Chess originated in India over 1000 years ago and is now played all over the world. It is regarded as one of the best strategy games for two players.
Each Player has 16 pieces which move and capture in different ways and have differing levels of importance.
Pawns ————–x 8
Knights ————-x 2
Bishops ————-x 2
Castles(Rooks) ——–x 2
Queen ————–x 1
King —————x 1
The board is placed between the players so that each has a white corner square on his right.
Note that the Queen always stands on a square of her own colour, so that the pieces are all opposite their opposing equivalent.
The object of the game is to trap your opponent’s King in a position in which he cannot escape without being taken. This is called “Checkmate”.
White always starts. Players change sides after each game. Each player takes it in turn to move one piece in each go. He may move whichever of his pieces he requires, planning his strategy, capturing as many of his opponent’s pieces as he can, always working to- wards the ultimate goal of “Checkmate”.
To capture an opposing piece, a player moves his attacking piece to the square occupied by the victim and removes the latter from the board. Any piece may take (capture) any op- posing men that it can, despite rank i.e. a Pawn may capture a Pawn or a Queen.
The only piece that can never be captured is the King. When a player moves a piece into a position from which he directly threatens the King and in theory could take him in the next turn, he must announce: “Check”.
The King must then be moved immediately out of “Check”. This can be done by moving the King away, putting another piece between the King and the threat, or by actually capturing the threatening piece. Whatever is done, a player may not move any pieces while the King is in check unless the move gets the King out of Check as a result.
Each piece moves in a different way, which, makes some men more valuable than others:
CASTLE (or ROOK)
This piece can only move in a straight horizontal or perpendicular line. It may travel as far as it wants in this straight line in any one turn, as long as the spaces it traverses are not occupied.
KNIGHT
This piece has only one set movement. It is an L shaped jump – two squares forward (or back) and one to the side (left or right). Or it may be one to the side and then two forward or back. The Knight may move off in any direction and is the only piece that can jump over other men to land on a space beyond.
BISHOP
The Bishops move on the diagonal, but otherwise, like the Castle, they may go whatever distance they wish.
PAWN
These eight pieces may only travel forward, but “take” on the diagonal like a Bishop. In the first move of a particular Pawn, the piece may be moved one or two spaces forward, There- after, it may only move one square forward each turn. If a Pawn succeeds in reaching the other side of the board, it may be exchanged for any piece, which, its owner chooses from his pieces already captured. If the Queen has been captured, it is best to exchange the Pawn for her and get back into play for reasons, which, will become obvious.
QUEEN
She can move diagonally, horizontally or perpendicularly as far as she likes. She is by far the most powerful piece.
KING
He, like the Queen, can move in any direction on the diagonal, horizontal or perpendicular, but he may only move one square in each turn.
Now you know how each piece moves and the aim of the game, you are ready to play.
It must be stressed, however, that these instructions are very basic and are designed only to get you started and to help you understand and enjoy chess.
Once you have understood these basics there are several more complicated moves to be introduced and then there are set plans and strategies to be mastered.
Countless books have been written on chess and many people in each community play the game well and will be pleased to teach you more. You will not have trouble advancing your knowledge and appreciation of the game. This set will get you started and will provide you with hours of challenging fun.
Checkers or Draughts
Draughts is also often known as Checkers. During the following instructions we will be referring to this exciting game as Draughts.
The Object of the Game:
To win the game by capturing all of your opponent’s pieces (draughts) or, to confine your opponent’s pieces so that a move cannot be made.
To Begin:
Each player has 12 pieces of the same colour. The board is positioned so that a black square is at the bottom left of each player. The draughts are placed on the black squares in the three rows nearest each player. The player with the black draughts moves first.
Moving:
The draughts are confined to the black squares and must always move in a diagonal direction. At the beginning of the game, draughts only move one square at a time either to the right or left, but always forward. When a draught reaches the final row (the king row) it is crowned with another piece of the same colour (opponent takes one of the captured pieces and places it on the top of the disk that has reached the king row) and becomes a king. A king can move both forward and backward in a diagonal direction.
Jumping and Capturing:
A player may jump and capture an opponent’s draught if it is occupying a square to which a player might be moved only if there is a vacant square beyond it. The player must jump over the opponent’s draught onto the unoccupied square and remove the opponent’s draught that was jumped. If a player does not make a jump when available, the opponent may capture the piece that should have made the jump.
Single, double, triple, quadruple jumps are possible at one time. A player wins when he captures all of his opponent’s pieces or when the other player cannot make another move.
Backgammon
EQUIPMENT: Board with 24 points (triangles), 30 stones (playing pieces – 15 each of two contrasting colours), two pairs of dice (one for each player) and one doubling cube.
OBJECTIVE: To move all fifteen stones into the inner table and then begin to bear off (removing stones from the inner table and off the board). The first player to bear off all fifteen stones wins.
TO BEGIN PLAY: Set up board as shown in diagram. Each player rolls one of the dice and the higher number goes first.
TO MOVE: Each player moves by rolling the dice and then moving the total number shown. This is done either by moving the two stones (one for each number shown) or by moving one stone the total of the two numbers shown. A stone may be moved to any open point, any point already occupied by his own stones, or to a point occupied by only one of the opponent’s stones (see HITTING). A player may jump points occupied by opposing pieces. However in the case that a player desires to move a single stone the total number shown, the player may do so only if a stone would not land on and opponent-occupied point (see CLOSED POINT) when moved under either single number shown, the direction of movement for white stones is from B1 to B12, then W12 to W1. The movement of black stones is in the opposite direction – W1 to W12, then B12 to B1.
A player must use both numbers if possible. If not, the higher number must be used. If this is not possible, or neither number can be used, the turn passes to the opponent.
CLOSED POINT: A point occupied by two or more opposing stones is a closed point. Your stone cannot be moved to a closed point.
HITTING: Hitting your backgammon opponent occurs when you move your stone to a point that has only one opponent backgammon stone on it. This means that your opponent’s stone is hit, and is taken out to the bar. Your opponent must re-enter his stone into the board, in order to continue with his game.
