In this lesson we're going to look at ATTACK AND DEFENCE.

When you're playing chess you'll find that some pieces are more powerful than others. You'll probably be able to guess that ROOKS are much more powerful than PAWNS.

After this lesson you'll be able to play some CAPTURE THE FLAG games with ROOKS and PAWNS.

There's one more CAPTURE THE FLAG rule you need to know.

If your opponent gets a PAWN to the end of the board you have ONE MOVE in which to CAPTURE it. If you can capture it the game goes on, but if not then you lose the game.

It's very easy for a ROOK to stop a PAWN from CAPTURING THE FLAG.

All he has to do is to move onto the SAME FILE as the enemy PAWN.

Here, he can move to f1 and ATTACK the PAWN. Running away is no good. The ROOK will still be able to CAPTURE the PAWN next move.

But if the ROOK moved to a3, the SAME RANK as the PAWN, the PAWN would be able to run away to f2.

Because a PAWN is much weaker than a ROOK it's fine if your opponent's ROOK captures your PAWN as long as you can take the ROOK in return.

In this position the ROOK on f1 is ATTACKING the pawn on f3. If the black PAWN moves from e5 to e4 he will be DEFENDING his friend.

Then, if the ROOK on f1 CAPTURES the PAWN on f3, the PAWN on e4 will CAPTURE him in return.

There's another way in which a PAWN can help defend his friend from an attack by the ROOK.

He can BLOCK the attack by standing in the way, so that he gets captured instead of his friend.

Look at this position.

The BLACK ROOK on h4 is ATTACKING the WHITE PAWN on a4. Now the WHITE PAWN on d2 can move forward two squares to d4, BLOCKING the attack.

But will the ROOK capture him? Probably not, because he'll get taken by the little guy on e3.

In this position the WHITE ROOK is again ATTACKING the BLACK PAWN.

There are two ways in which Black can DEFEND his PAWN with his ROOK.

Can you find them both?

The ROOK can move either to f8 or to b3 to DEFEND the PAWN on f3.

A ROOK is a lot stronger than a PAWN so it's usually a good idea to trade one of your PAWNS for an enemy ROOK if you can do so. If your PAWN can take an enemy ROOK don't worry about losing your PAWN in exchange.

But it's usually NOT a good idea to trade your ROOK for an enemy PAWN.

Do you remember this:

It's usually a good idea to take an enemy piece for nothing.

Exchanging equal pieces (PAWN for PAWN, ROOK for ROOK) is usually OK.

We can now add:

It's usually a good idea to trade a weaker piece for a stronger enemy piece (for example PAWN for ROOK).

It's usually a bad idea to trade a stronger piece for a weaker enemy piece (for example ROOK for PAWN).

That's the end of the lesson.

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