Chess Online

The Game of Chess

Chess, a game once played only by Kings and people of nobility, later became available to people of all classes. It is believed by some historians that Chess originated in India and other historians believe the game may have originated in China. Eventually, Chess caught on in Persia (today’s Iran) and then later in Europe. Today, the game of Chess, which may be played on a table board or online, is played by people from all over the world. You may play Chess on Papergames.io with other players or challenge Paper Man, a robot, and win points! It’s all free! Do read our strategies and tactics to help you achieve your goal to improve your skills at Chess. This multiplayer game enables you to play live with hundreds of real players worldwide, wherever you may be and whatever language you may speak!

Chess tournament

You can organize a private tournament to play Chess in a group and invite up to 512 players. You can choose between the Swiss system, Round Robin, Single Elimination, Double Elimination, or casual modes. It's an excellent tool for friends, virtual team building, or schools.

Rules of Chess

Check, Checkmate and Stalemate. The goal of the Chess game is to overtake your opponent’s king. When a king is threatened this is a warning to the opponent to make a strategic move to protect their king. This is called Check. When the king is in a position where he is unable to move in any direction, because the opponent’s pieces are perfectly positioned, this is called Checkmate. When you’ve pushed your opponent’s king into Checkmate, you’ve won the Chess game! When a player’s king is not in check but cannot make a legal move, this is called Stalemate, and the game is a draw.

The Chess board and start position

The Chess board, 8 rows across by 8 columns, has a total of 64 squares. Each row is marked, on the left and right sides of the Chess board, with the numbers 1-8, the first row beginning on white’s end of the board. Each column, on the top and bottom of the Chess board, is marked with the letters a-h. A number and letter identify the position of each Chess piece. IE: White’s rook (looks like a tower or castle) in the left/bottom corner of the Chess board is on the a1 square. The game is played with two players and each begins with 16 pieces on their side of the board. One side plays with the light-colored pieces (generally white), and the opponent plays with the dark-colored pieces (generally black). In Papergames.io multiplayer Chess, one player uses the white-colored pieces, and the opposing player uses the black-colored pieces.

How the pieces move on the Chess board

Chess pieces may move across vacant squares on the board and land on a vacant square unless they’re attacking an opponent’s piece that’s on the square they plan to land on. Pawns: Each pawn may move either one or two squares forward on its initial move. After that, a pawn may only move forward a single square at a time. The pawn moves diagonally when attacking an opponent’s piece. See also: pawn promotion. King: The king may only move one square at a time either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Queen: The queen is considered to be the most powerful piece in the game of Chess and may move in any direction and across multiple squares on the Chess board. Bishop: A bishop moves diagonally across the board and may move over multiple squares across the Chess board. Each bishop may only move on their own color squares. IE: If a bishop started on a white colored square, they may only move on white squares. Knight: The knight (looks like a horse) is the only piece in Chess that may jump over other Chess pieces. The knight moves two squares vertically, up or down, and then horizontally one square over. Knight may also move one square vertically, up or down, and then two squares over, the movement which resembles the letter L. Rook: The rook (formerly called the tower or castle) moves only in a straight line horizontally or vertically across the Chess board. Once pieces have moved around the Chess board and spaces have opened up for the rooks, a player that has two rooks in play on the board at the same time has potentials for plays that are considered to be slightly stronger than the queen. See also: castling.

Strategies and tactics:

A great way to help improve your skills in Chess is to play with a stronger more experienced player. The more you play, the more you learn and improve your skills at Chess. And, you can have a great time playing multiplayer Chess on Papergames.io with Paper Man, friends, family members and people from all over the world!

Control of the center:

The center of the board includes the squares: e4,e5,d4,d5 and their surrounding squares. If a player has control over the center of the board, they basically have greater influence over the whole board.

Opening moves in Chess

The white player always opens the Chess game by making the first move. When it’s the black player’s turn to make their first move, this is sometimes referred to as a defense move. There are various opening moves a player may make during the game of Chess. In Papergame.io a few of the opening moves that are the most often used and/or the most popular are explained below. Pawns and knights are the pieces that can make the first initial moves in a Chess game opening. 16 pawns plus 4 knights = 20 basic opening moves. Openings:

Ruy Lopez: (Also known as the Spanish Game)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 White has the opportunity to castle quickly. See section on castling. This opening places black on the defensive. Also gives players opportunities to try and take control of the center of the board. When a Chess piece is moved, the square that the piece lands on is recorded. IE: As shown in the Ruy Lopez opening, the white pawn moves to e4. Then the black pawn moves to e5. This first move by both sides is recorded as: 1.e4 e5. In the following moves the capitol letter N represents knight and in the third move the capitol letter B represents the bishop. IE: 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5.

King’s Gambit

1.e4 e5 2.f4 Although the white king may easily be exposed, this opening can lead to an aggressive, tactical game. Offers black many options.

Queen’s Gambit

1. d4 d5 2.c4 This opening is considered to be the most popular gambit. White gains space and has attacking possibilities. Move puts black into the defensive. White’s object is to sacrifice a pawn in order to gain the center of the board.

French Defense

1. e4 e6 This opening provides a sharp counterattack by black. Black has a space disadvantage and black’s queenside bishop (on light square) is passive.

Italian Game

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Plays by both white and black are focused on the center. The game has a potential by both sides to play evenly. White can castle quickly and white’s bishop on c4 aims at black’s f7 square. See further information about Chess openings on Wikipedia.

Castling

This is a one-time only move when a player may move two of their Chess pieces at the same time. This move involves moving the player’s king and one of their rooks to switch positions. This move may be made only if the king and the rook have not made any initial moves and there are no other Chess pieces between the king and the rook.

Kingside Castling

Kingside castling is done when the rook on the player’s king’s side is used in castling. Kingside castling, vs. queenside castling, is sometimes recommended because there are only two pieces to get out of the way that are between the king and the rook. Queenside Castling: Queenside castling is done by moving the rook that’s on the player’s queen’s side of the Chess board. There are three pieces between the king and the rook which will need to be moved out of the way before castling may be done. Castling in multigame online chess: a) White player first taps their king to highlight the king and then taps on either the 1G square (kingside, on the player’s right) or the 1C square (queenside, on the player’s left). b) Black player first taps their king to highlight the king and then taps on either the 8G square (kingside, on the player’s left) or on the 8C square (queenside, on the player’s right).

Pawn Promotion

Whenever a pawn is able to reach the first row belonging to their opponent; the pawn is promoted to a higher status. The player may chose which status they wish for their pawn to become, including a queen, bishop, knight or rook.

When you begin

Emoticons: A great way to begin each game on Papergames.io multiplayer Chess is to click on the “wave” emoticon to acknowledge your opponent. As the game progresses, emoticons are available to allow you to communicate with your opponent. As Chess is considered to be a game that involves good sportsmanship, it is polite to acknowledge your opponent with a “thumbs up” emoticon when your opponent has made a good move and/or wins the Chess game. Have fun learning and playing multiplayer Chess on papergames.io and let the games begin!

Similar games

Chess players might also like Gomoku, a strategy game where you need to connect five pieces in a 15x15 board. If you are looking for a more casual and rapid game, you can go for Tic-Tac-Toe or Connect 4.