The Everything Chess Basics Book (6 page)

Files

Assuming you are ready to play the Black pieces, counting from your left the files are the h-file, the g-file, the f-file, and on to the file furthest to your right (the one with the light square), which is the a-file.

Where ranks and files intersect at a square, there is also a name. On a chessboard, find the a-file and the fifth rank. The dark square there is called a5. Now find the e-file and the fourth rank. The light square you are looking at is e4.

File Properties

Each file contains four light squares and four dark squares, which naturally alternate. Each light square borders on a dark square, and each dark square borders on a light square.

There are an equal number of light squares and dark squares on the chessboard: thirty-two for each. Place the board like a diamond and you will see them lined up in vertical and horizontal rows. These are commonly referred to as
diagonals
.

All files are not equal. Notice that the a-file and the h-file each border only one file, while all the other files border two files. The a-file and the h-file represent the other part of the edge of the board. (The first and eighth ranks also represent the edge of the board.)

Diagonals

Ranks and files are not the only highways of the chessboard. There are also the diagonals, which are straight lines made up of individual squares that border at the corners, rather than at the sides. They appear to stretch out at an angle from the players’ perspective.

The following three main things distinguish a diagonal from a rank or file.

1. Diagonals border at the corners rather than at the sides.

2. Diagonals come in a variety of sizes, whereas ranks and files always contain eight squares each.

3. Diagonals consist of squares of one color only, whereas ranks and files always contain an equal mixture of dark and light squares.

Diagonals do not have easy-to-remember, simple names like ranks and files do. But they are sometimes named for the first and last square on the diagonal: the long dark diagonal can be called the a1-h8 diagonal, while the smallest light-square diagonals can be called either the h7-g8 diagonal or the a2-b1 diagonal.

Border

Diagonals border at the corners rather than at the sides of the squares that make them up. This brings up an interesting optical illusion. Look at a chessboard. Consider the a-file and a1-h8 diagonal. Which is longer?

If you answered the diagonal, you were right in a strictly geometrical sense, but wrong in a chess sense. Each row contains eight squares, and that means that they are the same size for the purpose of a chess game. By the same token, it might look like the b1-h7 diagonal is longer than the b-file. But actually it is the file that is longer! The b-file, like all files, contains eight squares, whereas the b1-h7 diagonal consists of only seven squares.

Identifying diagonals

Size

Thus you can see a very important property of diagonals: They are not even close to being equal. Diagonals are made up of anywhere from two to eight squares. There are four diagonals containing two, three, four, five, six, and seven squares (two dark and two light), while there are two long diagonals, which each contain eight squares (one dark and one light).

The most important property of diagonals is that they are all made up of squares of one color. Diagonals are checkers’ highways! There can never be a dark square on a light-square diagonal. Thus diagonals are limited-access highways compared to ranks and files.

Highways

So far we have learned about four types of roads on the chessboard. If you seem to remember only three, that’s because you are not distinguishing between dark-square and light-square diagonals.

Any other highways are mostly ephemeral. Thus you can visualize the highway a1-a2-a3-a4-b5-c6-d7-e8. Since all squares border, it is definitely a highway. There are several pieces that could indeed travel that route. But it’s actually nothing more than a mixture of the a-file and the a4-e8 diagonal.

Rectangular Corner

There is just one other type of highway that you need to know about. Because it doesn’t involve bordering squares at all, it’s questionable whether it can even be called a highway. It also has no name. So we will call it rectangular corner, since that describes the road (or obstacle course): Visualize a six-square rectangle anywhere on the chessboard. Now visualize opposite corners of that rectangle. That’s the rectangular corner road, or course. It is bumpy, perhaps, but it’s one you will get to know well.

Five Highways

The five types of chessboard highways are:

• Ranks

• Files

• Dark-square diagonals

• Light-square diagonals

• Rectangular corners

Squares

All the squares on a chessboard are not created equal, any more than any of the various types of highways are. To begin with, half of them are light and half of them are dark. Of course there is no essential difference between the dark and light squares.

The real difference between the various squares comes with their neighbors. How many squares does a particular square have bordering it? That’s what makes some squares more equal than others.

Lots of Neighbors

Those squares that have many bordering squares are in the middle of a metropolis. There are pieces to see, squares to go to, and activity can be expected to be high. This is simply because there are many different directions that radiate out from such squares.

The geometrical center of the board (e4, d4, e5, d5) is where the most traffic will take place. The “greater center” of squares, encompassing c3-c6-f6-f3 and back to c3 and the center squares, usually encounters the next busiest activity. This is because these squares lead directly and quickly to anywhere.

For example, take a look at e4. There is the fourth rank, the e-file, and the b1-h7 and h1-a8 diagonals. In addition, the rectangular corners available from e4 are f6, g5, g3, f2, d2, c3, c5, and d6. Count up all the squares on major highways directly available from e4 and you will come up with an astounding thirty-five squares, or more than half the chessboard!

The Edge of the Board

On the other hand, take a look at the edge of the board. Anywhere along the a-file, the h-file, or the first or eighth rank will do. These squares all have some neighbors, but not nearly as many as those in our booming metropolis.

Let’s do the same exercise with a corner square a1 that we did with the central square e4. From a1, we are directly connected with the a-file, the first rank, the a1-h8 diagonal, and the rectangular corners b3 and c2. That adds up to a paltry total of twenty-three.

Is it any wonder that one of the most important strategic principles in chess is to control the central squares?