How to play chess
Every rule of the game on one page: the pieces, the special moves, how a game is won, and the six ways it ends in a draw.
The board
Eight files (a to h) by eight ranks (1 to 8), set up with a light square in each player's bottom-right corner. White moves first, and the players alternate; passing is not allowed.
How the pieces move
Pawn. One square forward, or two from its starting square. It captures diagonally, one square, which is the only move it makes that is not straight ahead.
Knight. Two squares along one line and one across, in an L. It is the only piece that jumps over others.
Bishop. Any distance diagonally. Each bishop stays on the colour it started on, for the whole game.
Rook. Any distance along a rank or a file.
Queen. Any distance in any of the eight directions. Rook and bishop in one piece.
King. One square in any direction, and it may never move onto a square where it would be captured.
The three special moves
Castling. The king moves two squares towards a rook and the rook jumps to the far side of it. Allowed only when neither piece has moved, the squares between them are empty, and the king is not in check, does not pass through an attacked square, and does not land on one.
En passant. If a pawn advances two squares and lands beside an enemy pawn, that pawn may capture it as though it had moved only one. The right lasts for exactly one move and is then gone.
Promotion. A pawn reaching the far rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight — your choice, and you may have more than one queen.
Check and checkmate
A king attacked is in check, and the attack must be answered immediately: move the king, capture the attacker, or block the line. If there is no way to answer, it is checkmate and the game is over.
The six draws
- Stalemate. The side to move has no legal move and is not in check.
- Insufficient material. Neither side has enough left to force mate — king against king, or king and one minor piece.
- Threefold repetition. The same position, with the same side to move and the same rights, appears three times.
- The fifty-move rule. Fifty moves by each side with no capture and no pawn move.
- Agreement. Both players accept a draw.
- Dead position. No sequence of legal moves could ever produce mate.
What to do with all that
Rules are the easy part; the habit is the hard part. Before every move, look at your opponent's checks, captures and threats. Almost every game lost below club level is lost to a move that was visible.