Playing Chess in English

Chess (ajedrez) has fascinated people for hundreds of years and some very great people have been chess players, including emperor Napoleon.

Where and when did it start ?  No one knows for certain, but it is now widely believed that it was invented in India about the sixth century AD, and spread (extendió) from there to Western Europe. Some changes were made to the rules in the fifteenth century, giving us the game in its present form.

The game itself is a medieval battle between two royal families, each trying to trap the other's king. It is played by two players only, on a board with sixty-four squares . It should be placed so that each player has a white square in the bottom right-hand corner of the board. One player has the white pieces and the other has the black ones. The players move alternatively and the player with the white pieces always has the first move.No one is allowed to miss a move at chess.

Another important rule of chess is the touch move rule. Once a player has touched a piece he must move it, and if he has put it down and taken his hand off it, then the move is complete and he cannot change his mind.

Each player has sixteen chessmen: eight pieces and eight pawns.

Now check this vocabulary and  its equivalent in Spanish and start playing chess in English !

pawn = peón.

The pawns are the least valuable of the pieces.

knight =  literalmente"caballero" .  En el ajedrez español "el caballo".

The knight moves three squares in the shape of an L.

bishop = literalmente "obispo"  . En español "el alfil".

The bishops move diagonally .

rook =  la torre .

Rooks move in straight lines .

queen= reina.

The queen can move in any direction.

king = rey.

The king can only move one square in any direction.

castling =enrocarse.

It is better to castle early in the game. 

pawn promotion=transformar un peón en otra pieza.

The pawn was promoted to queen.

check = jaque.

"Check ! Your king is under direct attack."

checkmate=jaque mate.

"Checkmate !   You lost the game! "

stalemate= tablas ( por "ahogar" al rey) .