Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)


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Q.

What is CharityChess?

A.

CharityChess is an online Chess battle ground with a focus on helping you become a better player and on helping those in need by donating our profits to charity.


Q.

What are Gold Pieces?

A.

Gold Pieces are used to determine how to allocate our donations to charities. Your current monthly total is displayed to the right of the navigation links. In your user preferences you may allocate your gold to various charities and at the end of the month the number of gold pieces allocated to each charity will be used to determine what percentage of profits should be sent to each charity.


Q.

How do I get Gold Pieces?

A.

You gain gold pieces be being an active member of the site, playing chess, reading training documents, and playing training puzzles are just a few ways you can gain gold. You can gain bonus gold pieces in a number of ways including mentoring other players, creating training documents, or annotating games.

Putting in the effort to do a good quality job at these tasks will greatly increase your income as user ratings do affect how much of a bonus you are given. You may also gain a substantial number of gold pieces by becoming a premium member and turning ads back on.


Q.

How do I learn to play?

A.

The rules of chess have varied over time. Today the Federation Internationale Des Echecs (FIDE), also known as the World Chess Organization, sets the standard rules of chess. FIDE Rules
Wikipedia has an easy to follow page covering the rules. Rules of Chess

Also look at our basic documents covering each piece for some additional history and strategy of the pieces. Then when you have the basics down move on to our training area and select BOARD VIEW Playing the different training modes will give you a good understanding of how the pieces move and capture.


Q.

How do I make moves?

A.

When you select a piece to move all valid moves for that piece will be shown. To make a move click on the piece you want to move, then click on the square you want to move it to. To send the move to the server click on the "Commit" button.

To cancel a move, click anywhere on the chess board to drop the currently selected piece. If you click on another one of your pieces the previous move will be reset and the new piece will be picked up. You can also press the "Reload" button to reset a move if you have not committed it yet.


Q.

How do I castle?

A.

To castle: move your King two squares towards the Rook, to the final position for the King. The Rook will move automatically if the castle is valid.
The Rules of Castling:

1. Move the King two squares toward the Rook (for White, from e1 to c1 or from e1 to g1).

2. The Rook moves to the square immediately on the other side of the King (for White, to d1 or f1).

Castling is not allowed if you had already moved the King or the Rook.
In addition: You cannot castle out of, through, or into check. The King must not cross or move to a square that is attacked by one of the opponent's pieces. All of the squares between the King and the Rook must be vacant.

See our basic training document on The King (Training Document for The King) for more information on what castling is. Or at Wikipedia: Castling


Q.

How do I capture en passant?

A.

To capture en passant simply move your pawn to the square behind the enemy pawn you wish to capture.

See our basic training document on The Pawn (Training Document for The Pawn) for an explanation of what en passant is. Or at Wikipedia: En Passant


Q.

What is board view in the training area?

A.

The board view training is designed to help you sharpen your mental and visual acuity in assessing the threats and opportunities on a given board.