournament to play in, it's time to decide what you will need to take to your first tournament. Make sure you have these, even though others there may have them, you should really bring your own. You'll be more comfortable knowing that you are well prepared. Get a standard tournament board, pieces, and clock. You will also need a notepad for recording your games. Be sure to learn chess notation. This is very important for recording your games and will also help when you need to study great chess books by the masters. All of these materials can be found at Chess Central by clicking on the Chess Central link at the bottom of any page here at Chess Sets and More.

As soon as you have obtained your board, pieces, clock and scorepad, you are ready to get to that tournament and participate. We here at Chess Sets and More wish you the best of luck in pursuing your chess career. Good luck and let us know how you're doing. You can go to the homepage here and become a member of this site.