How to Play Chess: Rules for Complete Beginners

Chess is a game for two players, White and Black, who take turns moving one piece. Each piece moves in its own way, and you win by checkmate: attacking the enemy king so that it cannot escape. This guide explains every rule you need, from setting up the board to the special moves and draws.

The board and setup

The board has 64 squares in 8 rows (ranks 1 to 8) and 8 columns (files a to h). Each player has 16 pieces: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights and 8 pawns. The bottom-right square of each player is light. The queen starts on her own colour: the white queen on a light square, the black queen on a dark one.

How the pieces move

• King: one square in any direction.
• Queen: any number of squares in a straight line or diagonal.
• Rook: any number of squares along a rank or file.
• Bishop: any number of squares diagonally, always staying on one colour.
• Knight: an L-shape, two squares one way and one square sideways. It is the only piece that jumps over others.
• Pawn: one square forward, or two from its starting square. It captures one square diagonally forward.

No piece except the knight can move through other pieces. In Chess Live, tap a piece to see every legal square as a dot.

Check and checkmate

When your king is attacked, it is in check and you must deal with it at once: move the king, block the attack or capture the attacker. If none of those is possible, it is checkmate and the game is over. You may never make a move that leaves your own king in check.

The special moves

• Castling: the king moves two squares toward a rook, and the rook jumps to the square the king crossed. It is allowed only if neither piece has moved, the squares between them are empty, and the king is not in check and does not pass through or land on an attacked square.
• En passant: if a pawn moves two squares and lands next to an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had moved one square, but only on the very next move.
• Promotion: a pawn that reaches the last rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight. Most players choose a queen.

How a game can be drawn

• Stalemate: the player to move is not in check but has no legal move.
• Threefold repetition: the same position appears three times.
• 50-move rule: 50 moves each without a capture or a pawn move.
• Not enough pieces: for example king against king, or king and bishop against king.
• Agreement: one player offers a draw and the other accepts.

Clocks

In timed games each player has a clock that runs only on their own turn. If your time runs out, you lose, unless your opponent has too few pieces to checkmate, in which case it is a draw.

Frequently asked questions