Brandon S. answered 05/19/20
USCF Chess Expert 2000+, 10+ years of teaching Experience
The short answer is... to checkmate your opponent! However chess isn't like other games where the only objective is to win. The beautiful part about chess is that you can get as creative as you'd like and there is a lot more to the game than just winning. Although everyone loves a sweet victory!
From the start to finish there are lots of interesting ways to go about. You can choose to play passive solid lines or aggressive gambits to get your opponent off guard. The great thing about chess is that no two game is the same. Just in the first 4 moves of the game there are over 318 billion possible different combinations that can be played! That's right in the billions!