Welcome! A little bit about chess.

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 Hello and welcome back to Over the Board. I'm Henry Bears and I'm going to show you how to play chess.

spk_0 Whether you're a beginner player or just learning how to play chess better, this podcast is

spk_0 right for you. If you would like to pull up some chess website that has a board with pieces

spk_0 that you can move around freely or pick up a board and some pieces at home if you like

spk_0 that experience better. A chess website I would recommend is leachess.org. It has free

spk_0 features where you can play games with people online that are your skill level and you can

spk_0 analyze your games for free. If you want a computer analysis on your games you can go to

spk_0 leachess.org and input your game into their software and it will show you whether it's a winning,

spk_0 losing equal position. What I really want to talk about in this first podcast would be the mindset

spk_0 that you want to have when playing chess, considering your situation and maybe some basics of chess.

spk_0 For the mindset when playing chess, when you sit down to a board and the pieces are on the board

spk_0 and you're facing someone else, what do you want that experience to be? If you want that experience to be

spk_0 something fun and enjoyable or you want it to be serious and learn from it, your mindset should

spk_0 reflect the experience that you want to have. If you just want to have fun when playing chess,

spk_0 something that you can do is maybe get your friends in a chess and play with your friends or maybe

spk_0 your family and they can just be another board game in your house. But if you really want to

spk_0 consider chess seriously, the mindset when you get on to the board maybe is if I win I need to

spk_0 know why I won and what mistakes my opponent made and if I lose then I need to realize what my

spk_0 opponent did correctly and what I did wrong. So you're always thinking about the positions on the board

spk_0 and thinking about how you could have done better maybe or just thinking about how you can get a

spk_0 better position and win that game so that your rating can go up maybe or maybe that you can defeat

spk_0 a rival or win the tournament wherever you are. So now that we've talked about mindset, let's talk a

spk_0 little about basics of chess. There are really three, I guess, sections of a chess game. There's the opening,

spk_0 the middle game and the end game. The opening is sort of a place where beginners thrive because if you

spk_0 open in a new way that someone else who's also a beginner hasn't seen you can confuse them and you

spk_0 can play quick and easy traps and mates and really if you want to have fun you can study a lot of

spk_0 openings and play against people of your level or below and see how they react to them and that's sort

spk_0 of a fun way to play chess is see what openings take you into games but openings of course aren't the only

spk_0 aspect of games but they are pretty fun to learn new openings and try them out. For the opening you can

spk_0 play something solid like defensive or you can play something quick and aggressive and play something

spk_0 sort of neutral, you know control the middle defend here attack here create options you know or you

spk_0 can play a gambit. A gambit is sacrificing material or if you don't know what material means it's

spk_0 pieces on the board. Sacrificing material so that you can gain a better position or gain some sort

spk_0 of confusion from your opponent if they haven't seen the position before so that they make

spk_0 problem moves. For the opening a common move for light to make in the opening is E4, pawn to E4

spk_0 pawn to E4 is called the King's pawn. E4 is a crucial square because it's in the center and

spk_0 sometimes some games are decided by who controls the most center because if you control the center

spk_0 and then you expand your influence towards your opponent side of the board and you get past

spk_0 pawns and you get your pieces down there near your opponent's king that's been opportunities come

spk_0 up where you can start winning games. So sometimes that's where the opening can play a lot into

spk_0 your success and other parts of the game. If you play a bad opening you might not even make it to

spk_0 the middle game or the end game and you've lost the game and maybe you excel at the middle game

spk_0 and end game and what you're lacking at is openings and you need to study those so that you can get

spk_0 into middle game and end game and realize that now it's easier that you played a strong opening.

spk_0 Now let's talk about the middle game. The middle game is sort of a transition point from the

spk_0 opening to end game. It's where maybe you have a develop position, you've traded off some material

spk_0 and really this is where maybe tactics are the biggest part of the game is in the middle game

spk_0 and it's where you really need to look out for openings in your opponent's defense, their

spk_0 chink and their armor and then the end game is where really a lot of theory comes in. It's the

spk_0 opening in the end game really where the theory is the middle game is just how well can you play,

spk_0 how well can you position your pieces, can you get an advantage over your opponent?

spk_0 If you know the theory of your end games and you know what's going to get you a promotion to a queen

spk_0 or what's going to allow you to gain their pawn in this position so that they can't promote

spk_0 or what allows you to trade off and then get a draw. That really helps you because then you can

spk_0 either win or draw games that you would have lost or win games that you would have drawn

spk_0 because you studied that end game position and you know what to play in your opponent doesn't.

spk_0 So we talked about mindset in a little bit about the basics of chess and now if you really are a

spk_0 beginner beginner to chess as in you haven't ever seen the pieces move or anything like that,

spk_0 take your board or your online board and explore how the pieces move on the online board

spk_0 because if you click on pieces it should tell you where those pieces can move to

spk_0 and you can see how they move but if you have your own board let's talk about piece movement.

spk_0 White always moves first. If you like playing white sometimes you know you really like playing

spk_0 openings and controlling the situation on the board. If you like playing black maybe you like playing

spk_0 defensive openings such as the Sicilian or the King's pawn opening. No matter which side you like

spk_0 to play it's probably best to get a healthy mix of both sides because you can't always play the

spk_0 color you want. A lot of people like to play white though I personally prefer to play black. I

spk_0 especially the dragon Sicilian. For now let's speak about piece movement that's why I was going to talk

spk_0 about. So let's say you're in a starting position and your pawns are all lined up. You have your

spk_0 rooks at the sides and then your knights and then your bishops and your king and queen on

spk_0 the queen is on the square of her color the king is on the opposite color. So your white

spk_0 king would be on a dark square and your white queen would be on a white square. Dark queen would

spk_0 be on dark square. Dark king would be on a white square. In this position there are so many

spk_0 possibilities that can happen. It's trillions upon trillions upon just a lot.

spk_0 So when a pawn hasn't moved first when a pawn hasn't moved it can move either one space or two

spk_0 spaces. When a pawn has already moved it can move one space and no nothing other than that.

spk_0 When capturing a piece the pawn cannot capture forward it can only capture diagonally.

spk_0 So that's why sometimes in the opening things are played such as pawn to e4 and then pawn to e5.

spk_0 The pawn cannot capture the pawn in front of it.

spk_0 So it's an interesting way for both sides to gain some hold on the middle.

spk_0 And as we said before the center is very important in some games and can be a deciding factor.

spk_0 Now let's talk about bishops. Bishops can be a little hard for big image to control because

spk_0 well not necessarily hard just sometimes you don't see opportunities with bishops. Now bishops

spk_0 move in diagonal patterns. So your bishop can move on a diagonal of its color.

spk_0 Now your bishop isn't going to be colored differently than your other bishop because it's on a

spk_0 different color square. I'm just saying if you have your bishop on the light squares it can only

spk_0 move diagonally on those light squares and if you have your other bishop on the dark squares it

spk_0 can only move diagonally on those dark squares. It will never switch over never in a million years unless

spk_0 you move it and then it's that's not how you play the game. You can do that if you're just having fun

spk_0 though double or your bishops on the same color. I don't care do it every one.

spk_0 But bishops move diagonally as I said and they can move as many spaces as they want. So long as you're

spk_0 not going to knock into another piece or go off the board. That's sort of the same for

spk_0 the queen and rock. They can go as many spaces as they wish. So long as they don't knock into other

spk_0 pieces or go off the board. Let's talk about rock and queen movement now. A rock can move in straight

spk_0 lines but not diagonally. So if bishops are like cutting through the board, rock slide across the

spk_0 board. That would explain it as. They're really useful for like if you get two rocks on the same

spk_0 file or two rocks and a queen on the same file then you can have some options with moving those

spk_0 rocks into your opponent's pawn line and making some openings and attacking the king

spk_0 and his little sheltered cubby hall if they've castled.

spk_0 For the queen, the queen best I can explain it as is can really go anywhere as long as it's

spk_0 a straight line. It's like a combination between a rock and a bishop. She can move horizontally

spk_0 vertically and diagonally across the board and of course cannot be stopped. It can go as many

spk_0 spaces as she wants. So long as she doesn't knock into another piece or go off the board.

spk_0 And now let's get to knights which may be the hardest piece to control but personally a knight

spk_0 might actually be my favorite piece after the king and queen of course since they are most important.

spk_0 A knight is interesting because it moves in our best describe it. An l-shaped pattern.

spk_0 A knight can move two spaces and then another space in a different direction.

spk_0 Let's say you want to move your knight out of your little pawn structure that you made

spk_0 and but there's not a straight path to where the knight wants to go.

spk_0 It really does not matter because the knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces.

spk_0 The knight's movement is not limited by any other pieces around it. That's what makes it really

spk_0 special. Along with its l-shaped movement pattern it also makes opportunities for your opponent to

spk_0 maybe miss something where the knight can get in where another piece could not and it also creates

spk_0 cool options to fork your opponent which is pretty fun. If you don't know what a fork is don't worry

spk_0 we'll explain that later on in this podcast where we talk about forks, pins, skewers, traps,

spk_0 mates and other things like that just tactics. When you're moving in knight let's say you move two

spk_0 spaces forward. Now that knight can go either one space left or one space right. The knight can also

spk_0 move two spaces left one space forward two spaces right one space forward two spaces right one space

spk_0 back two spaces left one space back etc etc. So long as your knight doesn't go off the board you're

spk_0 fine just move it in l-shaped pattern that l-shaped is how it moves. Now that we talked about piece

spk_0 movement let's talk about the value of the pieces. Upon is worth one point or a hundred centipons.

spk_0 This is the lowest value piece even though the king doesn't technically have a value

spk_0 because the king I guess you would say is priceless because he is sometimes the deciding factor of

spk_0 the game not just sometimes most of the time and gives the deciding factor of the game through

spk_0 checkmate. And then you have the knight and the bishop. The knight and the bishop are technically

spk_0 both worth three points or three hundred centipons but some people argue that it's a little bit

spk_0 unbalanced that the bishop is a little bit more than the knight as in the bishop is sort of around

spk_0 the three point five and the knight is more of a two point five rate because the bishop has

spk_0 more movement squares that it can go to and forking abilities and that it's a little bit

spk_0 easier to grasp its movement and finally that a bishop can corral a knight meaning if a knight is

spk_0 on the side of the board and a bishop is in a certain position it can trap the knight so that

spk_0 knight has no squares to move to. I personally think that maybe the bishop has a very very slight

spk_0 advantage over knights and that maybe it's a three point one to two point nine sort of thing

spk_0 just because of the fact that the bishop can corral the knight and that'd be useful in the end game

spk_0 but I really do like the forks that the knight provides and leads to some fun moves some fun plays

spk_0 in positions and then we have the rook which is at point value of five or five hundred centipons

spk_0 it's very useful in the end game and for controlling files and ranks and then the queen which is

spk_0 usually considered to be an eight point or nine point rating or eight hundred or nine

spk_0 hundred centipons it really depends on who you ask some people will value the queen differently

spk_0 and then the king some people will value the king at I think it's ten points or a thousand centipons

spk_0 but I don't think it's correct to give the king a value because he's so important in the game

spk_0 and his movement is so much different from all the other pieces because he can move to any square

spk_0 diagonally vertically horizontally but only one space at a time and the check rules and checkmate

spk_0 rules that apply to him are so much different from any other piece I just do not believe that you

spk_0 should actually have a value that his value is that he's priceless if you lose him he lose the game

spk_0 um speaking about check and checkmate check is when the king is in danger it's best how to describe it

spk_0 let's say you have your king and he's out in the open and a knight comes down and your opponent moves

spk_0 your knight and now your king is where your knight would move and your opponent's knight would move

spk_0 your king is two spaces down and one space to the right of the knight let's say

spk_0 and so now he's in check because he's in danger of being captured the next turn you must either

spk_0 capture the threat which would be the knight you must capture it or you must move your king out of

spk_0 check because your king cannot actually truly be captured ever in a game for a checkmate it's where

spk_0 your king is in check he's in danger but he has no squares to move to and you cannot capture the

spk_0 threat mean that the king cannot move in this position the game is over it is checkmate and you

spk_0 have lost so always look out for checkmate um in your attacking position always be looking so you

spk_0 know if you have a mate so that you know if you can end the game and win and always be checking to

spk_0 make sure that um your opponent hasn't made a threat um to checkmate you to end the game in their

spk_0 favor um let's talk about winning draws and losing um winning and losing you can win and lose in

spk_0 really I guess two no three ways um you can lose um because you were checkmate it

spk_0 your king is in danger any has no squares to move to and you can't capture the threat

spk_0 or um blanking um uh yes um losing on time or winning on time is called um flagging if you flag

spk_0 someone that means that you played your moves faster than they did and you use your time more

spk_0 effectively and so they ran out of time and therefore you won the game and the third way to win

spk_0 or lose is forfeiting if someone believes that their position is losing such as their queen was

spk_0 trapped and they lost it or they're down a lot of material or your king is in a dire position

spk_0 and it looks like they're about to get a mate there is reigning which is um you basically give up the

spk_0 game you say you won you beat me it's over now let's talk about drawing now drawing is in

spk_0 and oh not instantaneous it can be instantaneous but drawing is interesting

spk_0 drawing is interesting because when you get into a draw there are multiple ways you see there's

spk_0 repetition which would be if you reach the same position in the game three times let's say there's

spk_0 an end game and you feel like you're going to lose but you have a queen and their king is

spk_0 undefended and you check them and the king moves to a square and you check them again and the king

spk_0 moves back and you check them and they move to the square and you check them and the king moves back

spk_0 and issue um achieve you know the same position and on the board three times it turns into a draw

spk_0 that's called repetition um sometimes you'll do that if you feel you're in a losing position

spk_0 and you want to get a draw so that you don't lose but tie um there's that um

spk_0 that's not always how it happens but that's usually how it happens now there's stalemate

spk_0 stalemate is where the king is not in danger there is no check but the king can't move to any

spk_0 squares and you have no other pieces that can move that doesn't mean that you don't have any of

spk_0 the pieces it just means that if you do have pieces the pieces you have cannot move and so you

spk_0 cannot make any moves and it's a draw a tie because the king was not in danger but could not move

spk_0 and none of the other pieces could move um now that we talked about stalemate and repetition

spk_0 there is the draw by timeout and material and the draw of insufficient material

spk_0 if you run out of time but your opponent has insufficient material to create a checkmate

spk_0 against your king then it is a tie a draw because you ran out of time but they had insufficient

spk_0 material to checkmate you that's just how it is um for the insufficient material draw

spk_0 let's say that you have a king and a king and a bishop and a pawn and a knight so white has a

spk_0 king a bishop and a pawn and black has a bishop and a knight and white messes up and black gets

spk_0 in a position where he takes the bishop white takes the knight with the pawn and then black's

spk_0 king takes the pawn so it's just a king and a king on the board now it's a draw slash tie

spk_0 because of insufficient material neither players can checkmate the other king and so it's a draw

spk_0 because there can be no conclusion met for the game except for a tie just no one can really win

spk_0 it would just lead to repetition you moving the king is around the board until a position was reached

spk_0 for three times oh but there's also another one the 50 move rule if you let's say you got the

spk_0 opponent's king all alone on the board and you have a king and a rook or a king and a queen

spk_0 you keep checking them and moving them to the side of the board but somehow you didn't

spk_0 study up your end games and they keep slipping out of it and then you've done that for 50 moves

spk_0 it comes to a draw because you didn't checkmate them in 50 moves when the king is alone on the board

spk_0 so how we talked about winning them dry let's talk about how we get into a winning position

spk_0 or a drawing position or a losing position if you play a solid opening but then you play a bad

spk_0 middle game and you're not doing too well in the end game if you are playing against a good

spk_0 opponent who knows their end games you might resign or you might try to play for a drawing position

spk_0 and then lose um about how you get into that position what's considered losing or winning

spk_0 winning of course um would be when you have a chance to get a mate and checkmate or when you have

spk_0 a chance to gain a large amount of material which brings us to all sorts of things as pins and skewers

spk_0 attackers and defenders hanging pieces and all that sort of good stuff um

spk_0 but right now let's talk about um what's considered winning or losing um if you are down a queen

spk_0 um like a queen for nothing else like you didn't trade the queen off for anything you didn't get

spk_0 anything in return for the queen you just dropped your queen into your opponent's hands you just said

spk_0 here you go i'm gonna put my queen on this square and you can take it if you do that that position

spk_0 is considered losing but if you give them a pawn like you didn't think about it and you made a move

spk_0 and then they took your pawn that's pretty fine there's um saying um up a pawn easily drawn

spk_0 so even though your opponent is up a pawn or maybe even two um you can still maybe draw the game

spk_0 what if it gets into an endgame where it's just your king and maybe a pawn versus their king

spk_0 and two or three pawns it can get a little hard to maintain a drawing position especially if you

spk_0 make any mistakes um then your opponent's gonna jump right on that and they're gonna promote

spk_0 when they're pawns to a queen or maybe a rook or some other piece and then check me in

spk_0 um so try to keep your queen safe and your king safe um try not to get into a losing position

spk_0 um and talking about promotion promotion is when one of your pawns

spk_0 reaches your opponent's side of the board as in if you were black and you played out the game

spk_0 and you got to the endgame and it's just your king and their king and a couple of pawns scattered

spk_0 around and your pawn gets to the end of their board your black and so you started on you know

spk_0 your pawn started on the seventh um rank and ends on white's first rank if you get that pawn

spk_0 to that first rank then it can be promoted to any other piece usually a queen is what's

spk_0 like or maybe a knight in a difficult situation like let's say you need to get a check off or

spk_0 you can get a certain made off by promoting under promoting to a knight getting the check and

spk_0 the check man on the king because he's in a weird position that's fine um now talk about promotion

spk_0 now that we've gone over a lot of the basics of chess let's talk about some more things you can do

spk_0 to improve chess right now um just move the pieces around figure out more stuff on the board

spk_0 figure out how to play um maybe play a few practice games with some people you know or some people

spk_0 that know how to play chess or maybe start playing chess online and have the computer place you

spk_0 up against people of your skill level once it figures out how good you are um and just make sure

spk_0 that you're not you know pushing yourself you shouldn't ever like be stressed when you're playing

spk_0 chess that will just decrease your performance you shouldn't really need to feel too worried about it

spk_0 um if you're just learning how to play chess um you shouldn't worry too much about your rating

spk_0 um you should worry about your rating later on when you're um playing more games with high rated people

spk_0 when you're actually getting into chess if that's what you want to do but some things that you can do

spk_0 is you can play games and then get into the positions on the board that um

spk_0 um you were a critical positions for you whether it was the positions where you won or lost that game

spk_0 while that was the reason why you won or lost or just a position where you missed something

spk_0 where you missed the tactic where you missed like oh the dropped upon here I could have taken that

spk_0 or oh I could have done this sequence and then been on material um so just review your games um you

spk_0 can analyze your games online with most um chess websites so sometimes it's free sometimes it's not

spk_0 just make sure that you um know what you're getting into if you're getting a subscription at

spk_0 chess website and then you never play chess uh don't do that if you want to play chess um

spk_0 um sometimes you have to invest your time um other than that reviewing positions in games um

spk_0 really just develop your mindset you know and develop you know just keep processing in your head

spk_0 ingrain in your head that you know what to do with the pieces maybe you learn an opening or two

spk_0 there's plenty of stuff on on chess online I will go over openings but I can't teach everything

spk_0 and so if I mention a certain opening but then I don't go into specifics and maybe you think

spk_0 it sounds cool or you're like oh no I want to try that opening then you can just go online

spk_0 maybe figure out how to play from someone who goes more in depth about it online um

spk_0 um and then more features on chess websites are over the board over the board um really is a unique

spk_0 experience because you actually get the face your opponent and maybe even speak with them um

spk_0 if maybe they're your friend or something like that and it's really fun like chess

spk_0 especially when you get into interesting positions um and then but online also provides

spk_0 some interesting things most um chess websites will include features for different things such as

spk_0 like bug house or crazy house 360 um oh chess 960 I mean not 360 chess 960 um four player chess

spk_0 all these other sort of things where um it changes up chess and can make it more interesting and

spk_0 more fun and also something that can really help you which has um chess is a lot about patterns

spk_0 if you can recognize those patterns then you can improve your chess game and one thing that can

spk_0 really help you with that is puzzles um puzzles are little usually one two four or five move um

spk_0 little positions where you can play them and recognize those patterns and realize

spk_0 um oh once again to this position this is how it went once again to this position

spk_0 this is how I game material and this common position this is the pattern I need to follow

spk_0 so that I can have an advantage over my opponent so I really encourage you if you're just starting out

spk_0 to play some practice games maybe play some games over the board play some games online

spk_0 play some puzzles set up something for yourself that helps you to study and just have fun when playing

spk_0 chess and um yeah do that practice and have fun and just make it what chess is for yourself

spk_0 make chess what you want it to be and with that we'll probably wrap up for the day um

spk_0 in the next podcast we'll be talking about openings and how better to move the pieces

spk_0 and developing pieces how to gain a better position from the opening gambits and how to use them

spk_0 correctly and um when not to use them and then we can move on to middle game tactics and then end

spk_0 game tactics and theory and then after that just continue to work on different aspects of the game

spk_0 and that's will be the end this is Emory Barra signing off go and play some chess

Welcome! A little bit about chess.

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