How to Play Chess

Chess is a two-player strategy game played on an 8×8 board. Each player commands an army of 16 pieces and takes turns moving one piece at a time. The goal isn't to capture every enemy piece — it's to trap the opposing king so it has no way to escape an attack. That's called checkmate, and it wins the game instantly. Below is everything you need to know to play a full game of chess, from setup to the finer rules that trip up beginners.

The board and setup

The board has 64 squares in an alternating light/dark pattern, arranged in 8 rows (called ranks, numbered 1–8) and 8 columns (called files, lettered a–h). The board is always set up so each player has a light square in their bottom-right corner.

Each side starts with 16 pieces on their nearest two ranks:

• 8 pawns, filling the entire second rank (or seventh, for Black)
• 2 rooks, in the corners
• 2 knights, next to the rooks
• 2 bishops, next to the knights
• 1 queen, on the remaining central square matching her own color (white queen on a light square, black queen on a dark square)
• 1 king, on the last central square

White always moves first, and players alternate turns from there. Moving is not optional — if it's your turn, you must make a legal move.

How each piece moves

Pawn

Pawns move straight forward one square, and can never move backward or sideways. On its very first move, a pawn has the option to advance two squares instead of one. Pawns are also the only piece that captures differently than it moves: a pawn captures one square diagonally forward, and cannot capture a piece directly in front of it. Two special pawn rules — en passant and promotion — are covered below.

Knight

Knights move in an "L" shape: two squares in one direction (horizontal or vertical), then one square perpendicular to that. Knights are the only piece that can jump over other pieces — every other piece is blocked by anything in its path.

Bishop

Bishops move any number of squares diagonally, but cannot jump over other pieces. Because it only moves diagonally, each bishop stays on the same color square for the entire game — one bishop travels only light squares, the other only dark squares.

Rook

Rooks move any number of squares horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally, and cannot jump over other pieces. Rooks are also involved in castling, a special king-and-rook move covered below.

Queen

The queen is the most powerful piece — it combines the rook and bishop, moving any number of squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, but cannot jump over other pieces.

King

The king moves exactly one square in any direction: horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The king can never move into a square that is under attack by an enemy piece — doing so would be an illegal move, since it would place your own king in check. The king is also the only piece that never gets captured; the game ends the moment it's checkmated.

Check, checkmate, and stalemate

Check means a king is currently under attack by an enemy piece. A player in check must get out of it immediately on their very next move — there is no other legal option. There are only three ways to escape check:

• Move the king to a safe square
• Capture the attacking piece
• Block the attack by placing a piece between the attacker and the king (not possible against a knight, since it jumps)

Checkmate happens when a king is in check and none of those three escapes are available. Checkmate ends the game immediately — the checkmated side loses.

Stalemate is different and often confuses beginners: it's when the player to move is not in check, but has no legal move at all. Unlike checkmate, stalemate is not a loss for anyone — the game immediately ends in a draw.

Special moves

Castling

Castling is a single move involving both the king and a rook, usually done to get the king to safety. The king moves two squares toward a rook, and that rook jumps to the square right next to the king on the other side. You can castle on the kingside (shorter move, toward the h-file) or queenside (longer move, toward the a-file).

Castling is only legal if all of these are true:

• Neither the king nor that rook has moved yet this game
• There are no pieces between the king and the rook
• The king is not currently in check
• The king does not pass through or land on a square that is under attack

En passant

En passant ("in passing") is a special pawn capture. If an enemy pawn advances two squares on its first move and lands directly beside one of your pawns, you may capture it as though it had only moved one square — but only on your very next move. This is the only capture in chess where the captured piece isn't standing on the square you move to.

Pawn promotion

If a pawn reaches the far end of the board (the 8th rank for White, the 1st rank for Black), it must immediately be promoted — swapped out for a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. Most players promote to a queen, since it's the strongest piece, but any of the four is legal, including choosing a second queen.

Draws

Not every game ends in checkmate. A game is drawn (ends with neither side winning) in any of these situations:

• Stalemate — the player to move has no legal move and isn't in check
• Insufficient material — neither side has enough pieces left to possibly deliver checkmate (for example, king and bishop vs. king alone)
• Threefold repetition — the exact same position occurs three times, with the same player to move each time
• The 50-move rule — 50 consecutive moves pass for each side without a pawn move or a capture
• Agreement — both players agree to a draw

Once you're comfortable with the rules, the fastest way to improve is by training your tactical vision. Head over to our puzzle library or try the daily puzzle to start practicing, or browse our blog for tips on spotting common tactics.