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He is the boss, but the work is done by others. When things on the board get really speedy the king hides in his castle. If an attack can't be defended the game is over - mate! The king only makes majestic little moves. But in the endgame the king is king and slaughters the opponent's pawns.

It is the strong piece for a frontal attack. Very strong and very mobile. But at the start they are unable to move as they are blocked in by their own pieces.

The bishop moves in straight lines along the diagonals, forwards or backwards, for as many squares as you choose, as long as there is nothing to block it. At the start of the game both sides have two bishops, one that runs along the dark squares of the board, the other on the light squares. Two bishops are extremely powerful when working together.

The most valuable piece on the board is female. With her moves she can reach any square on the board. Therefore it is a powerful attacking weapon. If it is off the board the game can get boring.

The joker in the pack. Due to its 'crooked' way of moving it is hard to keep tabs on. It has no great range, but can leap over anything in its way. It loves outposts in the centre and is unhappy on the edge of the board.

They are not valuable, they can only go forwards and then they become wedged against their counterparts. But the pawns give the game strategic content and sense. In the endgame they can become queens.

When chess occurs in movies the most common mistake is that the chessboard itself is wrongly set up. Here we show you how to get it right.

When attacking, defending, exchanging and sacrificing pieces you have to their value. Any player who is swindled when exchanging will soon lose the game. To understand that a little theory is required.

If you move on to squares occupied by opposing pieces, these are captured. A capture followed by a recapture of the same type of piece is known as an exchange.

An attack on the king is called check. The check must be dealt with, otherwise the game is lost.

A king needs protection. For that it has its pawns. By castling it hides behind a chain of three of them and is safe for the first time.

Anyone who has no moves left and is in check is mated. Mate wins the game so it is possible to sacrifice everything in order to mate your opponent. That is why mating attacks are so exciting.

A daft rule: stalemate. No moves can be made, but there is no check. That is a draw.

All openings follow the same principles. If you understand them you can play the first moves sensibly without any knowledge of theory.

If your move means that you could take an opposing piece on your next move, you are attacking it. You need to recognise such possible attacks and carry them out at the right moment. In addition we shall show how to react to attacks.

Because attacks are so important we'll do some solid practice

Defending also needs to be learned. Here there is plenty of material for just that.

The queen is the strongest attacking piece. So it delivers mate particularly often. Its mating motifs are the most important.

As soon as a file towards the opposing king is opened the rook becomes a killer. But be careful. It can also attack from the side: yoiu need to be able to spot a back rank mate in your sleep.

A king which is hemmed in and an open diagonal. Now the bishop comes into its own.

If the knight wishes to deliver mate it needs the help of its teammates. With the exception of a wonderfully beautiful example: in a smothered mate it defies all the defending pieces and finishes off a king walled in by other pieces.

Actually pawns are there to rip open the opposing king position. They are often sacrificed for that reason. But any piece which can give check can also deliver mate. With a little support from other pieces we can get some pretty mating patterns.

This ending is the way things usually finish: a pawn promotes to queen, all other material has left the board. Now you need to know how to mate with the queen alone.

Checkmating with two rooks is not difficult. The king is not needed. As soon as you understand how the rooks cooperate you have mastered the process.

The mother of all tactical tricks: The double attack. Killing two birds with one stone, only one can escape.

First pin, then capture. Not nice, but effective

Even better players can overlook it: a piece is skewered and then material behind it is won.

The skewer occurs so often that you can really score a lot of points with it.

One of the most dangerous tactical weapons of them all. A discovered attack with check is as a rule fatal.

A nasty surprise. One moves, another attacks. The defender is usually overloaded.

One poor piece has several defensive tasks. Things often go wrong because you only have one move when it is your turn.

An age-old motif which still works. One piece diverts the defender, another cleans up.

Killing the king by walling it in and a powerful queen sacrifice. Smothered mate is one of the most beautiful combinations in chess and is seen surprisingly often in practice.

In the endgame the king becomes a strong piece. It supports its own pawns and attacks those of the opponent. It soon comes about that the two kings are opposite each other and holding each other in check. That is called the opposition and is quite an important tactic in the endgame.

Mate can be delivered even with a single rook and no other piece. It is however more demanding than mate with the queen alone. The king must help actively. And which manoeuvre is required? Of course, the opposition.

The stage before mating with the queen: White manages to promote his pawn. That always works when White gets control of the queening square.

Not every ending with king and pawn against king is a win. If the defending side can hold the queening square it has the best chances of a draw. This defensive technique has as its focus the opposition.

If in the endgame pawns are running free every centimetre will count. There is a simple trick for working out whether a defending king can catch a sprinting passed pawn.

Playing a lovely attack on the king. Wild sacrifices. Ushering through a passed pawn. Winning an ending. Against an opponent who is putting up a hard defence. You can do all that - in the handicap games.

Pawn vs. pawn. This is where the king comes in.

Queen against pawns. A mismatch. The queen should actually win...