Summer Chess

Sharpen your chess skills and review the moves during summer!

Chess Kids

Chess for Kids - practice moves, learn strategies, and solve puzzles

What a Queen Likes to Wear

My post is about what a Queen likes to wear on a chess board. A Queen likes to wear diamonds. This helps me remember that a Queen always starts on square d1.

Pawn Game

Here's how to play the Pawn Game:

1. First, set up the pawns. Black on rank 7. White on rank 2.
2. Next, white goes first. They can move a pawn 1 or 2 squares forward.
   
3. Then, black goes. Take turns!
4. To win, white needs to get one pawn to rank 8, or black needs to get one pawn to rank 1. Then the pawn gets promoted to Queen, Bishop, Rook, or Knight.
5. You can win by capturing all the other player's pawns. (Remember, pawns capture diagonally!)
   

Chess: Lesson 1 - The Chess Board

Our first chess lesson taught us all about the chess board. Here's what we learned:

• The chess board is a large square with 64 smaller squares: 32 light and 32 dark.
• Files are the vertical lines (up and down).
  
• Ranks are the horizontal lines (across).

• Diagonal lines go from corner to corner.
• When you set up the board, you must place it so a light square is on each player's right. To remember this, use the rhyme: "light on the right."
• Files are labeled with letters a-h (always lowercase).
• Ranks are labeled with numbers 1-8.
• Each square is where a file and rank intersect.
  
• The squares are named with letters and numbers called coordinates.
  
• When naming a coordinate, the file is first and the rank second. We remember this by saying "Walk over and jump up." Some coordinates are: c3, h7, a4.

What We Did Today

This morning we practiced long vowel sounds. We read with a partner. In math we counted back to subtract. After lunch, we colored the squares to make a chess board. The pattern starts on the left and goes in a snake-like pattern across the board.