Chess Endgame: A Beginner's Guide to Chess Endgame

Introduction

Chess Did You Know? Initially, the Queen could only move one square at a time, diagonally. Later, she could move two squares at a time, diagonally. It wasn’t until Reconquista Spain, with its powerful queen, Isabella, that the Queen became the strongest piece on the board.

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The game of chess is one that is so ubiquitous that it spans almost the entire world. It’s believed that it was first invented in India in the 6th Century AD. Since then, it’s found its way to virtually every nation one way or another.

Although some uninitiated people might consider chess to be a slightly boring or long-drawn-out game, it has proven to be, in actuality, a hugely popular and beloved contest of strategy for millions of people. The game of chess requires the players to understand the game as it occurs in the moment, but also to consider all possible moves that can happen later on during the game. In other words, to master the game of chess, the player must see what is right in front of them, while seeing the whole picture at the same time. They must see what is happening in the present and all possible futures of that particular game. The player must have the patience and stamina to endure the possibility of quite a lengthy game while staying alert at all times. All of this is in addition to simply keeping in their mind the different possible strategies of simultaneously protecting their pieces and attacking those of their opponents.

This is to say that any player of chess, amateur, professional, or anywhere in between, must have a wide variety of skills and knowledge in order to sit down and play the game.

Within this book, you will find everything you need to know to get you started playing chess or improve your existing game. While we’ll specifically focus on the strategies of how to defeat your chess challenger, we’ll also look at a variety of basic information about the game itself. To begin, the first chapter of this book will tackle the fundamentals of chess. This will include the general goal of chess, what the pieces are, how to set up the game, and, of course, how to play the game. What this first chapter will lack, however, are the details of how to win the game of chess. These details will be the subject of the second chapter. The second chapter will include what it means for the individual to win or lose the game, the specific language of winning and losing, in addition to some rules - basic and advanced - about how to win the game of chess. The third chapter will focus on the strategies employed by both beginner chess players and advanced master chess players. We’ll look at what gives them the edge and how they become champions of the game. The fourth chapter of this book will highlight different endgame scenarios. That means the different types of situations that you might find yourself in as you get closer to either losing or winning. Moreover, this chapter will tell you how to employ the moves in the strategies learned in the previous chapters to either get out of a losing endgame scenario or to push through and conquer in a winning game scenario. The fifth and final chapter of this book will be focused on practice. Chess is a game that many have devoted their entire lives to perfecting, and yet they wouldn’t claim to have mastered it. This can be likened to other art forms and skill sets. As with athletes and artists, developing a high level of skill at chess takes practice. Therefore, it is with this fifth and final chapter where we will explore certain practice drills for how to improve your chess game and improve your standing among other players.

In the space between the chapters, we have included some interesting little-known facts about the game. You will not only learn more about how to improve your personal skills, but you’ll also learn more about the history and game of chess in general!

Ultimately, upon completion of this book, you will have familiarized yourself with chess as a game and also as a fascinating and strategic art form.

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Chess Did You Know? The longest chess game that is theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.

Chapter One: The Basics of Chess

Chess Did You Know? During World War Two, some of the top chess