Chess Rules for Beginners, Explained Simply

The goal of the game

Each player has 16 pieces. The aim is to checkmate the opponent's king — attack it so it cannot escape. You never actually capture the king; the game ends the moment it is checkmated.

Setting up the board

• Place the board so each player has a light square in the bottom-right corner ("light on the right").
• Rooks go in the corners, knights next to them, then bishops.
• The queen goes on her own colour: the white queen on a light square, the black queen on a dark square.
• The king takes the last square on the back row, next to the queen.
• All eight pawns go on the row in front of the pieces.
• White always moves first.

How each piece moves

King

One square in any direction. The king can never move to a square where it would be attacked.

Queen

Any number of squares in a straight line — up, down, sideways or diagonally — as long as nothing is in the way. The most powerful piece.

Rook

Any number of squares up, down or sideways (never diagonally).

Bishop

Any number of squares diagonally. Each bishop stays on the colour it starts on for the whole game.

Knight

Moves in an "L": two squares in one direction, then one square to the side. The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces.

Pawn

Moves straight forward one square — or two squares on its very first move. Pawns capture differently: one square diagonally forward. They never move backwards.

Capturing

To capture, move your piece onto a square occupied by an opponent's piece and remove that piece from the board. You can't capture your own pieces, and you can't jump over pieces to capture (except with the knight, which jumps anyway).

Check, checkmate and how to escape check

A king that is under attack is in check. The player in check must deal with it immediately, in one of three ways:

1. 1Move the king to a safe square.
2. 2Block the attack by putting a piece in the way (impossible against a knight).
3. 3Capture the attacking piece.

If none of these is possible, it's checkmate and the game is over. You may not make any move that leaves your own king in check.

The three special moves

1. Castling

Castling moves the king to safety and brings a rook into play in one move: the king moves two squares towards a rook, and that rook jumps to the square on the king's other side. You can castle only if:

• neither the king nor that rook has moved yet in the game;
• there are no pieces between them;
• the king is not in check;
• the king does not pass through or land on a square that is attacked.

2. En passant

When a pawn moves forward two squares from its starting position and lands right beside an opponent's pawn, that opponent's pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square — moving diagonally onto the square the pawn skipped. This capture is only allowed on the very next move; wait, and the chance is gone.

3. Pawn promotion

When a pawn reaches the far end of the board, it must be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour. Most players choose a queen — and you can have more than one queen at a time.

How a game can end in a draw

• Stalemate: the player to move is not in check but has no legal move. It's a draw — a classic way to throw away a winning position.
• Agreement: both players agree to a draw.
• Threefold repetition: the same position occurs three times with the same player to move.
• Fifty-move rule: 50 moves by each player pass with no capture and no pawn move.
• Insufficient material: neither side can possibly checkmate — for example king against king, or king and one bishop or knight against a lone king.

Tournament rules worth knowing early

• Touch-move: in over-the-board tournaments, if you deliberately touch one of your pieces you must move it (if it has a legal move). To straighten a piece, say "I adjust" first.
• The clock: press it with the same hand you used to move. Run out of time and you usually lose.
• Recording moves: in longer games you'll often have to write down every move in chess notation.

Our first chess tournament checklist goes through these in more detail.

The most common beginner mistakes

1. 1Not checking what the opponent's last move threatens.
2. 2Leaving pieces undefended ("hanging").
3. 3Bringing the queen out too early, where it gets chased around.
4. 4Stalemating the opponent when a checkmate was close.
5. 5Forgetting castling exists — and leaving the king in the centre.

Once the rules feel natural, the next step is learning how to start a game well: see chess opening basics for beginners.