Typically, this lesson is the first one in an introductory series. It contains the most content at once that we will ever attempt to teach to a chess learner. It covers the basics of how to set up the board, how the pieces move and how to think about the value of the pieces as the game is played.
Setting up the board and piece movement
There are two rules for setting up a chess board without square indexes (no marked numbers or letters for rows/columns)
- White is right. Which means the white square goes on the lower right corner of the board.
- Queen takes her color. Which means that the queen is always on the same color square as the rest of her army. The queens will also always “line up” against one another (as opposed to always be looking at the other king across the board.)
There is also a distinction between setting up the pieces on an “unmarked” board like you’d encounter at home and the “teaching” mats/boards that we use in the classroom.
- The white pieces are on the first and second ranks, always.
- Without this distinction, it is possible for the white pieces to play on the 7th and 8th rank. But when taking notation you’ll find that your game will be recorded “upside down” in this way.
Resources
- https://www.houseofstaunton.com/hos-setting-up-the-chess-board
How do the pieces move?
There are a LOT of tutorials the cover the basics of how to move the pieces, so I’m not going to repeat the information here. But, if your chess learner is struggling to remember how the game is played, these will help as a refresher.
- https://www.chessable.com/blog/how-the-chess-pieces-move/
- https://www.chess.com/terms/chess-pieces#howthechesspiecesmove
Piece value
It is generally well understood that the value of each of the chess pieces on the board are as follows:
| King | * (No value assigned) |
| Queen | 9 |
| Rook | 5 |
| Bishop | 3 |
| Knight | 3 |
| Pawn | 1 |