Can i play chess

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Join a tournament! Game time:. Watch top games. Follow top players Bullet Blitz Classical 1 balelovale 4 2 cviksa 13 3 fingon 7 4 victoriano 12 5 MarcPierre 6 jolugusa 12 7 WasteOfTime17 8 LarsB 9 masterandcomander 10 chesspapa Keep me logged in.

Lost your password? We'll send you a link to reset it! Like Nigel Short the chess commentator, Nigel Short the chess writer is educational and entertaining. Giri had just won the Tolstoy Cup, a nine-round, all-play-all rapid chess event with a time control of 15 minutes plus a second increment per move.

Games won by Leo Tolstoy in and by Anish Giri in are explored. International Master Igor Khmelnitsky participated in three U. Chess Championships. An actuary by profession, Khmelnitsky is also a chess player, coach, and author. Bobby Fischer. Sacrificing a queen is rare in chess games. Since the queen is the most valuable piece, giving her up for lesser chessmen or for an attack is difficult to contemplate.

Within the last two months, two top-level chess players have sacrificed their queens. With a surprising sacrifice, white won in two moves. The confrontation between the Argentinian chess master, Roberto Grau and the Belgian chess master Edgar Colle ended in a victory for white after a 3 moves including an unexpected sacrifice.

This is the end game between Alexander Flamberg and Oldrich Duras from their meeting at Opatija in Duras, with the black pieces, obtains a victory against Flamberg just in two. Can you figure out his strategy? Try to solve this online chess puzzle. It is a difficult one. White to move and wins after an unusual 8th movement.

Do you want to receive notifications about new SparkChess articles, puzzles, and updates? If so, choose 'Allow' when prompted. Yes, sure! Maybe later. Tap to Play. SparkChess is a game of chess that everyone can enjoy! Old password: New password: Retype: Save. Unblock Return. Select range 1 month 6 months 1 year All time. The king is the most important piece, but is one of the weakest.

The king can only move one square in any direction - up, down, to the sides, and diagonally. The king may never move himself into check where he could be captured.

When the king is attacked by another piece this is called "check". The queen is the most powerful piece. She can move in any one straight direction - forward, backward, sideways, or diagonally - as far as possible as long as she does not move through any of her own pieces.

And, like with all pieces, if the queen captures an opponent's piece her move is over. Notice how the white queen captures the black queen and then the black king is forced to move. The rooks are particularly powerful pieces when they are protecting each other and working together! The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on one color light or dark and must always stay on that color. Pawns are unusual because they move and capture in different ways: they move forward but capture diagonally.

Pawns can only move forward one square at a time, except for their very first move where they can move forward two squares. Pawns can only capture one square diagonally in front of them.

They can never move or capture backward. If there is another piece directly in front of a pawn he cannot move past or capture that piece. There are a few special rules in chess that may not seem logical at first. They were created to make the game more fun and interesting. Pawns have another special ability and that is that if a pawn reaches the other side of the board it can become any other chess piece called promotion excluding a king or pawn, for that matter.

A pawn may be promoted to a knight, bishop, rook, or queen. A common misconception is that pawns may only be exchanged for a piece that has been captured. That is NOT true. A pawn is usually promoted to a queen. Only pawns may be promoted. If a pawn moves out two squares on its first move, and by doing so lands to the side of an opponent's pawn effectively jumping past the other pawn's ability to capture it , that other pawn has the option of capturing the first pawn as it passes by.

This special move must be done immediately after the first pawn has moved past, otherwise the option to capture it is no longer available. Click through the example below to better understand this odd, but important rule.

One other special chess rule is called castling. This move allows you to do two important things all in one move: get your king to safety hopefully , and get your rook out of the corner and into the game. On a player's turn he may move his king two squares over to one side and then move the rook from that side's corner to right next to the king on the opposite side.

See the example below. However, in order to castle, the following conditions must be met:. Notice that when you castle one direction the king is closer to the side of the board. That is called castling " kingside ". Castling to the other side, through where the queen sat, is called castling " queenside ". Regardless of which side, the king always moves only two squares when castling. The player with the white pieces always moves first.

Therefore, players generally decide who will get to be white by chance or luck such as flipping a coin or having one player guess the color of the hidden pawn in the other player's hand. White then makes a move, followed by black, then white again, then black, and so on until the end of the game.

Being able to move first is a tiny advantage that gives the white player an opportunity to attack right away. There are several ways to end a game of chess: by checkmate, with a draw, by resignation, by forfeit on time The purpose of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king.

This happens when the king is put into check and cannot get out of check. If a king cannot escape checkmate then the game is over. Customarily the king is not captured or removed from the board, the game is simply declared over.

Checkmate can happen in the early stages of the game if one of the players does not act carefully. Below, you will find an example of the Fools mate , a checkmate that happens in just 2 moves. Occasionally chess games do not end with a winner, but with a draw. There are 5 reasons why a chess game may end in a draw:. With the move Qc7, black is not threatened and can't move. The game is declared a draw by stalemate. Get your king to the corner of the board where he is usually safer. Don't put off castling.

You should usually castle as quickly as possible. Remember, it doesn't matter how close you are to checkmating your opponent if your own king is checkmated first! Don't carelessly lose your pieces! Each piece is valuable and you can't win a game without pieces to checkmate.