Hello and Introduction

HELLO!

Hello there! Before we proceed to the chess introduction, let me tell you about myself.

Hi! I'm Lubna. I'm 11, and I was born on the 1st of March 2006. Yes, I am completely aware of the fact that I was born on Justin Bieber's birthday. I am a young girl who loves Riverdale, Harry Potter and aesthetic songs. My hobbies include playing chess, reading, listening to aesthetic songs and role-playing. I am from Malaysia, which is a small country in South East Asia, just beside Singapore. The reason I made this blog is to show newbies how to play this wonderful game that requires a lot of critical thinking. It is also a part of a class project I had to do, and is worth 40% of my grade. I am from Sekolah Kebangsaan Convent (1) Bukit Nanas, and have been the school chess representative for the past 5 years. My ambition is to become either a lawyer or an astronaut, since i'm really into debating and astronomy. 

Okay, now that you know about me, let's move on to why you actually are here; the chess introduction.

Chess is a board game for two players. It is played in a square board, made of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares on each side. Each player starts with sixteen pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. The goal of the game is for each player to try and checkmate the king of the opponent. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the opposing king which no move can stop. It ends the game.

During the game the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the board. One player ('White') has pieces of a light color; the other player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. There are rules about how pieces move, and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. The player with white pieces always makes the first move. Because of this, White has a small advantage, and wins more often than Black in tournament games.

Chess is popular and is often played in competitions called chess tournaments. It is enjoyed in many countries, and is a national hobby in Russia.