How to Play Chess (Rogers)/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
OBJECT OF THE GAME AND ORDER OF PROCEDURE
The game of Chess, as already stated, is played by two persons or parties, and the object of each is to capture his opponent’s King or place him in such a position that he cannot move without being taken. If the King is attacked, or threatened with capture, the attacking party must give warning by calling out “Check”; and if the King, in the next move cannot avoid the attack he is “checkmate” or “mate” and the game is at an end, the person having first captured his opponent’s King being the winner. The student will note that the game stops one move short of the final play which takes the King.
If, for any reason, the Kings occupy such positions upon the board that neither can be captured the game is drawn.
The players first arrange the board as shown in diagram i, and draw lots for the color with which each is to play. The game is generally opened by the White Men. When the player who has drawn the White Men moves a Piece or a Pawn, it is his opponent's turn, and so the game continues, each moving alternately, one man at a time, of his own color and capturing only the men of the opposite color. Under only one condition, of which the student will learn later, is a player allowed to make two moves in succession. Until a student has had considerable experience, and learned to play a game of his own he will do well to move each Piece once before he has moved any Piece twice, as this will enable him to keep his forces together and prevent needless exposure and weakness in his defence and attack.
Both distance and direction must be taken into consideration with every move, as well as the advantages that are to be gained by moving any one Piece in preference to another, but the student must become familiar with the relative value of the Pieces and Pawns and with their respective moves, before this can be made perfectly clear to him.