How to play Chess
Chess is a two-player strategy game on an 8 by 8 board. Each side has sixteen pieces that move in different ways, and the aim is to checkmate the other king: attack it so that it cannot escape. There is no luck involved, so every game is decided by the moves the players choose.
Step by step
Set up the board
Place the board with a light square in the bottom-right corner. Rooks go in the corners, then knights, then bishops, with the queen on her own colour and the king beside her. Pawns fill the second row.
White moves first
Players take turns, moving one piece each turn. You may not pass.
Learn how each piece moves
Rooks move in straight lines, bishops diagonally, the queen both ways, the knight in an L shape, the king one square any way, and pawns forward one square (two on their first move).
Capture by landing on a piece
Move onto a square held by an enemy piece to take it off the board. Pawns capture one square diagonally forward.
Protect your king
When your king is attacked it is in check, and you must get it out of check straight away.
Checkmate wins
If the king is in check and there is no move that saves it, that is checkmate and the game is over.
The full rules
What you need
Chess is played on a square board of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, coloured light and dark in turn. Each player has 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. One player has the white (light) pieces and the other has the black (dark) pieces.
The columns are called files and are lettered a to h from White’s left. The rows are called ranks and are numbered 1 to 8 from White’s side. Every square has a name, such as e4.
Setting up
Turn the board so that each player has a light square in the corner on their right.
On the row nearest to you, put the rooks in the corners, the knights next to them, and the bishops next to the knights. The queen goes on the remaining square of her own colour (the white queen on a light square, the black queen on a dark one), and the king goes on the last square. Put all eight pawns on the row in front.
White moves first, and then the players take turns.
How the pieces move
- King: one square in any direction.
- Queen: any number of squares in a straight line: up, down, across or diagonally.
- Rook: any number of squares up, down or across.
- Bishop: any number of squares diagonally. Each bishop stays on its own colour for the whole game.
- Knight: in an L shape, two squares one way and then one square to the side. It is the only piece that can jump over others.
- Pawn: one square straight forward, or two squares forward on its very first move. Pawns capture differently: one square diagonally forward. They never move backwards.
Except for the knight, no piece may jump over another piece.
Capturing
You capture an enemy piece by moving onto its square. It is taken off the board. You can never capture your own pieces, and the king itself is never captured: the game ends with checkmate first.
Check and checkmate
When a king is attacked, it is in check. The player in check must get out of it on their next move, by moving the king, blocking the attack with another piece, or capturing the attacking piece. You may never make a move that puts or leaves your own king in check.
If a king is in check and nothing can save it, that is checkmate. The player who gives checkmate wins.
Special moves
Castling. Once per game, you may move your king two squares towards one of your rooks, and then place that rook on the square the king passed over. You can castle only if neither the king nor that rook has moved yet, all the squares between them are empty, your king is not in check, and the king does not pass through or land on a square that is attacked.
En passant. If an enemy pawn moves two squares forward from its starting square and lands right beside one of your pawns, you may capture it as though it had moved only one square. Your pawn moves diagonally onto the square the enemy pawn passed over. You must do this on your very next move or not at all.
Promotion. When a pawn reaches the far side of the board, it is changed straight away into a queen, rook, bishop or knight of your choice. Most players choose a queen.
How a game can be drawn
A game is a draw when:
- the player to move has no legal move but is not in check (stalemate),
- both players agree to a draw,
- the same position comes up three times with the same player to move,
- fifty moves each pass with no capture and no pawn move, or
- neither side has enough pieces left to give checkmate, for example king against king, or king and one bishop or knight against a king.
When you play here, these draws are recognised for you, and you can offer the computer a draw or resign from the buttons below the board.
Simple strategy for beginners
- Control the centre. Pieces in the middle of the board reach more squares. Moving a centre pawn first, such as e2 to e4, opens lines for your bishop and queen.
- Bring out your knights and bishops early. Get them off the back row before moving the same piece twice.
- Castle early. Castling tucks your king behind its pawns and brings a rook towards the middle.
- Don’t bring the queen out too soon. She can be chased around by smaller pieces, wasting your moves.
- Before each move, check what is attacked. Ask what your opponent’s last move threatens, and whether your move leaves a piece unguarded.
- Count the trade. As a rough guide, a pawn is worth 1, a knight or bishop 3, a rook 5 and a queen 9. Swapping a knight for a rook is a good deal; swapping a rook for a pawn is not.
Playing against the computer here
Choose Gentle if you are just learning: it looks only one move ahead and often misses things. Easy takes pieces you leave unguarded, and Normal thinks a few moves ahead and plays carefully. Tap a piece to see where it can go, then tap the square you want. You can take back a move, ask for a hint, and show the list of moves played.
Common questions
What is the difference between check and checkmate?
Check means the king is under attack but can escape, by moving, blocking or capturing the attacker. Checkmate means there is no way to escape, and the game ends.
What is castling?
A special move of the king and a rook together. The king moves two squares towards the rook and the rook jumps to the square on the king's other side. Neither piece may have moved before, the squares between must be empty, and the king may not be in check, pass through an attacked square or land in check.
What is en passant?
If a pawn moves two squares forward and lands beside one of your pawns, your pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square. You must do it on your very next move or the chance is gone.
How can a chess game end in a draw?
By stalemate, by agreement, when the same position comes up three times, when fifty moves each pass with no capture and no pawn move, or when neither side has enough pieces left to checkmate.
Which piece is the most valuable?
The king can never be captured, so it is beyond value. Of the others, the queen is strongest, then the rooks, then bishops and knights, which are worth about the same, and then the pawns.
Where it comes from
Chess is generally thought to have grown from an older game played in India around 1,500 years ago, which spread to Persia and then through the Arab world to Europe. The pieces and rules changed over the centuries; the modern queen and bishop moves are believed to have appeared in Europe in the late 1400s, after which the game took essentially the form played today.
