Chess

📖 In short

Chess is a thinking game where two players face each other on a board of 64 light and dark squares. Each player has 16 pieces and tries to trap the opponent's king so it can't escape, which is called “checkmate”. It's one of the oldest games in the world.

🤩 Did you know?

A chessboard has 64 squares in 8 rows.
Each player has 16 pieces.
Kasparov defended his world championship title in 1995 by beating India's Anand.
One of the most famous chess players of old was the Muslim scholar as-Suli.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 The pieces and their moves

Each player has a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. Each piece moves in its own way: the rook in straight lines, the bishop diagonally, the knight in an L shape jumping over pieces, and the queen, the strongest, in every direction.

🔍 Chess's journey

Chess began in India about 1500 years ago, then passed to Persia, then Arabs and Muslims loved it, developed it and took it to al-Andalus and Europe. The word “checkmate” comes from Persian and means “the king is dead”.

💡 A thinking game

Chess teaches thinking before you move, planning, patience and predicting what the other player will do. That's why it's taught in many schools around the world.