Chess Basics and Rules

Chess Board Setup

Chess is played by two players, one with the White piece and one with the Black piece. The initial chess board is set up as shown below,


The following hints will help you remember the correct board setup,

• The opposing Kings and Queens directly opposite each other on the board,
• The Queen always sits on its own colored square, i.e. white Queen sits on white square and black Queen sits on black square

The Pieces and How They Move

• The Queen (Q) is the most powerful piece, she can move any number of squares in any direction (horizontal, vertical and diagonal), if the path is not blocked. She can move to any of the squares with dots in the following diagram,

• The Rook (R) is the next most powerful piece, it can move either vertically or horizontally if its path is not blocked. It can move to any of the squares with dots in the following diagram,
  

• The Bishop (B) moves diagonally if the path is not blocked. It can move to any of the squares with dots in the following diagram. Each side has a pair of Bishops, one light-square and one dark-square,

• The Knight (N) move in a special way. The Knight hops over other pieces to a new square in a way like a "L" shape. It always lands on a square opposite in color from its original square. The Knight can move to any of the squares with dots in the following diagram,

• The Pawn moves straight up, never backwards. It moves one square up, but on its first move it can move two squares up. It captures diagonally. The pawn can move to the squares as indicated in the following diagram,

• The King (K) can move one square in any direction. However, the King can never move into a check. The King can move to any squares with x in the following diagram,

Special Moves

Castling is a special move that lets a player move two pieces at once - the King and the Rook. A player may "castle" only once during a game. In castling, the player moves his King two squares to its left (Queen-side castling) or to its right (King-side castling) toward one the Rooks, at the mean time, the Rook involved moves to the square besides the King to the center of the board.

The following diagram illustrates the King-side castling,

The following diagram illustrates the Queen-side castling,

In order to castle, neither the King or the Rook involved have moved already. There may not be any pieces of either color between the King and the Rook involved. Importantly, the King may not castle out of check, into check or through check. The following diagram illustrates that White can not castle on the King-side as it would castle into check, but it can castle on the Queen-side; while Black can not castle on Queen-side as it would castle through check, but it can castle on the King-side.


Click to learn How to Record Chess Moves.

En Passant is a French phase used for special pawn capture. It occurs when one player moves a pawn two squares forward to try to avoid capture, the capture is made though exactly as if the player had moved the pawn only one square forward. In the following diagram, the Black pawn moves up two squares to the one marked with a black dot. On its turn, the White pawn may capture the Black pawn on the square marked with the X. However, if the player decides not to take this option immediately and opt to move another piece, then the player loses this option for the rest of the game. Though other similar "en passsant" opportunities may occur during the game.

Check and Checkmate

Check is a direct attack on your opponent's King. If there is no way to get out of a check then the King is checkmated and the side who is checkmated loses the game. The main goal of chess is to checkmate your opponent's King.

When the King is under check, there are three ways to get out of it,

1. Move away - moving the King to a square so that he is no longer in check,
2. Block - placing a piece of your own between the attacker and the King to block the check unless the attacker is a Knight, which you can not block,
3. Capture - capturing the attacking piece.

If you can not do none of the above, then the King is checkmated.

Stalemate

In Chess, there is a special situation where it's your turn to move and your King is not under check and you can not make a legal move, this situation is called Stalemate and the game result is a draw or tie.

The Valuations of Pieces

As mentioned early that the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board, in general there is an acceptable valuation for each piece on the board,

• Queen = 9 points
• Rook = 5 points
• Bishop = 3 points
• Knight = 3 points
• Pawn = 1 point
• King = priceless!