King of the Castle
My name is Ananya Deb. I have been playing chess for almost 4 years. My Grandpa gifted me a chessboard from India when I was nearly 6. He wanted me to learn the game with interesting characters that included elephants, horses, soldiers, and most importantly, a King and a Queen to rule them all.
In the beginning, I thought the King was the most powerful piece of them all. This game, if played correctly, gives each of the pieces a lot of power.
Each piece moves differently—but the king is the one who moves the slowest of them all. In simple words, the objective of the game is to protect your king at all costs from your opponent.
Castling is my favorite move in chess because it is important for the king’s safety. Also, it is the only time that the King gets to move two squares. The Rook moves beside the King. One of the times you cannot castle is if the king has already moved or the rooks that are on a1 or h1 (White side if they move) or h8 or a8 (on Blacks side if they move). Another time is if the opponent`s, let’s say, the bishop is in the way of castling, you can`t castle because the King will be in check while castling, which is not allowed.
Another one of my favorite moves is Checkmate, which is when you win the whole game. The King should not have any moves to make. My favorite kind of checkmate is Ladder`s Checkmate. The pieces to checkmate the king can only be the rooks (2 rooks) or the queen (possible to get 2 queens).
I would recommend chess to everybody because Chess is a powerful game to power your mind; people can take forever to make 1 move. I had almost given up on chess multiple times because my rating was going down a lot. But when I said, “This is my last tournament,” that was when my rating went higher, or I got a trophy.
I hope to continue playing the game for a long time and would love to introduce the game to those interested. I hope you enjoyed reading about my love for chess and hopefully you will pursue it too.
