Learn the game. Master the thinking.

Setting up the board

The left-hand corner square closest to the player with the white pieces must be a black square. White always plays first, and queens are always placed on their own color.

Starting at the lower-left corner (square A1), the white pieces are set up left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook — with the eight white pawns filling the row in front of them. Black is set up the same way on the opposite side of the board.

How the pieces move

King — moves one square in any direction, and cannot move onto a square occupied by another of its own pieces.

Queen — the most powerful piece on the board. Moves any direction, any number of squares, but cannot jump over other pieces.

Rook — moves horizontally or vertically, any number of squares, in a straight line.

Bishop — moves and captures diagonally only.

Knight — the only piece that can leap over other pieces. It moves in an L-shape: two squares in one direction, then one square perpendicular. It changes square color every time it moves.

Pawn — moves straight ahead only (two squares on its first move, one square after that), but captures diagonally one square forward.

Check and checkmate

Any attack on the enemy King is called a “check.” A King in check must get out of it by capturing the checking piece, moving out of the line of attack, or blocking the attack with another piece. If none of those are possible, the King is “checkmated” and the game is over.

Discovered & double check

A discovered check happens when moving one piece reveals an attack from another piece behind it. A double check is the rarer case where the moved piece and the revealed piece both give check at once — leaving the King no option but to move.

Castling, promotion & en passant

Castling is the only move that repositions two pieces at once: the King moves two squares toward a Rook, and that Rook hops to the square beside the King. It’s only legal if neither piece has moved yet, the squares between them are empty, and the King is not in (or moving through) check.

Pawn promotion — a pawn that reaches the far end of the board must be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight (usually a queen, since it’s the most powerful piece).

En passant is a special, situational pawn-capture rule — an advanced topic worth learning once the basics feel comfortable.

Piece values

Queen — 9 points · Rook — 5 points · Knight — 3 points · Bishop — 3 points · Pawn — 1 point. These values help you judge whether a trade is in your favor.

How games are drawn

Games can end in a draw through perpetual check (an inescapable repeating series of checks), stalemate (a player to move has no legal move and isn’t in check), insufficient mating material (neither side has enough pieces left to force checkmate), or simple mutual agreement between the players.