Sixth Grade
Worksheets
How to Play Chess
You could spend years and years learning the game of chess. You could read thick books on the subject, memorize strategies, and study famous matches move by move. Some people do just that, and they keep improving their chess game throughout their whole lifetime. The game of chess, however, can also be fun for beginners, and it's not very difficult to learn.
To begin, you need a chess board and thirty-two chess pieces, sixteen for each player. The chess board is the same as a checkerboard, except that it is often black and white instead of black and red. The chess pieces are also black and white - one side uses white and the other side uses black.
Each player gets eight of the small pieces called pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen, and one king. The rook looks like a castle tower. The knight looks like a horse's head. The bishops, queen, and king each wear a particular type of headdress. The bishop's is similar to the real headdress sometimes worn by bishops in church. The queen's is a traditional crown, and the king's is topped by a cross.
To set up the board, each player fills his two back rows. In the back row, the rooks are placed on each end of the row. Next to the rooks are the knights. Next to the knights are the bishops. The king and queen occupy the two center squares of the back row. The queen is always placed on her own color, white queen on a white square or black queen on a black square. The pawns fill up all eight squares of the second row.
