Chess Club

No.1

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

CHESS – THE GAME OF KINGS

It can raise your IQ

Chess has always had an image problem, being seen as a game for brainiacs and people with already

high IQs. So there has been a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: do smart people gravitate towards

chess, or does playing chess make them smart? At least one study has shown that moving those

knights and rooks around can in fact raise a person’s intelligence quotient. A study of 4,000

Venezuelan students produced significant rises in the IQ scores of both boys and girls after 4 months

of chess instruction.

It helps prevent Alzheimer’s

Because the brain works like a muscle, it needs exercise like any bicep or quad to be healthy and

ward off injury. A recent study featured in The New England Journal of Medicine found that people

over 75 who engage in brain-stretching activities like chess are less likely to develop dementia than

their non-board-game-playing peers. Just like an un-exercised muscle loses strength, Dr. Robert

Freidland, the study’s author, found that unused brain tissue leads to a loss of brain power. So that’s

all the more reason to play chess before you turn 75.

It exercises both sides of the brain

In a German study, researchers showed chess experts and novices simple geometric shapes and

chess positions and measured the subjects’ reactions in identifying them. They expected to find the

experts’ left brains being much more active, but they did not expect the right hemisphere of the

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

brain to do so as well. Their reaction times to the simple shapes were the same, but the experts

were using both sides of their brains to more quickly respond to the chess position questions.

It increases your creativity

Since the right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for creativity, it should come as no surprise

that activating the right side of your brain helps develop your creative side. Specifically, chess greatly

increases originality. One four-year study had students from grades 7 to 9 play chess, use computers,

or do other activities once a week for 32 weeks to see which activity fostered the most growth in

creative thinking. The chess group scored higher in all measures of creativity, with originality being

their biggest area of gain.

It improves your memory

Chess players know — as an anecdote — that playing chess improves your memory. Being a good

player means remembering how your opponent has operated in the past and recalling moves that

have helped you win before. But there’s hard evidence also. In a two-year study in 1985, young

students who were given regular opportunities to play chess improved their grades in all subjects,

and their teachers noticed better memory and better organizational skills in the kids. A similar study

of Pennsylvania sixth-graders found similar results. Students who had never before played chess

improved their memories and verbal skills after playing.

It increases problem-solving skills

A chess match is like one big puzzle that needs solving, and solving on the fly, because your

opponent is constantly changing the parameters. Nearly 450 fifth-grade students were split into

three groups in a 1992 study in New Brunswick. Group A was the control group and went through

the traditional math curriculum. Group B supplemented the math with chess instruction after first

grade, and Group C began the chess in first grade. On a standardized test, Group C’s grades went up

to 81.2% from 62% and outpaced Group A by 21.46%.

It improves reading skills

In an oft-cited 1991 study, Dr. Stuart Margulies studied the reading performance of 53 elementary

school students who participated in a chess program and evaluated them compared to non-chess-

playing students in the district and around the country. He found definitive results that playing chess

caused increased performance in reading. In a district where the average students tested below the

national average, kids from the district who played the game tested above it.

It improves concentration

Chess masters might come off like scattered nutty professors, but the truth is their antics during

games are usually the result of intense concentration that the game demands and improves in its

players. Looking away or thinking about something else for even a moment can result in the loss of a

match, as an opponent is not required to tell you how he moved if you didn’t pay attention.

Numerous studies of students in the U.S., Russia, China, and elsewhere have proven time and again

that young people’s ability to focus is sharpened with chess.

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

It teaches planning and foresight

Having teenagers play chess might just save their lives. It goes like this: one of the last parts of the

brain to develop is the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for planning, judgment,

and self-control. So adolescents are scientifically immature until this part develops. Strategy games

like chess can promote prefrontal cortex development and help them make better decisions in all

areas of life, perhaps keeping them from making a risky choice of the kind associated with being a

teenager.

Source: 10 Big Brain Benefits of Playing Chess

http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/03/25/10-big-brain-benefits-of-playing-chess/

Sources

All the information in this booklet is taken from the following web sources:

http://www.chessvideos.tv/article-Basic-Rules-of-Chess-3.php

http://www.chess.com/learn-how-to-play-chess

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

Chess Start

The Light Queen goes on a light square, the Dark Queen on a

dark square ("Queen on colour").

The square in the lower right hand corner is a light one, i.e.

"light on right".

The opposing Kings and Queens go directly opposite of each

other.

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

Light moves first, and then each player takes a turn moving.

During each players turn, only one piece may be moved.

Castling is the only exception to this rule (this move will be explained

later).

The Knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces.

All other pieces can only move along unblocked lines.

You may not move a piece to a square already occupied by one of

your own pieces.

But you can capture an enemy piece that stands on a square where

one of your pieces can move.

Simply remove the enemy piece from the board and put your own piece in its

place.

Point Value

Pawn = 1 Knight = 3 Bishop = 3 Rook = 5 Queen = 9

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

PAWNS

Pawns can only move one square at a time – except for the first move:

Pawns can only capture one square diagonally in front of them. They can

never move or capture backwards. If there is another piece directly in front

of a pawn he cannot move past or capture that piece..

Promotion 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). A pawn may be promoted to any piece. [NOTE: 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

En Passant The last rule about pawns is called “en passant,” which is French for

“in passing”. 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

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

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.

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

Knight

Knights move in a very different way from the other pieces –

going two squares in one direction, and then one more move

at a 90 degree angle, just like the shape of an “L”. Knights are

also the only pieces that can move over other pieces.

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

Bishop

The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts

on one colour (light or dark) and must always stay on that colour. Bishops work

well together because when both are in play all squares on the board can be

attacked. This is why keeping both bishops (the bishop pair) is an important

strategy. The bishop pair is worth 8 points.

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

Rook

The rook may move as far as it wants, but only forward,

backward, and to the sides. The rooks are particularly

powerful pieces when they are protecting each other and

working together!

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

Queen

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. (She cannot move like the

knight or jump pieces). And, like with all pieces, if the queen

captures an opponent's piece her move is over.

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

King

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. If the king is in the direct line of an opponent’s

piece it is said to be in check. The king can escape check by moving

to a square not controlled by an enemy piece, by capturing the

checking piece, or by blocking the check with a friendly piece. The

king may never move himself into check. If the king is unable to

move out of check (because available squares are occupied by other

pieces, covered by opponent’s pieces and thus would move the king

into check from another piece or taking the piece giving check would

Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014 Dr Barbara Stanley

put the king into check by another piece) then this is Checkmate and

the game is over.

Castling

This is the only time when two pieces can move in a single turn.

Castling is done with the king and rook, and is used to evacuate the

king from the centre. The king can castle with either rook. To castle,

the king moves two squares (!) in the direction he wishes to castle,

and the rook is placed on the other side. Now there are a few

important restrictions. There can't be any pieces between the king

and rook. Additionally, neither the king nor rook can have moved

previously. And finally, the king cannot castle through check.