Free The Everything Chess Basics Book by Peter Kurzdorfer Page B

King
    The first part of the principle implies safety for your own king. So the question becomes, “How do I make my king safe?” At the start of the game, he is surrounded by a queen, a bishop, and three pawns. Your king is in no immediate danger there.
    The trouble starts with the other part of the principle. You begin the game by getting your pieces ready for an assault on the enemy king. But to do that, at least some of your pieces and pawns must necessarily leave the side of your own king. When that happens, he is no longer as safe as he was at the start of the game.
    Castling
    One of the best ways to ensure king safety is to tuck your big guy in a corner by way of castling. With three pawns in front of him and a rook by his side, and often a knight or even a bishop in the vicinity as well, your king has a good chance of maintaining reasonable safety for some time.

    Both kings are reasonably safe for the time being. It will be hard to storm such secure castles.
    Later in the game, this fortress may be broken down and your king may have to leave. But as long as you make sure that doesn’t occur until a number of pieces have been exchanged via capturing, you should be all right.

    The king often comes out boldly later in the game. When the danger of checkmate is reduced because the enemy doesn’t have many pieces (by then a number have been captured), you can use your king as an added attacking force. Just make sure the danger of checkmate is really significantly reduced!
    The Other King
    The other part of the first principle is the enemy king. You generally can’t win the game if you can’t checkmate him. But of course most opponents are going to be very annoying about not letting you near their royal leader.
    Against a reasonably skilled opponent, you will not be able to put together a quick checkmating attack. So you have to build up your attack, using the other principles to gather your forces for the final blow.
    Meanwhile, you have to keep in mind the final target as well as your own king’s defense. It’s a delicate balance, and you’ll be confronted with it throughout any given game.
    The Fastest Checkmate
    Perhaps you are wondering what is the fastest checkmate. It is referred to as the Fool’s Mate, and it takes a total of two moves! The fool plays White, and the game goes 1. f4 e6 2. g4 Qh4 checkmate.

    White used his two moves to expose his king to the maximum, and Black checkmated him.
    It takes a little longer for a fool to lose playing Black: 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Ke7 3. Qxe5 checkmate.

    Black’s king blocks his own pieces from participating.
    Another fast checkmate is called Scholar’s Mate : 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Qh5 Nf6 4. Qxf7 checkmate.

    The Black king cannot capture the White queen because that would expose him to check from the White bishop on c4.
    Greater Force
    Look at the checkmates on the previous pages and you can easily see what is meant by greater force. In all of them the poor king got clobbered by an enemy queen. In the first two, the fool opened up lines of attack for the enemy and closed off all retreat or blocking opportunities. In the third checkmate the triumphant queen swooped in with the help of a friendly bishop.
    Piece Power
    We know the queen is powerful, but just how powerful is she? And how strong are the other pieces and pawns in comparison? In order to compare them all, we need a measuring stick. So let’s take the least powerful of all, the pawn, and use that as our measure. With that in mind, here are all the pieces listed in terms of their average power, expressed in terms of numbers of pawns:
    • Knight = 3½
    • Bishop = 3½
    • Rook = 5
    • Queen = 9
    • King = infinity
    There are several things about this list that may appear surprising or obscure. For instance, how can anything be worth half a pawn? And what is that about infinity?
    A rook is generally stronger than a minor piece (a bishop or a knight). This difference is about 1½ pawns’ worth, and is