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If
you are an advanced player and you've waddled all the way
through this article looking for some advanced tips, we have some
bad news for you: you won't find it here. This is an article
for beginning chess players, and frankly, we're disturbed
that it took you this long to figure it out. But for those who
have learned the basics and are ready to add a little fire to
the arsenal, here are some special moves to learn.
En
passant
Zees
ees French for "in passing." Ooh, la la, Pepe Le Pew,
Jaques Cousteau. OK, enough of that. En passant is a special way
for you to capture Moe's pawn. This is exactly how it always
works:
- You
have a pawn in the two spaces away from Moe's original
pawn line-up (in other words, your pawn is in row 5).
- Moe
moves a pawn TWO spaces so that it is in the square right next
to your pawn.
- When
Moe moved his pawn, it passed through a square in which if it
had only moved one space, you could've captured it. So
we pretend that he did only move that pawn one space, and you
take his pawn, moving one square diagonally forward, just as
if it had been a normal capture. See below for an example:
Take
note of how your pawn is in the 5th row. Now if Moe moves his
pawn from d7 to d5, it has to pass through d6, where you might
have had the opportunity to capture it. So if you want, you can
capture that pawn, even if he moves it to d5. Look below:
And
thanks to en passant, you captured his pawn, and you moved your
piece as if Moe had only moved his pawn one space. Cool, huh?
But
there is a limit to this rule: if you're going to take Moe's
pawn after he moved it out two spaces using en passant, you have
to take it on your next immediate turn. You can't move other
pieces, and then later just take his pawn away when it's
directly next to yours. Of course, if Moe only moved his pawn
out one space, you can attack diagonally and capture it whenever
you like (unless he captures yours first).
Castling
Castling
is a very useful way to protect your king and confuse your opponent,
and it is also the only time you are ever allowed to move two
pieces at once. It works like this: when your king and a rook
(it can be either one) both haven't been moved out of their
home boxes for the entire game, you move your king two spaces
towards the rook, and then move the rook to the opposite
side of the king. Got that? No? Well guess what
we've
got another example. Let's say that it's your move and
your pieces are set up as below. You're nervous that your
king is so vulnerable and you want to protect it.
So
by castling, you are allowed to move your king two spaces right
(toward your rook) and move the rook around to the king to the
space next to it, as below:
Get
it? The king moves two spaces towards the rook, and the rook goes
right next to the king, but on the opposite side that it started
on. And voilá! You can also castle this way, from here
At
the risk of sounding repetitive, you moved your king two spaces
left, and moved the rook around to the box right next to it on
the opposite side of where it started. By the way, the proper
way of castling is to move the king first, and then the rook.
Well,
we are exhausted. Yes, chess has a lot of rules, but once you
get by them, you're pretty much living easy. So good luck, and
again, practice practice practice! P.S.- If you end up sucking
at chess, just try learning to speak French. Then you can sound
snotty and superior anyway.
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