Step-by-Step Tutorial
The chessboard is an 8x8 grid. Each player starts with 16 pieces: 1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, and 8 Pawns.
White always moves first. The board is oriented so each player has a light square in their bottom-right corner.
Pawns move forward one square, or two squares from their starting position. They capture diagonally one square forward.
Pawns cannot move backward. They are the only piece that captures differently from how they move.
Knights move in an L-shape: two squares in one direction and one square perpendicular (or vice versa). Knights are the only piece that can jump over other pieces.
A knight in the center can reach up to 8 squares.
Bishops slide diagonally any number of squares. Each bishop stays on its starting color for the entire game — one on light squares, one on dark squares.
Together, both bishops cover all squares on the board.
Rooks slide horizontally or vertically any number of squares. They are powerful pieces, especially on open files (columns with no pawns).
Rooks are also involved in castling (covered later).
The Queen combines the power of the Rook and Bishop — she can move any number of squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
The Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. Losing her is a major disadvantage.
The King moves one square in any direction. The King can never move to a square that is attacked by an opponent's piece.
Protecting your King is the most important objective in chess.
Castling is a special move involving the King and a Rook. The King moves two squares toward a Rook, and the Rook jumps over the King.
Requirements: neither piece has moved, no pieces between them, the King is not in check, and the King doesn't pass through or land on an attacked square.
Kingside castling (short): King goes to g1/g8. Queenside (long): King goes to c1/c8.
En passant is a special pawn capture. When an opponent's pawn advances two squares from its starting position and lands beside your pawn, you can capture it as if it had only moved one square.
This capture must be made immediately on the next move or the right is lost.
When a pawn reaches the opposite end of the board (rank 8 for white, rank 1 for black), it must be promoted to a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight.
Promoting to a Queen is most common, but underpromotion (choosing another piece) can be strategically useful.
Check: the King is under attack. The player must get out of check by moving the King, blocking the attack, or capturing the attacker.
Checkmate: the King is in check and there is no legal move to escape. The game is over — the checkmating player wins!
Stalemate: the player to move is NOT in check but has no legal moves. The game is a draw.
Other draws: threefold repetition (same position 3 times), the 50-move rule (50 moves without a pawn move or capture), or insufficient material (e.g., King vs King).
Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank. There are 960 possible starting positions.
Constraints: bishops must be on opposite-colored squares, the king must be between the two rooks, and both players mirror the same arrangement. All standard chess rules apply after the opening position is set.
This variant eliminates opening memorization and emphasizes creativity from move one.
In Chess960, castling still exists but works differently. Regardless of where the king and rook start, after castling the king and rook always end up on the standard castling squares:
• Kingside: King on g1/g8, Rook on f1/f8
• Queenside: King on c1/c8, Rook on d1/d8
The same requirements apply: neither piece has moved, no pieces block the path, and the king does not pass through or land on an attacked square. Because the starting positions vary, the king may move only one square — or even stay in place — during a castle.
In Three-Check chess, all standard rules apply — but there is an additional way to win: deliver three checks to your opponent's king.
Each time you give check, your check counter increments. The first player to reach 3 checks wins immediately, even if checkmate has not been delivered. Checkmate also still wins as usual.
Below, white has delivered 2 checks and black has delivered 1. White's rook on e1 is about to give the third and final check!
Ready to play Chess?