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THE GAME OF CHESS -By Gahan Mottana
6th Grade, Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Edison, NJ

Chess is one of those games that are played mentally, not physically. Unlike soccer and
hockey, chess is a 2-person game that can be played at any time and any place. The game
originates back to almost 1500 years in North India. It was created in the 6th century
and soon spread to Persia. In India, chess was known as ‘Chathuranga’ which can mean
‘army.’ Today, chess is played in every corner of the world.

Chess is played with a lot of moves. Each piece has a role to play to checkmate the
other player’s king. These are the basic rules of chess. There is an 8 by 8 square platform
on which 16 pieces are placed on opposite sides. Each side has 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2
knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen, and 1 king. The pawns can move 1 or 2 spaces in front at
the first move. The knights can move in an “L” shape. It can move 2 spaces forward and 1
space to the left or right. The bishop can move in a diagonal way any amount of spaces.
The rook can move straight, backwards, left or right any amount of spaces. The queen
is the most powerful and can move in all directions any amount of spaces. It just can’t
move like a knight. The king is the most important, but it is weak. It can only move one
space in any direction.

Did you know that the number of possible ways to play the first four moves for both
sides in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000?! There are more possible games of chess
than there are atoms in the universe. It takes about an average of 40 moves to finish a
game of chess. The numbers of moves of chess are like a deck of playing cards. There are
many variations and variables to chess. That is why chess is a very unique game to play.

The different types of playing chessare:

1. Open Chess

2. Lightning Chess
3. Bullet Chess

4. Blitz Chess

Since there are timers, it can lead to a very interesting game. Every time you make
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