Chess Conquest Theme: Divide and Conquer Pieces
Capturing enemy chess pieces is the prime activity in chess that leads to the ultimate goal of the game: conquer the enemy king. Thus, it is important to know the basics of conquest, which is dividing and capturing enemy chess pieces.
The first item here should be how to capture. Each chess piece has a definite pattern of movement. For instance, a bishop runs the full diagonal length of the board to and fro, left and right. It can also make short diagonal travels and fork checking or a two-way checking of enemy pieces—left and right, forward and backward. Any enemy piece that stands in the way of the bishop's path is a potential for a capture. This is called a check.
For instance, we place our bishop such that 7 squares diagonal to the right of it stands the enemy king. We announce "check-king." This means the enemy king is in danger of being captured by our bishop and result to our opponent's defeat. "Check" means we are positioned and have the intention of capturing a piece. If an enemy rook happens to be standing in the way of our bishop, the rook stands in danger of being captured. The same ruling goes for most pieces—any enemy piece in the way of our piece taking its turn is in danger of being captured.
However, there are pieces that can only capture enemy pieces that occupy the square they are supposed to land on. Such pieces are a king, knight, and a pawn. For instance, if an enemy bishop stands on the square where a knight is supposed to land—and the enemy player misses this—on the next turn the knight may capture the bishop.
However, there is a rule on warning some checked pieces. When we check major pieces like the king, queen, and rooks, we must announce the move and make sure the opponent is aware of it. Other checked pieces need not be announced.
Another important principle is dividing. Good players always devise a system of defense. This means enemy pieces are closely linked in a defense network. The proper strategy here is to divide and break the network before trying to capture the pieces.
Thus, the above is how we capture enemy pieces—when they stand in the way or stand on the square where our piece will land on. And equally important is how to break defense networks to perfectly perpetrate a capture.