Legal & Illegal Moves | Chess

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Hi, this is David Sullivan for Chess NYC. I want to talk about legal and illegal moves. Here we have a very basic position, mating position, each side has a king, 3 pawns, and a rook, and it’s white’s turn to move. White can bring the rook all the way down to the C8 square and say check to black, and this is checkmate. The rook is saying check to the king. The king who goes one square at a time can’t move to a place where the rook cannot still get at it. Nobody can block and nobody can capture the checking piece, but often when I’m working with young people they’re not totally clear about how pieces move, so when they give an answer like rook C8 I might say, “Well, can’t the rook just capture your rook?”

Then I wait to see who is alert and hopefully someone will notice that a rook does not move on the diagonal, so this rook is not allowed to capture that rook. That’s breaking the rules. I might say, “Well, okay if my rook can’t take my rook can’t I just bring my pawn back here like this to block the check?” Then I’m waiting for the child to notice or remember that pawns cannot more backwards so this would be another illegal move. Then last but not least I might say, “If you give me this check maybe I can bring this rook back here and block the check.” If the rook comes back and blocks the check you’re also breaking another rule. What rule is that? Rooks are not allow to jump. Perhaps I might also have thrown in, “Can’t my king take the rook?” That of course breaks another rule, kings are only allowed to move 1 square at a time. Rook to C8 is checkmate. Black cannot make any illegal moves, game over.

124 Comments

  1. This black rook,he becomes a queen and a ghost at the same time.

  2. but can I move my king 1 step to the side (along the rank)? The rook would capture my king next. Then, I lose. Instead of declaring checkmate right a way. I lose anyways, but am I allowed to do that if I wanted to?

  3. this is true but the funniest part was when he said: gAmE oVeR

  4. I think this video was meant only for the newbies to Chess. Good job getting the information out there. During play, I've seen many newbies try to perform the same similar moves that he showed were illegal. many people believe it is played very similar to Checkers. It never hurts for newbies to learn if they're looking for answers on YouTube regarding Chess.

  5. omg!
    best chess video i have ever seen…
    thanks for sharing!

  6. You didn't tell being close to the king is illegal

  7. Hey pls make video from different angle subtitles are distribute a lot to see video cnt see which move u did

  8. This had to be one of dumbest videos by that how cast and

  9. I wasted 1 minute and 57 seconds of my life.

  10. goo goo ga ga this videos was aimed at toddlers ty

  11. Really, that is literal begginer thing welp 1:57 mins wasted of my life

  12. Man, the United Nations are really stepping it up.
    First, they made stuff illegal in war, now they made stuff illegal in IMAGINARY war

  13. This is the dumbest chess video ever. Thanks

  14. some people will bring their king in front of their pawns.

  15. Sometimes I predict the king's next placement and I "check" that spot, but then boom draw, remis.. illegale move. I play on the Play Magnus app, a bot

  16. You're their theacher! They'll be just confused with the rules after you say "oh, but the pawn can go backwards to block it" and then say no. Most kids are afraid to oppose their teacher, so this is just a horrible teaching strategy in my opinion

  17. "you might say that you can bring the pawn back here to…."
    me: WHO IN THE WORLD SAYS THAT

  18. First of all how do you have all those pawns just sitting there with no queen no rook no knight no bishop is that even legal?

  19. I've only played chess for 2 weeks but I've already triggered 16 "No legal moves" while playing. I'm really pissed off by this rule by now and that's why I'm here

  20. wasted two minutes of my life…. 1.56 for the video and 4 seconds for typing this.

  21. Grandmaster: Checkmate.

    Random 8 year-old he played against: Hold my illegal book of illegal chess moves

  22. Stop giving him flack. This video is for beginners.

  23. you forgot that the anti continent ballistic nuclear energy infused reality stone universal dimension splitter fabric of space shatterer is not allowed on the very first move

  24. I don't understand why I am not allowed to capture the queen with my king after the queen captures a pawn and puts me in check, I have an escape route but I am still not allowed to take the attacking queen, does anyone uderstand why?

  25. 1-Moving the king into check.

    2-Moving the chess pieces different from their property.

    3-Castling the king in check, through a check, or into check.

    4-Touching the piece but moving a different piece.

    5-Using two hands for castling, capturing, or pawn promotion.

    6-Making a different move instead of taking the king out of check.

    7-Moving the piece with one hand and pressing the clock with another.

  26. Question:
    – if in f7 would have been a black Rook, would this sequence be possible in order to stop the checkmate: black Rook moves to f8… and then? White Rook eats the black Rook –> can then the black King take the white Rook or is it illegal?

  27. Those moves could only be used against a person that just started playing chess.

  28. Misleading title since it shows only one example

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