Agenda of today's session

1. An Orientation Session

2. A Friendly Match Session

Notes

In today's we were given an interactive orientation session by Mr. Dhanashekar, Secretary of Coimbatore District Chess Association. The lessons taught ranged from basic rules, castling opportunities and conditions, scoresheet writing and more. For a quick review, let's see few of the concepts here.

A. Castling

This is a move of the king and either rook of the same colour along the player's first rank, counting as a single move of the king and executed as followed: the king is transferred from it's original square two squares towards the rook on its original square, then that rook is transferred to the square the king has just crossed - FIDE Handbook; 3.8.2

The right to castle has been lost:

1. if the king has already moved, or

2. with a rook that has already moved

Castling is prevented temporarily:

1. if the square on which the king stands, or the square which it must cross, or the square which it is to occupy, is attacked by one or more of the opponent's pieces, or

2. if there is any piece between the king and the rook with which castling is to be effected

B. Scoresheet Writing

1. Chess notation combined the piece being moved and the new square to which it is being moved to

2. King = K; Knight = N; Bishop = B; Rook = R; Pawn = Nil; Queen = Q

3. Short Castle = O-O; Long Castle = O-O-O

4. Capturing = 'x'. Eg: Bxc5

5. Check = '+'. Eg: Bb5+

6. Promotion = Square Name=Piece to which it is being promoted. Eg: a8 = Q

To know more about scoresheet writing and to have a fun activity, check the following document provided by the Saint Louis Chess Club: https://saintlouischessclub.org/education/read-write-chess