How to play
Chess
Also known as International chess, Western chess, Standard chess
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What is Chess?
Chess is a two-player strategy game played on a board of 64 squares, with sixteen pieces per side. Players alternate turns, moving one piece at a time, and the goal is to attack the opposing king so that it cannot escape. Nothing is hidden and nothing is random, so every result comes down to the moves each player chooses.
How to play Chess
Setting up the board
Chess uses an 8x8 board, turned so each player has a light square in the bottom-right corner. On the row nearest you, place the rooks in the corners, then the knights, then the bishops, then the queen on the square matching her own colour, with the king beside her. The eight pawns fill the row in front, and White always moves first.
The rules, step by step
- Set up the board with the light square on each player's right and the queen on her own colour. White moves first and players then alternate, moving one piece per turn.
- Capture by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy piece and removing it from the board. You can never capture your own pieces, and no piece may land on a square already occupied by its own side.
- The king moves one square in any direction. The queen moves any number of squares in a straight line or diagonal, the rook any number along ranks and files, and the bishop any number diagonally, staying on one colour all game. None of them may jump over another piece.
- The knight moves in an L-shape, two squares one way then one square at right angles, and is the only piece that jumps over others.
- Pawns move one square forward, or two squares from their starting position, but capture one square diagonally forward. Pawns can never move backwards.
- When your king is attacked you are in check and must deal with it immediately: move the king, block the line of attack, or capture the attacking piece. You may never play a move that leaves your own king in check.
- Three special moves complete the rules: castling, which tucks the king into safety alongside a rook; en passant, a one-off pawn capture against a pawn that has just advanced two squares; and promotion, where a pawn reaching the far end becomes any piece except a king.
How to win
You win by checkmate: the opponent's king is in check and no legal move gets it out. The game is drawn by stalemate (the player to move has no legal move but is not in check), threefold repetition of the position, the fifty-move rule, insufficient material to mate, or mutual agreement.
Strategy tips
- Control the centre. Pieces placed on or aimed at the four central squares cover more ground, and a pawn or knight in the middle restricts what your opponent can do.
- Develop your pieces before attacking. Bring the knights and bishops off the back rank in the first several moves rather than chasing a single early threat with one piece.
- Castle early. Getting the king off the centre file and connecting the rooks usually matters more than winning a pawn in the opening.
- Do not bring the queen out too early. She is easy to chase with knights, bishops and pawns, and every attack on her costs you a tempo while your opponent develops.
- Count material before every trade. Using the pawn as the unit, a knight and bishop are worth about three, a rook five and a queen nine, so an even-looking exchange is often not even at all.
Origin and history
Chess descends from chaturanga, a game played in India by the 6th century, whose Sanskrit name refers to the four divisions of an army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
It reached Persia around 600 CE as chatrang, later called shatranj, and spread with the Islamic world into Europe, where it was known across the continent by about the year 1000.
The pieces now called the queen and bishop were weak in shatranj; between roughly 1475 and 1500, in Spain and Italy, they gained their long-range moves and the game took essentially its modern form.
Competition rules were standardised during the 19th century, and FIDE, the international federation, was founded in 1924.
Frequently asked questions
The king moves one square in any direction; the queen any number of squares in a straight or diagonal line; the rook any number along ranks and files; the bishop any number diagonally, staying on one colour for the whole game. The knight jumps in an L-shape, two squares then one at right angles, and is the only piece that can leap over others. Pawns move one square forward, or two from their starting square, and capture one square diagonally.
Checkmate means the king is under attack and no legal move escapes it, so the game ends and the attacking player wins. Stalemate means the player to move has no legal move at all but is not in check, which is a draw. A player who is losing can sometimes save half a point by steering into stalemate, so always give the opponent a legal move when you are converting a win.
Castling moves the king two squares towards one of its rooks, and that rook jumps to the square the king crossed, all in a single turn. It is legal only if neither that king nor that rook has moved before, the squares between them are empty, and the king is not in check and does not pass through or land on an attacked square. You cannot castle out of check, but you can castle when the rook itself is attacked.
It promotes immediately and is replaced by a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour, chosen by the player making the move. A king is not an option, and promotion is not limited to pieces already captured, so a player can legally have two or more queens. Most players take the queen, though promoting to a knight occasionally wins on the spot by giving check.
If a pawn advances two squares from its starting position and lands directly beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as though it had only moved one square. The capture has to be made on the very next turn or the right disappears. It is the only capture in chess where the capturing piece does not finish on the captured piece's square.
