Everyone has sixty-four squares to work with. Half of sixty-four is thirty-two. Therefore, a rule of strategy immediately springs to mind: If you control thirty-three squares, you will have an advantage. Thus you already have an idea of how to plan an attack before you know how the pieces move. Keep this strategy in mind as you learn more about chess, and the rewards will be gratifying.

Here is a diagram of a chessboard. Note the checkered squares and the light square at the right-hand corner at the bottom.

Light on Right

When setting up the chessboard, always make sure a light square is at your far lower right corner. Your opponent, who sits opposite you, will also have a light square at his or her far lower right corner. (If you prefer, you can think of this as a dark square always being at your left; it works just as well.) There is perhaps no reason other than tradition for this rule, but it makes sense to always set the board up the same way for all chess games.

You should be able to spot the many instances where chess is used in advertising without a modicum of research. Look around you at store windows, magazine ads, posters, television shows, and movies. Notice how many chessboards are set up with a dark square in the lower right-hand corner. You have found another case of homework gone undone!

Blind Your Opponent

An old piece of advice to chess players came up in a sixteenth-manuscript by the Spanish bishop Ruy Lopez. He counseled his readers to place the board so that the sun shines in their opponent's eyes. Not a very nice bit of advice, but how nice can you be when the object of a game is to destroy your opponent? Nevertheless, such behavior is considered unsportsmanlike nowadays.

Following the principles of good sportsmanship, the board should not have shiny squares. A smooth surface, easy on the eyes, with lots of contrast between the light and dark squares, is ideal.

The material of a chessboard can be almost anything. Wood, plastic, paper, cardboard, and vinyl are common. Some chessboards are even virtual: they appear only on your computer screen. So long as there are sixty-four alternating light and dark squares, you have a useable board.