Chess Sets and How NOT to Look Stupid

So you bought a chess set. You want to look smart, sophisticated. You want people to know you have a keen competitive mind. You want respect, perhaps even a little fear from certain people.

However, you may just be making yourself a joke. At least you are to anyone who really knows anything about chess.

You see, there is a right way to set up a chess board, and there is a wrong way.

The first thing you have to know is the order that the pieces go in. This is basic stuff, and almost everyone knows this, so that means you have to also.

If you are the white or lighter side, the pieces in front of you should be set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook. It is important to note that this is the setup for the lighter side, the darker side is not the same, it is a mirror image of the other side.

So the darker side s pieces should be set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, king, queen, bishop, knight, and rook.

The most common mistake made when setting up a chess set is getting the colors wrong. In chess, the lighter queen always has to stand on a light colored square, and the dark queen has to stand on a dark square. This means you have to turn the chess board to one of two directions out of four, in which this is possible.

An easy way to understand this is when you are playing chess, the square closest and to your furthest right, should always be a lighter color.

Once you have the chess set standing correctly, it is time to learn how to pay the actual game. A chess set is an invitation, an open call to battle which can be accepted at any time, by most anyone. If you reply to this challenge with a weak I don t really know how or with a startlingly pathetic performance, the status piece may actually turn into a demotion.