Chess Rules for Beginners: How the Pieces Move and How to Win

Chess is played by two people on a board of 8 by 8, 64 squares in all, with 16 pieces each. There are six kinds of piece: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. One side is White and the other Black, and White moves first.

This post goes through the rules in the order I think they are easiest to learn: the board, the piece moves, how to win, the special moves, and draws. For the rules I used the FIDE Laws of Chess. Chess rules are unified worldwide by these Laws, so everything here is the same in every country.

1. Setting up the board

The board has light and dark squares in turn. The FIDE Laws say it is placed so that the near corner square to each player’s right is a light square. If the board is turned the wrong way, the king and queen end up swapped, so it is worth checking every time.

The pieces go on the two ranks nearest to you.

• The first rank: rooks in the corners, knights next to them, bishops next to the knights. The queen and king take the two middle squares
• The second rank: the eight pawns in a row

To remember which side the queen goes, use “the queen on her own colour”. The white queen stands on a light square (d1) and the black queen on a dark square (d8). Then the two queens face each other on the same file, and so do the two kings.

2. How the pieces move

In chess, a piece captures by moving onto the square of an enemy piece. The captured piece is removed from the board and never comes back.

King: one square in any of the eight directions. It cannot move onto a square the opponent attacks.

Queen: any number of squares along a file, a rank or a diagonal. It is the strongest piece.

Rook: any number of squares along a file or a rank.

Bishop: any number of squares along a diagonal. Because it only moves diagonally, a light-squared bishop stays on light squares for the whole game, and a dark-squared one on dark squares.

Knight: two squares along a file and then one along a rank, or two along a rank and then one along a file. The shape is an L. It is the only piece in chess that can jump over other pieces.

Pawn: one square straight forward. On its very first move it may go two squares instead. It captures one square diagonally forward. It cannot capture straight ahead, and a piece directly in front of it stops it. It never moves backward.

Apart from the knight, every piece stops when another piece is in the way.

3. How to win: checkmate

The aim of chess is to checkmate the opponent’s king.

When one of your pieces attacks the enemy king, the king is in check. The side in check must get out of it with the next move. There are three ways: move the king, capture the checking piece, or put a piece in between. When none of the three is possible, it is checkmate, and the side that gave it wins. The king is never actually captured.

The difference between check and checkmate, and examples of the three defences, are in Check vs Checkmate.

You also win when the opponent resigns.

4. Three special moves

There are three special moves you can learn once the piece moves feel natural. Here is only a short outline.

Castling: a move of the king and a rook together. The king goes two squares toward the rook, and the rook jumps over the king to the square right next to it. It is only allowed when neither the king nor that rook has moved yet and there is nothing between them. It is also not allowed when the king is in check, or when the square the king crosses or lands on is attacked. Castling tucks the king into a corner and brings the rook toward the centre.

En passant: when a pawn makes its first two-square move and lands right beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it diagonally as if it had moved only one square. This capture is only allowed on the very next move.

Promotion: when a pawn reaches the last rank, it is exchanged in the same move for a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight. You choose which. Most players choose a queen, but now and then another piece is the right answer.

5. How a game can be drawn

Chess has draws. These five are worth knowing from the start.

• Stalemate: the side to move has no legal move and is not in check. More in Stalemate Explained
• Not enough material: neither side can checkmate by any series of legal moves, as when only the two kings are left
• Agreement: both players agree to a draw
• Repetition: the same position appears for the third time and the player to move claims a draw
• The fifty-move rule: fifty moves by each side pass with no pawn move and no capture, and a player claims a draw

Under the FIDE Laws the last two need a claim. Without any claim, the game is drawn automatically when the same position appears five times, or when seventy-five moves by each side pass under the same condition.

Common beginner slips

Here are the points I think beginners most often get wrong.

How pawns capture. A pawn moves straight but captures diagonally. Trying to capture the piece directly in front is a very common slip. The two-square move is only for a pawn’s first move.

Moving the king into danger. The king cannot go to a square the opponent attacks. That includes the squares next to the enemy king, so the two kings never stand side by side.

Ignoring a check. In check, no other kind of move is allowed. If you give check and your opponent does not notice and plays something else, that move is illegal. Under the FIDE Laws an illegal move is taken back and the position before it is restored.

Castling while in check. As above, you cannot castle when your king is in check.

The board turned the wrong way. The near right corner is light. Almost every swapped king and queen comes from this.

One more: in tournaments and other over-the-board games, if you touch one of your own pieces you must move it, as long as it can be moved (Article 4.3 of the FIDE Laws). At home you do not need to worry about it, but knowing it saves surprise later.

The order I suggest

I would learn the piece moves and checkmate first, then play a whole game straight away. Castling, en passant and promotion can wait until you meet a moment in a game where they apply. Of the draw rules, stalemate is the one to learn early, because it keeps you from drawing games you are winning.

Learn by moving the pieces in Mindsports

StudyX Mindsports is an app with 12 strategy games, including shogi, go and chess. The chess beginner lessons teach the rules through tap-to-answer quizzes and then let you practise in real game positions. The lessons are available in 15 languages.

Chess is played with the international rules, including castling, en passant and promotion. In Mindsports a promoted pawn always becomes a queen. Stalemate, threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule and positions with too little material are detected by the app and end the game as a draw automatically.

After the lessons you can play the CPU from Lv.1 to Lv.50. It goes up one level when you win and down one when you lose. You can take moves back, so if you move a piece the wrong way you can undo it and check. In the match settings you can also choose a handicap where White, as the stronger side, plays without a pawn, a knight, a rook or the queen. After a game you can review it move by move. The games and beginner lessons are free, with ads. Each game’s first advanced lesson is free too, and a one-time purchase opens the rest and removes the ads.

How chess differs from shogi and go is in Shogi, Go and Chess: The Differences, and how to use Mindsports is in Getting Started with Mindsports. Once you know the rules and want to practise mating patterns every day, there is also Chess365.