Video-Fix: The Language of Chess

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Played by millions of people around the world, a two-player strategy board game played on a checkered 64-square board goes by the very popular name of chess. Both players start with 16 pieces, the most powerful one being the queen and the least powerful the pawn. The game’s objective is to checkmate the other player’s king (= threaten the king while leaving the opponent no way to avoid it).

Considered to be a sport, chess is a challenging and interesting game that helps you develop critical thinking as well as thinking at least a few (if not 5) steps ahead. The fact that there are quite a few actions that you can undertake to reach your goal of winning the game make it even more fun. We describe some of them below.

  • Gambit: a player sacrifices one or more of his pawns for early development of his pieces.
  • Fianchetto: moving a bishop along the longest diagonals on the chessboard.
  • Sacrifice: in order to achieve a bigger objective, you can sacrifice a piece. For example, if you are aiming for a checkmate, you can sacrifice your queen to perform it.
  • Promotion: when a pawn reaches the 8th rank, it is promoted and you choose which of the pieces it becomes.
  • Checkmate: a position in chess in which a player’s King is threatened with capture, and there is no way to avoid it.
  • Smothered mate: happens when a checkmate occurs while the mated king is surrounded by his own pieces.

If you are just starting with chess, this week’s Video-Fix will help you with its basics.

 

Sources 

YouTube. 2017. Know these common Chess terms. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LUem3jcRNk&feature=youtu.be. [Accessed 14 July 2020].

Wikipedia. 2020. Chess. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess. [Accessed 14 July 2020].

Wikipedia. 2020. Checkmate. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkmate. [Accessed 14 July 2020].


Written by Lara Karlović, a digital marketing enthusiast with experience in social media management, SEO content writing and optimization and content marketing.