Chess Rules

• A simple chess game in Python to test different types of AI. Downloads: 0 This Week Last.
• Download this game from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub). See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Chess for Windows.

Download this game from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub). See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Chess for Windows.

Chess is one of the oldest known board games still played to this day. The rules of chess have varied greatly since its invention, but by now have been fairly standardized and commonly known. The rules presented here are the basic rules of the game of chess, but a detailed overview of how the game is played can be found at Wikipedia or the official ruleset of the International chess federation.

Queen's Gambit

Since the chess TV show the Queen's Gambit has recently been very popular we've temporarily changed our hardest opponent, Ann, and renamed her to Beth (as in Beth Harmon, the protagonist from the Queen's Gambit). We'll put Ann back in a few days 🙂.

Setup

The game of chess is played on an 8x8 checkered board, where the rows are marked from 1-8 and referred to as 'ranks' and the columns marked from 'A' to 'H', referred to as 'files'. The square marked as 'A1' should be black. The player controlling the white pieces places his pieces on ranks 1 and 2, and the player playing the black pieces places his pieces on ranks 7 and 8. The pawns are placed on ranks 2 and 7. The other pieces are placed on ranks 1 and 8 as followed, starting from the 'A' file: A rook, a knight, a bishop, a queen, a king, a bishop, a knight, and a rook. The player who has white goes first, and players alternate moves after that.

The Aim of the game

The game can end under the following circumstances:

• If your opponent's king is under threat of capture, but your opponent has no legal move to prevent that capture, you have won. This is referred to as 'Checkmate'
• when either player concedes the game.
• when a player takes too long in making their move. On this site we give each player 60 seconds to make each move, and a total of 15 minutes for all their moves before the game is forfeit.
• If a players king is not under threat of capture but that player has no legal moves anyway, the game is a draw.
• The game is also a draw if any of the following situations come up:
  • Neither player has enough pieces to be able to checkmate
  • The same board position is repeated three times
  • 50 consecutive turns have passed in which neither player has moved a pawn nor captured a piece
  • The players agree to a draw

Making a move

The six pieces move as follows:

• The Bishop can move any number of squares along the diagonal.
• The Rook can move any number of squares along the same rank or file.
• The Queen can move any number of squares along the same rank, file, or diagonal.
• The Knight moves to the closest square that is neither on the same rank, file, or diagonal. Essentially the knight moves in an 'L' shape, two squares along a rank or file and then a single square perpendicular.The knight is the only piece that can 'jump over' other pieces.
• The Pawn moves one square along the file, always towards the opponent's side of the board. The first time a pawn moves it is allowed to move two spaces along the file instead of one granted it has the space. A pawn can only capture a piece imminently along the diagonals in the direction of travel, not along the file it is currently travelling.
• The King can only move a single square in any direction, with the exception of castling (see below). The King can never place himself in a check.

Placing a king in check

When a player makes a move in which any of his pieces threatens to capture the opponents king the next turn the king is said to be in check. A player in check must make a move that results in the check being relieved; be that by moving the king out of the way, capturing the threatning piece, or placing a piece in between the king and threatning piece. A player that has no legal move out of the check has lost the game (referred to a Checkmate). A player can be placed in check by multiple pieces at once, and must get out of all checks at once. A player can not remain in check. A player may never make a move that results in his own king being in check.

Special moves

• En passant refers to a special move open to the pawns. When a pawn is moved two spaces from his starting position and is placed next to an enemy pawn, the enemy pawn can capture the pawn as it had only been moved a single square. For example, assume a white pawn is placed at B5. the black C7 pawn is moved to C5. The White player can move the B5 pawn to C6, and capture the C7 pawn. The player can only utilize en passant on the move directly following the opponent moving the pawn in question. The right expires as soon as his opponent makes the next move
• Castling refers to a special move open to the King and Rooks. If neither the King nor Rook has been moved during the game, the rank separating them is clear of pieces, and during the castling process no space the king will move over or end on is under attack by an opponent piece, the player can move his king two spaces towards the rook, and the rook on the opposite side of the king. For example, assume that the white king on E1 and the white rook on A1 have direct line of sight and have not moved. The white player can, in a single move, move the king two spaces left (to C1) and the rook three spaces right (to D1). The player could also castle kingside, moving the king to G1 and the H1 rook to F1.
• Promotion is a special move granted to the pawns. If a pawn manages to reach the far end of the board (white pawns to the 8-rank, black pawns to the 1-rank) they are automatically promoted. The player must state a piece (Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen). The promoted pawn is then transformed to the declared piece. A player might thus have a maximum of 9 Queens on the board, the one he started with and one for each of the 8 pawns that he potentially can promote. By the nature of the game pawns can not promote to a king, nor remain pawns.

Chessmaster version 10 is the 10th instalment of the chess playing game from Ubisoft.

Any game that makes it to a tenth version and beyond is sure to be a popular one – developers seldom spend time and money upgrading games that are not popular with their customers! Chessmaster is the most popular computerised chess game in history.

Free Chess Game For Windows 8.1

The rules of chess are well-known and the rules of the physical game apply in cyber-space too. A brief summary is as follows: the king is the most important piece and one of the weakest, able to move only one space at a time, albeit in any direction, the queen can also move in all directions but she can cover as many squares as there are in that direction. Bishops move diagonally, as far as possible, while castles (also known as rooks) move only in straight lines. Knights move in an L-shaped configuration and pawns can only move forwards, except when they take another piece which is done on a diagonal. Pawns can only move one space at a time except for their very first move which can be two spaces. Other moves like castling and more complicated gambits and plays have also been translated into the game’s programming for an authentic chess playing experience.

Players can choose from various ‘personalities’ against which to play, ranging from very skilled grand-masters to personalities that amount to little more than unskilled beginners, especially programming that makes random moves. These various personalities enable players to match their own skill sets to those of the computer player, giving them a challenging game with a good chance of winning. Players can manipulate the personalities, weighting them towards stronger pawn attacks, greater or lesser mobility and a host of other features in order to strengthen their own game and work on known weaknesses.

While chess fiends are not particularly fussy about what the chess pieces look like – the moves and winning the game being all important – no player can fail to be charmed by the solid-looking virtual pieces provided by the game. The controls are easy to use and players will quickly learn to move the pieces as effortlessly as in the physical game. As a special feature, players of the 10th edition can even play using the wizard’s chess set, featuring the chess pieces made famous in J K Rowling’s Harry Potter book series.

Free Chess Games For Windows 10

Pros

Free Chess Game For Windows

• A fantastic chess game, offering an authentic playing experience
• Multiple skill levels, enabling the players to choose an evenly-matched opponent to test his or her skills against, or even to try themselves against a better player to improve their game

Cons

Best Free Chess Games For Windows 10

• As long as you are interested in chess this is a great game – but it is only about chess!