All Rise, Court is Now In Session

Robert Ek
Dec 3, 2017
3 min read

Much of what I put up here on the First Board focuses on things we want to do during a chess game. Today, we will look at what not to do in a chess game.

When you are just learning to play chess it can be difficult to call someone out for breaking the rules. Who are you to be judge and jury, you are still still learning, right? Well, here is a chance for you to be the judge on chess rules.

We are going to look at a few scenarios of games that have gone wrong. I'm going to explain the moves leading up to a position, and at the bottom of the post, you can see the correct answer. For this to work, you will have to play along and not peek at the answers until after you - our esteemed JUDGE OF ALL RULES - have said which player is GUILTY and what what rule has been broken. With that, everyone can now be seated, the judge will hear the first case on the docket.

Case #1: STEVE versus TONY

Steve and Tony are sitting down to play chess. Steve set up the board and is waiting to play. Steve will play Black and Tony will play White. See the setup below:

A "chess crime" has been committed! Who is guilty and what is the charge, your honor?

Case #2: NATASHA versus CLINT

Natasha (White) and Clint (Black) are playing their game. Natasha moves her bishop out to b5. The board looks like this:

Clint's then moves his pawn to g6. Natasha swoops in with her bishop and captures Clint's King on e8.

"I WIN!" she says. But a chess crime has been committed! Who's guilty and what's the charge!

Case #3: BRUCE versus NICK

Bruce (White) and Nick (Black) are in the middle of their game. The board looks like this:

On Nick's turn as Black, he CASTLES kingside (O-O), swamping his rook and king to f1 and g1.

Who's is guilty and what is the charge?

THE JUDGE WILL DELIVER THE VERDICT!

CASE #1

STEVE is guilty on two counts. First, Steve set the Black and White pieces up on the wrong sides of the board. White's pieces start on the FIRST RANK and the King starts on the e-File. Black's pieces start on the EIGHTH RANK and the King is also on the e-File.

Steve also has the knights and bishops mixed up. Bishops always start the game closest to the king on the c-File and the f-File. The knights always start the game between the bishops and the rooks on the b-File and the g-File.

CASE #2

CLINT and NATASHA are both guilty! Natasha is guilty of not saying "CHECK" when her bishop attacking Clint's king from b5!

Because Clint's king was in check, the only LEGAL move he can make is to move his king out of danger OR put another piece between the white bishop and the his king.

CASE #3

NICK is guilty. Nick cannot castle on the Kingside because that would castle the king INTO check. The king may not castle out of or through check. See below.