None of this is required: every player who knows how the pieces move is welcome at our tournaments. But you will have the best experience if you study these before your first one. What helps most depends on your age. The videos below are short lessons from ChessKid. After watching one, practice it against a parent, a friend or a computer until you can do it without help.
Every age
You will have the best experience if you know these tournament basics.
- Touch-move: if you touch one of your pieces, you must move it. To straighten a piece without moving it, say "adjust" first.
- If something goes wrong, stop the clock and raise your hand for the tournament director (TD). Don't try to settle it with your opponent.
- Be a good sport: shake hands before and after the game, stay quiet while others are playing, and leave the playing room quietly when you finish.
- Report your result: after the game, both players should be sure to report the result in the way announced at the tournament. At scholastic tournaments this is usually at a scorer's table or by raising your hand for the TD; at tournaments with adults it is usually by marking a wall chart.
Touch-move
K-1
Knowing the rules is all you need. Come and play!
The rules
K-3
You will have the best experience if you know the rules, including stalemate, and can do these two checkmates against a lone king.
Stalemate surprises many new players: if the player whose turn it is has no legal move but is not in check, the game is a draw, not a win. When you are checkmating a lone king, check before each move that you are not leaving it with no legal move.
Stalemate
King and queen
King and two rooks
K-5
You will have the best experience if you can do the K-3 checkmates above, plus checkmate with king and rook, and can spot forks: one piece attacking two of your opponent's pieces at once.
King and rook
Forks
K-8
You will have the best experience if you know everything above and can also use pins and skewers. In a pin, a piece can't move without exposing a more valuable piece behind it. A skewer is the reverse: a valuable piece is attacked, and when it moves, the piece behind it can be taken.
Pins
Skewers
For more about what to expect at a first tournament, see Students and Parents.