Advice On Chess - Special Moves

by skorg

posted on 06/27/2009

Apart from the normal moves of the pieces there are some special movements that are allowed in certain scenarios. We will look at a couple of them

Castling
The King is the most important piece in the entire set. If it comes under attack constantly, it could mean a lot of problems for the side and if you fail to properly defend it you might lost the game. Since the pieces are focused at the center of the board, the king would be safe near the corner away from the center. Castling helps you not only to get the king to a corner but also have a set of pawns in front of it for additional protection. There are two sides in which a king can be castled - the king side and the queen side.

During a castle movement the King moves two squares and the corresponding Rook is moved next to the king. If the king is castled on the king side then the king moves two squares from e1 to g1 and the rook is moved two squares from h1 to f1. In the queen side castle the king is moved two squares from e1 to c1 and the rook from a1 to d1, i.e 3 squares.
All of the squares between the King and the Rook must be empty.

The rules to be followed for castling are as follows. The castling cannot be done if there are pieces in-between the king and rook. The king should not be in check when it intends to do the castling. The king should not end up in check when the castle is complete. It should also not go through an attacked square when castling. The king should not have moved earlier to the castle move. If it has moved and come back to the e1 square still it is not allowed to castle.

En Passant
This is the move by a pawn and it is valid only when the pawn is two squares in from of the opponent's pawn. If the pawn at its either side moves so as to avoid the attack by this pawn (moves 2 steps), then this pawn can take that other pawn as if it has moved just one square. This is available only the very next move after the opponent moves his pawn 2 steps.

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