245 00 ‡a How to Play Chess: end notes

To further develop your chess strategy, you should consider the guides on lichess.org or any book written by a grandmaster (which I am not). I personally credit my library’s copy of Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess as one of the most rewarding chess books I’ve read.

Feel free to use this text to develop your own handouts or teaching aides. I adapted everything from other resources (not the least of which was good old Wikipedia).

I generated all of the board diagrams with python-chess. In the original handout, the diagrams are simply tables made in Microsoft Word, which seemed hardly worth the frustration.

Here’s my Python script which generated the diagrams:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import chess
import chess.svg
kings = chess.Board('8/1k6/8/8/8/5K2/8/8 w - - 0 0')
queen = chess.Board('8/8/8/8/3Q4/8/8/8 w - - 0 0')
rook = chess.Board('8/8/8/5r2/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 0')
bishop = chess.Board('8/8/8/8/8/4B3/8/8 w - - 0 0')
knight = chess.Board('8/8/3ppp2/4n3/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 0')
pawns = chess.Board('8/8/5p2/8/8/8/2P5/8 w - - 0 0')
boards = {
    'King': {
        'board': kings,
        'squares': kings.attacks(chess.F3) | kings.attacks(chess.B7),
    },
    'Queen': {
        'board': queen,
        'squares': queen.attacks(chess.D4),
    },
    'Rook': {
        'board': rook,
        'squares': rook.attacks(chess.F5),
    },
    'Bishop': {
        'board': bishop,
        'squares': bishop.attacks(chess.E3),
    },
    'Knight': {
        'board': knight,
        'squares': knight.attacks(chess.E5),
    },
    'Pawn': {
        'board': pawns,
        'squares': pawns.attacks(chess.C2) | pawns.attacks(chess.F6),
        'arrows': [
            chess.svg.Arrow(chess.C3, chess.C3),
            chess.svg.Arrow(chess.C4, chess.C4),
            chess.svg.Arrow(chess.F5, chess.F5),
        ],
    },
    'Castling part 1': {
        'board': chess.Board('4k2r/4pppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPP3/R3K3 w - - 0 0'),
    },
    'Castling part 2': {
        'board': chess.Board('5rk1/4pppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPP3/2KR4 w - - 0 0'),
    },
    'En passant part 1': {
        'board': chess.Board('8/8/8/3Pp3/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 0'),
        'arrows': [chess.svg.Arrow(chess.E7, chess.E5)],
    },
    'En passant part 2': {
        'board': chess.Board('8/8/4P3/8/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 0'),
        'squares': [chess.E5],
        'arrows': [chess.svg.Arrow(chess.D5, chess.E6)],
    },
    'Checkmate': {
        'board': chess.Board('kQ6/8/2N5/8/8/8/8/4K3 b - - 1 0'),
        'check': chess.A8
    },
    'Stalemate': {'board': chess.Board('1Q6/8/k1K5/8/2N5/8/8/8 b - - 0 0')},
    'Fork': {
        'board': chess.Board('4k3/8/8/6K1/4n3/8/3Q4/8 b - - 0 0'),
        'check': chess.G5,
        'arrows': [
            chess.svg.Arrow(chess.E4, chess.D2),
            chess.svg.Arrow(chess.E4, chess.G5),
        ],
    },
    'Pin': {
        'board': chess.Board('3q4/5k2/8/3n4/8/8/6K1/3R4 b - - 0 0'),
        'arrows': [chess.svg.Arrow(chess.D1, chess.D8)],
    }
}
svg = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>'
svg += chess.svg.board(board=chess.Board(), coordinates=True, size=512)
with open('chess_start.svg', 'w') as file:
    file.write(svg)
for board in boards:
    svg = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>'
    svg += chess.svg.board(**boards[board], coordinates=False, size=256)
    with open('chess_' + board + '.svg', "w") as file:
        file.write(svg)