What are all the chess pieces called? Chess - deciphering the names and meanings of the figures

Chess is an intellectual sport that develops logic, the ability to think quickly and make decisions. This game has been played by kings and aristocrats for a very long time. This article will be devoted to the topic of chess, its pieces and moves on the chess battlefield.

Chess board

The chessboard consists of 64 squares. In this case, the first two rows are filled with your pieces, and the last two rows are filled with enemy pieces. The goal of chess is to checkmate your opponent. Checkmate is a situation where the movement of the enemy king is blocked by your pieces. Before you can understand how different pieces move in chess, you need to learn their names. There are only 6 pieces in chess. Let's look at each one separately.

Pawn

The pawn is considered the least significant piece in chess. Despite this, in certain situations it decides much more than all other pieces. It all depends on the arrangement of the pieces on the chessboard. Each player has only 8 pawns. They are located in the second row, on the side of each opponent, in front of the other figures.

• The pawn moves one or two squares forward. Moreover, you can move a pawn two squares forward at once only if this is your first move with this particular pawn. Further movement is possible only one field.
• You can't go back.
• You can kill an enemy piece with a pawn using one square diagonally.

Any piece from which you killed an enemy figure moves to the place where the last one stood.

Horse

This is the piece with which many chess fans begin their first move in a game. Each player has two knights. The horse moves according to the “L-shaped principle” in any direction. For example, two fields forward and one to the left or right. In exactly this way, a knight can move in any direction and jump over other pieces. Accordingly, the killing of an enemy piece occurs where the knight goes.

Elephant

The bishop moves diagonally. Moreover, his moves are limited by the color of the field on which he stands. Since each opponent has two bishops (one stands on a white square, the second on a black one), it is possible to move diagonally both black and white. If the path is clear and there is no enemy piece on the way, you can make a move through as many fields as needed. Thus, if the arrangement of the pieces during the game allows, you can move the bishop from one part of the board to another, strictly diagonally.

Rook

• Again, each player has two rooks.
• The rook moves in straight lines, both horizontally and vertically.
• As with the bishop, if the situation allows, you can move from one side of the board to the other.
• Unlike a knight, a rook cannot jump over pieces.

Queen

The queen is considered the most powerful piece in chess. Very often the loss of a queen leads to defeat.

• Each player has one queen.
• The direction of moves of this piece combines the directions of moves of the rook and bishop, which gives it a huge advantage compared to other pieces.
• The queen is informally called the queen. So it is, the queen is the queen of the chess field.

King

The whole essence of the game comes down to this figure. The goal of each player is to block the movement of the enemy king and protect his own. It was to balance the game that the early creators of chess decided to limit the movement of the king. He can only walk one field, in any direction.

Additional chess features

Chess is also interesting because it has an incredibly huge range of actions and combinations that you can use to get closer to victory. Below is a list of these additional actions:

Castling

The essence of castling is to change the position of the rook and king. There are two types of castling - long and short. Long castling is possible if there are three free squares between the rook and the king. To make a long castling, you need to move the rook three squares in the direction of the king, and the king two squares in the direction where the rook recently stood. Short castling is almost the same. The rook moves two squares in the direction of the king, and the king moves two squares in the direction where the rook recently stood.

Possibility to exchange a pawn for any piece

The rules of chess include: useful thing, like replacing a pawn with any other lost piece. This happens when your pawn reaches the very last row of the enemy, i.e. to the opposite end of the board. Once you reach this point, you can replace that pawn with a knight, bishop, rook or queen (if, of course, you lost them during the game). If there is a choice between these pieces, the queen is generally chosen. And this is understandable.

Chess is a very educational game. It helps maintain intellectual fitness. This sport is especially useful for a child. If you didn’t manage to play chess normally, don’t despair. Kasparov didn't always play like this.

Many scientists suggest that playing chess causes positive movements in the brain, promotes the release of the hormone of joy and balance psychological condition. We can conclude that chess has no negative sides. As in other sports, it is simply impossible to get a fracture. Think maybe in free time Should I keep him busy with chess? Moreover, finding an enemy is not a problem - the Internet provides such an opportunity.

There are 6 types of pieces involved in a chess game - king, queen, rook, knight, bishop, pawn. At the beginning of the game, each player has 16 pieces at his disposal: a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. There are a total of 32 pieces on the board.
The starting position of the pieces looks like this:

Pawn

The pawn, the only piece that can only move forward, cannot move back. The nominal value of a pawn is 1 point.

In the initial position (white - on the 2nd rank, black - on the 7th), the player can move the pawn one or two squares forward. After the first move, the pawn can only be moved forward one square per move. A pawn can capture enemy pieces one square forward diagonally to the right and left. A pawn captures pieces according to one rule, but moves differently. This is what distinguishes her from other figures.

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The pawn is connected to two interesting rules in chess. The essence of the first rule is as follows. The pawn reaches the last rank (8th for white and 1st for black) and is promoted to any piece except the king. This transformation is one move, and the next move goes to the opponent.

The second rule is taking on the pass. During its move, a pawn can capture an opponent's pawn if it crosses a broken square.

In Fig. 3 the white pawn moved two squares forward. A black pawn can capture a white one and end up on the captured square, and not on the square where the white pawn is, as happens during normal captures. It is possible to capture on the pass only during the next move; after a move, this right is lost.

Horse

The horse moves along an unusual trajectory, reminiscent of the letter “G” - it moves 2 squares forward and one square to the side. Of all the pieces, only the knight can jump over its own and other people’s pieces. The knight can attack any enemy piece while being out of reach of them. When struck, the knight takes the place of the knocked down piece. The nominal value of a horse is 3 points. Located in the center of the board, it has 8 available moves, while the corner square has only two.

IN real life“to make a knight’s move” means to perform some unusual or cunning move.

Elephant

The elephant is a strong, long-range figure. A bishop has a face value of 3 points and is roughly equal in strength to a knight. This comparison is somewhat arbitrary, since in an open position the bishop can be stronger than the knight, and in a closed position the knight is often stronger than the bishop. The knight and bishop are considered “minor pieces” in chess.

The bishop moves and strikes in all directions diagonally to any number of squares, as shown in the figure. An elephant that moves on white squares is called light-squared, and on black squares it is called dark-squared.

Rook

The rook, like the queen, is considered a heavy piece. Its nominal value is 5 points. The rook moves and attacks vertically and horizontally to any number of squares.

A specific move in a chess game is castling. Castling is correctly performed as follows: the king is moved 2 squares to the rook and the rook is moved behind the king. Castling can be done subject to the following conditions:

• the king and the rook with which castling occurs have not made moves in the game before;
• there are no other pieces on the horizontal between the king and the rook;
• the king is not under attack by the enemy piece;
• the field through which the king moves and the field on which he stands are not under the blows of the enemy pieces.

Long castling is performed towards the queenside, short castling - towards the kingside.

You cannot move the rook first. There is a rule in chess: if you take it, move. If you first move the rook to the king, the opponent has the right to demand that the move be considered completed, and castling will not take place. Castling is the only move in chess where two pieces make the same move.

Queen

The queen is the strongest piece in chess, with a nominal value of 10 points. The queen moves in all directions vertically, horizontally and diagonally to any number of squares on the board. The queen is an important piece. He is strong and mobile, effective in attack and defense. The queen must be protected from attacks from enemy pieces. Losing the queen or exchanging it for a piece of lesser value leaves little chance of winning.

Equally, a queen can be exchanged for a queen, two rooks or three minor enemy pieces. There are times when an experienced chess player specifically gives up the queen to achieve a certain goal in the game. This is called "sacrifice". Beginning amateurs need to remember that the queen must be preserved and used as the strongest piece.

King

The king is the most important piece in chess and has no face value. The game is lost when the king dies - he gets checkmate. The king cannot be kept under attack by enemy pieces. He needs constant protection. Like the queen, the king moves and strikes vertically, horizontally and diagonally, but only one square in any direction. Located in the middle of the board, the king holds 8 squares under attack.

At the end of the game, when there are an order of magnitude fewer pieces on the board, the strength of the king becomes approximately equal to the strength of the minor piece.

Check is a position where the king is under attack from an enemy piece. The king cannot be left in check. You need to move to another square, defend with your own piece, or simply capture the enemy piece that declared check.

In Fig. 10 the white king can escape check, the bishop can cover the king, the queen can capture the black rook.

The game ends when the king is checkmated. This means that the king is under attack (check) and has nowhere to go - the free squares are under attack from the enemy pieces.

A curious situation in the game is a stalemate. The king is not in check, but he has nowhere to move - all free squares are under attack from enemy pieces. Other pieces also have no moves.

In this case, the game ends in a draw.

According to the accepted scoring system, there is 1 point for a win, 0.5 points for a draw, and 0 for a loss.

Some figures have double names. Before the revolution, the bishop was called an officer, the rook was called a tour, and the queen was called a queen. These names are not common among chess players; sometimes they are used by amateurs.

Many people spend their free time playing chess. People of all ages play this game enthusiastically. If you know the rules of the game and draw up a certain strategy of moves, the pleasure of winning will not take long to arrive. However, first you need to familiarize yourself with the rules and find out the names of the pieces in chess.

History of chess

The game of chess was invented by the Indians in the 6th century BC. e. In the distant past, chess was called differently. Chaturanga - this meant “Four detachments of troops”.

The game was very similar to modern chess, but there were certain differences. The board on which the game itself took place also consisted of 8x8 cells, but they were only one color. The board was divided into two colors much later, already in Europe. There are as many pieces in chess in our time as there were at that time.

But the main difference between ancient chess was the number of participants in the game. Four people took part in the game at once. Moreover, each individual displayed his “army” separately in a certain corner on the game board. Instead of the king there was a Raja, the pawns were infantry, the cavalry, accordingly, consisted of horses, and the army also included war elephants and a chariot made of a rook. The figures had four colors: red, yellow, green and black. Players took turns throwing a die, which determined which piece would make the move. If a one was rolled, the move was a pawn, a two was a knight, the number three meant a rook move, four meant a bishop, five and six meant a king move. The queen, also known as the queen, was absent from chess. The game ended when all the enemy pieces were eliminated.

Evolution of the game

Over time, chess began to be imported from sunny India to other countries. Thus, the Chinese called chess “Xiangqi”, the Japanese - “Shogi”, and the people of Thailand - “Makruk”. It was only in Persia that the current name for chess originated. The Arabs called their ruler the Shah, which is why they called the chess king that.

Rules and names changed, chess evolved. The dice were abandoned, and the number of players was reduced to two people. The color of the figures became traditionally black and white. The name of the pieces in chess remains unchanged. Some of them have changed their name. So, Raja became Shah. Since there were two kings, it was decided to weaken one of them and make a queen. The Persians also introduced the final result of the game - checkmate to the king. In the Persian language, the word chess means “the Shah is dead.”

The game traveled a long way until it reached Rus'. Chess did not come to us from Europe. It is believed that Tajiks brought chess to Russia in the 9th century BC. That is why the names of chess pieces are translated literally from Arabic and Persian. And already in the 11th century, the rules of the game of chess reached Rus'.

Chess set

To play chess you will need one that is divided into 64 squares of two colors: black and white.

Horizontal and vertical fields have their own designations. Horizontally these are numbers from one to eight, and vertically these are letters from A to H, thus, each field has coordinates. How many pieces are there in chess? Each player on the field must have two rooks, a pair of knights, two bishops, eight pawns, a queen and a king. There are 32 pieces in chess, which the opponents divide in half. Next - in more detail about the chess pieces.

King

In Arabic, the king sounds like “al-shah” and translated from Persian language means king, but in other languages ​​the meaning of the figure is the most dominant.

This is a very weighty and significant figure, the king, despite its importance, can only move one square, but in any direction. This piece is vulnerable without the protection of the other pieces. Actually, the whole essence of the game is to protect the king from direct moves of other chess pieces. A threat to an exposed king in chess is called a "check". In Russia, the figure is designated "Kr", and in the international system - "K".

The queen in chess is the second strong piece after the king

In Arabic, the word "al-firzan" means "scholar". But there are other assumptions, among which the word means “sage”, “commander”, etc. In the 15th century, the queen appeared in Europe with new capabilities; now the piece could move to different distances along all diagonals and lines on the chessboard. The queen is designated by the letter "F". "Q" is the queen in the international system. In many countries the queen is called the queen.

Rook and bishop, they are also tour and officer

In the distant past, the rook served as a chariot and was depicted as harnessed horses. Such a chariot was called "rukh". In Arabic, al-rokh means "tower". Hence the appearance of the figure. It moves across the field only horizontally or vertically, and is located on the outermost boards. This figure is designated in Russia by the capital letter “L”, and in Europe by the letter “R”.

The names of the pieces in chess do not always correspond to their appearance. So, for example, the chess piece elephant used to really have a form, but over time it began to be depicted in the guise of a person. Designations: here it is “C”, abroad “B”. The bishop moves only along the diagonal of its color; the player will have one bishop on the white diagonal, and the second on the black diagonal.

Knight in chess

This figure really looks like a horse. "Al-faras" in Arabic means horseman. This figure once had a rider, but over time it was removed. A knight's move can only be made in the form of the Russian letter "G", i.e. two squares straight and one to the side. The horse is written with the Russian "K" and the English "N". This is the only piece that can move in a non-straight path and jump over its own and opponent’s pieces.

Foot soldiers

The pawn is the only piece that is not recorded in any way and has such a significant number on the playing field. "Al-beyzak" translated from Arabic- infantryman. A pawn can only move forward one square.

The chess pieces, photos of which are included in this article, will help you become more familiar with the exciting world of chess.

Good afternoon, dear friend!

Rumor has it that the elephant is the favorite piece of current world champion Magnus Carlsen. He himself never spoke about this, but the all-seeing eye of chess analysts does not sleep. I think this fact alone is enough to figure it outhow does an elephant move in chessand what are his characteristics and habits.

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Elephant Highlights

The elephant belongs to the category of “light” figures. The relative value of a bishop is equivalent to three pawns or a knight. Let me emphasize - relative. Chess is a situational game and the value of pieces may change somewhat in different positions.

The elephant has a number of interesting features:

• Range
• Likes to act “together” with his colleague - the elephant
• Can masterfully camouflage himself
• Can checkmate at the very beginning of the game

Now in more detail:

How can an elephant walk and how can it not?

Scheme The movement of the elephant is simple - it only moves diagonally. According to free space.

Jump over shapes an elephant can't. He can beat someone else's piece, but his own pieces block his field of activity.

In this position, the bishop has only two moves - to the square e5 and to take the black rook on f6.

Trucker

In terms of its range, the bishop is not inferior to heavy pieces - the queen and rooks. He “shoots” the entire chessboard in all directions. Moreover, it does this diagonally and beginning chess players often do not notice the threats posed by the bishop.

Bishop versus knight. Who will win?

The eternal debate between chess lovers - who is stronger, a bishop or a knight - has been going on for centuries. And unambiguous answer impossible to give.

It is believed that in open positions the elephant is stronger. This is understandable; by definition, an elephant penetrates more squares than a knight.

As you can see, the knight only hits 8 squares, while the bishop located in the center of the board (see diagram above) hits as many as 13!

In closed positions, the knight is usually stronger. The reason is banal: an elephant canlimit your own figures. In the most “severe” cases, the bishop completely loses its fighting qualities and looks more like a pawn.

For example:

Now let's replace the bishop with a knight:

You see everything for yourself. The racing qualities of a horse in such a position are much more valuable than the negated range of the bishop.

Two bishop advantage

You and I already know that the elephant moves across fields of the same color. Fields of a different color remain “uncovered”. But... we have two elephants, not one. I do not rule out that this is one of the wise ideas of the creator of chess. I think you've already guessed where I'm going with this: together, elephants cover the entire “color gamut.”

If the position is open and the bishop's actions are not limited to other pieces, they usually represent formidable force. As a rule, two bishops in open positions are stronger than two knights, or a knight + bishop, and sometimes they can compete with the tandem rook + knight or rook + bishop. Chess players call it this: the advantage of two bishops.

Master of Disguise

Experienced chess players sometimes ambush the bishop. In chess language this is called "fianchetto" or fianchetto of the bishop.

The elephant seemed to be hiding, disguised behind his own horse. But him finest hour will come. Example:

Black won the c4 pawn with the move 1…d5:c4 and on 2.a2-a4 they try to reinforce it with the move 2….b7-b5.

However... you have already noticed the white elephant lurking in ambush. Next comes 3.a4:b5 c6:b5? 4. Nf3-g1!!

In order for the elephant to “shoot”, he does not need to walk yet. The knight makes a move!

The knight opens up operational space for the bishop and it turns out that the black rook has turned into an easy target for our master of disguise - the fiacketed bishop g2. Rook has nowhere to go. Black can cover the diagonal with a knight, bishop and even a queen. But this changes little - they suffer heavy material losses.

The seemingly clumsy move 4. Nf3-g1!! - the most accurate. White wins a clean rook! 4.Nf3-e5 is also possible, but Black plays 4...Qd8-d6 or Cf8-d6, attacking the knight. In all variations, White wins the rook for the knight. You can analyze the options yourself to see for yourself.

By the way, such positions - traps - are quite typical in the games of not very experienced chess players. I recommend keeping your ears open so that your pieces do not fall victim to an unexpected elephant attack from an ambush .

By the way, in the example considered, Black could have “come to his senses” in time and on move 2. 3.a4:b5 not play 3...c6:b5?, but choose another move, for example, 3...Qd8-c7. Thus, he escaped with a relatively mild fright.

Your humble servant is by no means calling for fiancheting the bishops in every game. However, having this technique in your arsenal is more than reasonable.

Checkmate with bishop

And of course, a feast of chess – checkmate. In terms of its ability to checkmate already at the beginning of the game, the bishop can sometimes successfully compete with the queen. Example:

1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.c2-c3 kb8-c6 3. Cf1-c4 g7-g6 4.Qd1-b3

Black plays 4…Nc6-a5??.

Seeing a fork and not placing it? They'll laugh!

Alas. You need to be more careful.

5.Bc4:f7 X. Checkmate. If you don't know yet, the X in chess notation means checkmate.

Finally: And again a few words about the correct terms. Some beginning chess players call the bishop an officer. Where this came from is not known for certain (however, as well as the correct name - elephant).

However, please keep in mind: if your opponent or partner in the analysis of games calls the bishop an officer, I bet you that he is not a strong chess player.

The officer, of course, sounds proud, but this is a completely different story.

Thank you for your interest in the article.

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Good luck at the chessboard!

True, in Lately Scientists either dug up somewhere or came up with another version of the appearance of the chess bishop on Russian chessboards. It turns out that an elephant is such a large animal that wanders through the forests like an elephant. These are the kind of scientists, sometimes you can’t understand them.

A fabulous chess story about chess bishops, officers and jesters

Where are elephants found? Which ones are lazier?

Elephants are found in Africa and India. True, now they can be found in any country, but only in the Zoo or Circus. And to the question which elephants are lazier, the answer is very simple. African Elephants are terribly lazy and harmful. It is absolutely impossible to make them work. They walk around Africa and eat leaves from baobab trees. That's why Africa has such huge deserts.
Indian elephants, on the contrary, are hard workers. And they never refuse to do a little work. Once, when a film was being filmed in Africa, Indian Elephants were invited to filming, since the African ones refused to work. We stood and watched as the Indian elephants played for the African ones. So everyone can bask in the sun. This often happens on the chessboard. While some chess bishops are working, others are sunbathing and eating bananas!
The ancient Hindus used elephants as helpers at home if they needed to carry a heavy load, as a means of transportation if a Hindu wanted to go on a visit, and as a fighting friend. Elephants cannot step on humans as they are very careful animals. But if you hurt them—whip them with a whip—then the elephant will run wherever the rider directs it.

Over the centuries, chess elephants' trunks, ears and tails have fallen off. They played a lot, and the poor things often fell to the floor. When falling, tusks and other parts broke off, and losses were not always restored in place. Tusks often disappear even now in real elephants. Rich people love it when various decorations and chess pieces are made from Ivory.
Therefore, chess elephants stopped grazing on the chessboard, and instead they appeared...
Remember the SHAH army. The army was very strong. The infantry was supported by fast cavalry, led by brave horsemen, and a powerful elephant horse. War elephants, although smart animals, still need to be controlled and fed. Therefore, an experienced rider, usually an officer, sat on each elephant. During the battle, the elephants could meet each other, collide and strong blow the rider could fly off the elephant. The same could happen during long marches. The monotonous rocking lulled the rider, and he could slide off the elephant's head and fall to the ground. Therefore, the caring Queen ordered that high, pointed helmets be put on the Officers’ heads so that they would not get bumps when they fell. The officer fell from the elephant head down, buried his helmet in the sand and stood there, kicking his legs, until the infantry approached, pulled him out of the ground and threw him back onto the elephant.
So often the poor soldiers had to throw Officers onto Elephants that over time all the officers acquired the nickname “ELEPHANT”. “This ELEPHANT has fallen asleep again,” said the infantry. This means that the hard-working soldiers will have to work again. Therefore, it is not difficult to guess why over the course of 2000 years the chess piece’s trunk, ears, tusks and tail fell off, but a sharp long helmet appeared. But the name ELEPHANT remained, although, admittedly, not in all countries.

It is the name of the chess bishop that “speaks” that the game of chess was born in the East. In Russia, this word - the name of the piece - took root because our translators accurately translated the name of the chess pieces.
In Arabic, FIL means elephant. But the Italians and French did not want to “recognize” the Arab and Persian Philas as a powerful animal, much less release it onto the chessboard. Either they didn’t hear, or they deliberately changed just one letter and instead of Phil it turned out to be Ful, that is, instead of Elephant - Jester! Without jesters, the courts of the French kings would have been rather boring; he amused everyone, saying things that others were even afraid to think about.
Over time, everyone got used to the fact that there were always jesters around the Royal Majesties. By the way, most often the smartest nobles were jesters, and at court this was a very high position.
Jesters have left their mark on history and literature. The jester under King Lear was glorified by Shakespeare. Only the jester truly loved his king. They warned Lear not to give everything to his cruel daughters. The king did not listen to his jester...
No less famous is the jester of the Great Peter I - Stepan Vytashi, by the way, an excellent chess player. He often beat the Tsar himself at chess. Another position was held by the jester Stepan. One jester's salary was not enough to feed his family, and he worked part-time as an executioner.
The jester Balakirev left his mark on history. How many jokes and funny stories associated with this jester have survived to this day. Oh, and many noble Figures of the Russian Kingdom got it from him! Jesters were persons especially close to the Monarchs. They carried out important assignments, they could simply give advice in a humorous manner to the king, or even rudely criticize the actions of Their Majesties. Many courtiers took advantage of this, but first they had to bow to the jester and enlist his support.
The jester did not walk straight along the carpet paths of the royal palace; he took greater pleasure in crossing the halls diagonally, the same way a chess bishop walks diagonally.

Vsevolod Viktorovich Kostrov

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