Chess is an indoor competitive game played between two players. It is being played in tournaments, online or at home. The origin of chess is traced to India, approximately to the 6th century. The military had four divisions known as "infantry", "cavalry", "elephant" and "chariot." These names are represented in the chess game as: pawn, knight, bishop and the rook respectively. In the 9th century, the game was introduced to Western Europe and Russia.
The chess board is made up of 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns) and the colors of the squares alternate (dark and light squares). The pieces which are comprised of a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns are in sets black and white. To start the game, white moves first. The pieces are moved one at a time to an occupied square by an opponent's piece, thereby removing it from play or to a square that is not occupied. However, two pieces are moved simultaneously when castling.
Each chess piece has its own style of moving. The pawn moves one or two steps forward to an unoccupied square but one forward diagonal step to an occupied square. The knight moves in "L" pattern. The bishop moves diagonally. The rook moves horizontally or vertically with as many steps as possible. The queen moves in all directions covering as many squares as possible. And the king moves one step at a time in all directions.
To win the game, the opponent must be checkmated. Checkmate is when king is in check has there is no way to escape. There are occasions that the chess games do not end with a checkmate. Other way the game ends are: draw by agreement, stalemate, threefold repetition of a position, and the fifty-move rule.