THE CHESSBOARD

White on the right!

Here we see the chessboard. The chessboard has 64 squares, 32 of which are ‘light’ and 32 of which are ‘dark.’

Note that a white corner square should always lie on White’s RIGHT HAND. Hence the saying: ‘White on the right!’

Each square has a number and a letter attached to it. This helps us when we want to read chess books or magazines and when we want to record our own games! The system is meant to be as easy as possible to understand.

Thus the green coloured squares are, in turn: a1, c1, c5 and h6.

The yellow-coloured squares are: a2, b6, g7 and h3.

Finally the red squares in the above example are: a8, d3, d7 and f5.

We need some practice recognizing squares before we go on.