--- name: "chess_basics" description: "Teach chess to a complete beginner: rules, piece movement, special moves, the four core tactics, and a first opening. Use when someone asks how to play chess, wants a beginner lesson, or needs help with basic rules, tactics, or their first openings." --- # Chess Basics ## Purpose Give a complete beginner everything they need to sit down and play a real game of chess: how the pieces move, the three special moves, how games actually end, the four tactics that win beginner games, and a small set of first openings that teach the opening principles instead of requiring memorization. ## Workflow 1. **Ask where they are.** Brand new (never touched a board), know-the-moves (rusty), or knows-rules-wants-tactics. Start at the right level; never lecture someone on piece movement when they asked about openings. 2. **Teach in this order: moves, special moves, check/checkmate, tactics, openings.** Each layer only makes sense on top of the previous one. 3. **The moves.** Board is 64 squares, 8x8, light square on the right-hand corner nearest each player ("white on right"). Each side starts with 16 pieces: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 8 pawns. Back rank order from the corner: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. The queen starts on her own color. Pawns fill the second rank. | Piece | Move | Notes | |---|---|---| | King | One square, any direction | Cannot move into check | | Queen | Any number of squares, any direction | Most powerful piece | | Rook | Any number of squares horizontally or vertically | Plus castling (below) | | Bishop | Any number of squares diagonally | Each bishop stays on its own color all game | | Knight | L-shape: two squares one way, one square perpendicular | Jumps over pieces; the only piece that can | | Pawn | One square forward; on its first move it may go two squares | Captures one square diagonally forward; never moves or captures backward | Point values for trading decisions: pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9, king is priceless (losing him ends the game, so he has no exchange value). 4. **The special moves.** - **Castling.** King moves two squares toward a rook, then the rook jumps to the square the king crossed, all as one move. Two flavors: kingside (O-O, king to g-file) and queenside (O-O-O, king to c-file). Four conditions: neither the king nor that rook has ever moved; no pieces between them; the king is not in check now; the king does not pass through or land on a square the opponent attacks. (The rook may pass through attacked squares, that is fine.) Point: safety for the king, activity for the rook, in one move. Castle early. - **En passant.** If an enemy pawn advances two squares from its starting square and lands beside your pawn (your pawn on its 5th rank, adjacent file), you may capture it on your very next move exactly as if it had moved only one square: your pawn slides diagonally to the square it skipped. The right expires immediately if you do anything else first. - **Promotion.** A pawn that reaches the far rank must be exchanged, as part of the same move, for a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. Not limited to captured pieces; the new piece acts immediately. Promote to a queen unless there is a concrete reason not to. 5. **How games end.** **Check** means the king is attacked and must be dealt with this move. **Checkmate** is check from which no legal move escapes: the king is under attack and cannot move away, cannot be blocked or defended, and the attacker cannot be captured. That ends the game. Two more common endings: **stalemate** (player to move has no legal move but is not in check: a draw) and **resignation** (losing badly and conceding is normal and not shameful). 6. **The four tactics.** Most beginner games are decided by these, not by grand strategy. See `references/tactics_drills.md` for worked positions. - **Fork:** one piece attacks two enemy pieces at once. Knights are the classic forkers. If one of the two is the king, the other is usually free. - **Pin:** attack a piece that cannot move away without exposing something more valuable behind it. Absolute pin: the king is behind it, so the piece legally cannot move. Relative pin: the queen or a rook is behind it, so moving it costs material. - **Skewer:** a pin in reverse. Attack a high-value piece lined up with a lesser piece behind it; when the big piece flees, the small one falls. Best with bishops, rooks, queens along open lines. - **Discovered attack:** move one piece out of the way to uncover an attack from a piece behind it. If the revealed attack is check, it is a **discovered check**, and the opponent must answer the check while the moved piece does damage elsewhere. 7. **First openings.** Do not teach memorized lines; teach the principles, then give three openings that obey them. The principles: fight for the center (the e4, d4, e5, d5 squares), develop knights and bishops toward the center, develop knights before bishops is fine but both come out before the queen, do not move the same piece twice in the opening, do not bring the queen out early, castle early, connect the rooks. - **Italian Game (as White):** 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4. Two pieces developed, center claimed, the bishop eyes the weak f7 square, castling is one move away. Plan: castle, play d3 and c3, then push d4 to build the center. Simple, open, tactics-rich: the best teaching opening. - **London System (as White):** 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4, then Nf3, e3, c3, Nbd2, Bd3, castle. Nearly the same setup against almost anything Black does, so there is almost nothing to memorize. Solid and calm; great first tournament opening. - **Ruy Lopez (as White, slightly deeper):** 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5. The bishop pressures the knight that defends the e5 pawn. Teaches long-term positional thinking. - **As Black (keep it simple):** against 1.e4 play 1...e5 and mirror the principles; against 1.d4 play 1...d5. That is enough for the first hundred games. - One pattern every beginner should know: the f7 square. At the start of the game it is defended only by the Black king, so it is the weakest square on Black's side (f2 is White's mirror). Castling early gets your king off that diagonal and adds a rook to its defense. See drill 7. 8. **Give them a practice plan.** 15 minutes a day: 10 minutes of tactic puzzles (any free site), 5 minutes replaying one of the worked positions from `references/tactics_drills.md`. Play slow games first (10 minutes or more per side); bullet teaches panic, not chess. ## Output Contract A beginner lesson must leave the learner able to: set up the board correctly; move every piece legally including castling, en passant, and promotion; state the four conditions for castling; explain check vs checkmate vs stalemate; name the four core tactics with a one-sentence definition each; and play the first 3-4 moves of at least one recommended opening while stating the principle behind each move. If the learner only asked a narrow question (for example, "what is en passant"), answer that directly and briefly, and offer to continue rather than dumping the full curriculum. ## Operating Rules 1. No invented facts: every rule stated must match the FIDE Laws of Chess. When unsure about a rule edge case, say so instead of guessing. 2. Never speak about the human behind the question on any public surface. Chess is the topic; nothing personal enters. 3. Keep explanations concrete. Show a move or a position, not a paragraph of theory. One diagram beats ten adjectives. 4. Correct gently. A beginner who castles through check or forgets en passant needs the rule restated, not a lecture. 5. Do not recommend memorizing opening lines to beginners. Principles first, lines later, and only when the learner asks. 6. When giving move sequences, use standard algebraic notation (e4, Nf3, O-O) and define it the first time it appears.