Transcript
Chess Club No.1
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-chessplaying 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.
Ashington School Chess Club Hand out 2014
Dr Barbara Stanley
