Wayne Macfadden, MD, holds a bachelor's degree in biomedical science from the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education in New York and an MD from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine. He is presently the global medical affairs, sleep therapeutic area lead at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, a multinational biopharmaceutical company dedicated to creating medications that improve the quality of life for people with a variety of diseases. Dr. Wayne Macfadden enjoys playing chess in his spare time.
Chess begins with 16 pieces on the chessboard for each player, including one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. A player will play either the white or black pieces. The person who plays the white pieces always moves first, and each chess piece moves differently across the board.
The king, the most important piece in a chess game, can move one square in any direction and must be protected at all costs (to avoid losing the game), while the queen, the strongest piece, can move any number of squares forward, backward, or diagonally. She frequently attacks the enemy's king, and if she can place it in a position where it can be captured on the player’s next move, that is referred to as a “check.” If the king can't avoid capture, that's “checkmate,” and the game is over.
Pawns, the weakest chess pieces, advance forward one square at a time, with the exception of their first move, when they have the opportunity to move forward two squares. Rooks are commonly used to dominate the chessboard center and can travel as far horizontally or vertically as other pieces on the board will allow, while bishops are typically employed to launch unexpected attacks against the king. They can travel diagonally over any number of spaces and in any direction. Finally, Knights move in the shape of an L, moving two squares in one direction and then one square perpendicular to that, or one square in one direction and two squares perpendicular, enabling them to strike the opposing king from behind. Unlike other chessman, knights can leap over other pieces.
