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The game of Chess is played by two armies who oppose each other
on a square board or battlefield of sixty-four alternate white
and black squares. Each army has sixteen men; one King, one
Queen, two Rooks (or Castles), two Bishops, two Knights and eight
Pawns. The Generals of the two armies are the two players
themselves. The men of one side are of light color and are called
White, those of the other side are of dark color and are called
Black.

The object of the game is to capture the opposing King. When this
is done the battle is ended, the side losing whose King is
captured. To understand what is meant by the capture of the King
it is first necessary to become acquainted with the laws
according to which the different men move on the board.

To start with, the board must be placed so that the players have
a white square at their right. Then the men take the positions
shown in Diagram 1.

The Rooks occupy the corner squares; next to them stand the
Knights; then the Bishops and in the center the King and the
Queen.

       +---------------------------------------+
     8 | #R | #Kt| #B | #Q | #K | #B | #K | #R |
       |---------------------------------------|
     7 | #P | #P | #P | #P | #P | #P | #P | #P |
       |---------------------------------------|
     6 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     5 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     4 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     3 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     2 | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P |
       |---------------------------------------|
     1 | ^R | ^Kt| ^B | ^Q | ^K | ^B | ^Kt| ^R |
       +---------------------------------------+
         a    b    c    d    e    f    g    h

                DIAGRAM 1

The white Queen must be on the white square and the black Queen
on the black square. These eight, men are commonly known as
"pieces" in distinction from the Pawns. The latter occupy the
line of squares immediately in front of the Pieces.

The lines of squares now occupied by the men and the other four
vacant horizontal lines between them are called RANKS. The
vertical lines of squares running perpendicularly to the ranks
are called FILES. The oblique lines of squares, that is, lines
which connect squares of the same color, are called DIAGONALS.

To describe the moves of the men on the board in a simple way it
is necessary to indicate every square and every man by a short
symbol. For this purpose different systems have been suggested at
different times, but only two of them have been generally
adopted. The older one, called the "descriptive notation," still
predominates in the English, French and Spanish speaking
countries, but as leading English and American writers have
lately used the newer "algebraic notation" which is much more
simple, the latter will be employed in this book. Later the
former method will be explained for the sake of completeness.

In the algebraic notation the files are lettered from a to h,
starting from the file on White's left. The ranks are numbered
from 1 to 8, starting from the rank on which White's pieces stand
at the beginning of the game. Each square is now easily indicated
by naming the file and rank at which it forms the intersection.
The Rook in Diagram 2, for instance, stands on e4, the Bishop on
C4, the Pawns on h4 and g7, the Knight on f7, the Queen on d6 and
the Kings on c1 and g3.

       +---------------------------------------+
     8 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     7 |    |    |    |    |    | ^Kt| #P |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     6 |    |    |    | #Q |    |    |    |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     5 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     4 |    |    | #B |    | ^R |    |    | ^P |
       |---------------------------------------|
     3 |    |    |    |    |    |    | #K |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     2 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
       |---------------------------------------|
     1 |    |    | ^K |    |    |    |    |    |
       +---------------------------------------+
         a    b    c    d    e    f    g    h

                DIAGRAM 2

As symbols for the men the first letters of their names are used.
Thus K stands for King, Q for Queen, R for Rook, B for Bishop, Kt
or N for Knight and P for Pawn.