Castling and Checkmate

 Castling

Castling is the easiest way to get your king to safety in the early stages of the game. 

To perform castling:

Move your king two squares to the right or left, depending on whether you want to castle queenside or kingside, then take the corresponding rook and move it to the other side of the king.

Example:

The white king castled kingside, while the black king castled queenside.

A few additional rules:

-The king can not castle when in check

-Neither of the squares it passes through can be controlled by an opponents piece to castle.

-The king can not not castle if it has moved, or if either of the rooks have moved. If one of the rooks have moved, then you can castle the other side.

-Neither of the squares connecting the rook and king can be occupied by any other pieces

Ways in which the game can end:

Checkmate:

Checkmate occurs when a king is checked, and the king can not legally escape, either by moving out of check, capturing the checking piece, or block the path of check.

The player that gave checkmate WINS.

Examples:

The Black rook is checking the white king which is being blocked by its own pawns. Hence, checkmate!

The Black knight is checking the White king, and the White king is blocked by its pawns and rooks, hence Black wins!

The white king is being checked by the black queen, d3, e3 and f3 are covered by the rook and d5, e5 and f5 are covered by the black king. Hence the White king is checkmated!

Stalemate:

Stalemate occurs when a side, during its turn to move, has no legal moves. It results in a draw.

Example:

It is white's turn to play, and he no has no legal moves left. Any move that he makes will be illegal.

Hence, the game ends in a draw.

Three fold repetition:

If an exact series of moves have been played by both sides, that is, both players have repeated moves 3 times, either player can claim a draw. Do note that the game goes on if the players don't claim the draw. Another version of this same type of draw can also be claimed if the same position arrives on the board three times throughout the game.

The 50 move rule:

The rule states: ''a player can claim a draw if no capture has been made and no pawn has been moved in the last fifty moves (for this purpose a "move" consists of a player completing a turn followed by the opponent completing a turn).'' 

This rule has been implemented to prevent trying to win by playing on in a position where no player can reasonably play for a win, in hopes of tiring the opponent.

The 75 move rule:

The rule states: ''The game is drawn if the last 75 moves have been completed by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture.''

Note that unlike the 50 move rule, the 75 move rule is declared drawn by the arbiter, whether the players want it drawn or not. 

Other than these rules, players may mutually propose and agree to a draw at any point of the game, and of course any player may resign the game as well.

If you made it here from the start, you you know the rules of chess! Try playing a few games and have fun!

Additional Tip: If you are still confused about any aspect of the game, the official rules here might help.