Chess

Chess is a two-player game. The goal is to capture the opponent’s king. Capturing their other pieces along the way often makes capturing the king easier; similarly, keeping one’s own pieces safe aids in capturing the king. The game ends when one player’s king cannot escape capture or when one player resigns. Chess may also end in a draw.

The game uses 16 pieces per player for a total of 38 pieces on a chessboard, which is an eight-by-eight checkered grid. Each player starts with eight pawns, which can move only move forward (by two spaces on their first move, and by one after their first move) unless they are capturing another piece, in which case they may move diagonally; two knights, which can move two spaces forward or backward and one space left or right in an L-shape; two bishops, which can move diagonally; two rooks, which can move in a straight line; one queen, which can move forward, backward, diagonally, or straight; and one king, which can move one tile at a time in any direction.

I played with a friend. I did not have fun; there was a lot of planning and strategy involved and it mostly stressed me out until I remembered that it was a game. I did enjoy it in some spirit of competitiveness, and it is a well-made game. It just wasn’t to my taste.

A variant of chess could be that for every piece that a player loses, they have to take a shot of alcohol. This way, both players would be fighting hard to win so as to not be completely drunk by the end of the game (this version should be played only if both players are above the age of 21 and can hold their liquor).

Leave a reply

Skip to toolbar