Chess the rules

▶ Play Chess

Two armies of 16 pieces. Each kind of piece moves in its own way. You win by checkmate: attacking the other king so that it has no way out.

The start

The board has 8 × 8 squares; the square in each player's right-hand corner is light. The columns are named a to h, the rows 1 to 8 from white's side, so every square has a name like e4.

Each player has a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. The queen starts on her own colour (the white queen on a light square). White moves first, then the players take turns, one move each.

The start position.

How the pieces move

A piece moves to an empty square or takes an enemy piece by moving onto its square. Only the knight may jump over other pieces; all others stop at the first piece in their way.

King — one square in any direction. He may never move into check.
Queen — any number of squares in a straight line: across, down or diagonally.
Rook — any number of squares across or down.
Bishop — any number of squares diagonally. It stays on its colour all game.
Knight — an L: two squares one way and one to the side. It jumps over anything in between.
Pawn — one square straight forward (two from its first square), but it takes diagonally forward. It never moves back.

Capturing

Move onto a square with an enemy piece and it is taken: it leaves the board for good. You can never take your own pieces, and nobody can take a king — the game ends before that, with checkmate.

Pieces have a rough worth that helps you decide what to trade: pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9.

Check and checkmate

A king that is attacked is in check. The player must end the check at once: move the king away, put a piece in between, or take the attacker. A move that leaves your own king in check is not allowed.

If there is no way out of check, it is checkmate and the game is over.

Checkmate on the back row. The rook gives check, and the black king's own pawns block every escape.
Check, but not mate. The bishop attacks the king, but white can move the king, or put the knight back in between.

Castling

Once a game, the king may castle: he moves two squares towards a rook, and that rook jumps over him to the square next to him. Short castling is towards the h-rook, long castling towards the a-rook.

Castling is allowed only if:

To castle here, click the king and then the square two steps to the side.

Short castling: the king e1 → g1, the rook h1 → f1.
Long castling: the king e1 → c1, the rook a1 → d1.
Not allowed: the black bishop attacks f1, which the king would pass over.

En passant

When a pawn takes the two-square step from its first square and lands right beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may take it as if it had moved only one square: it moves diagonally behind it, and the pawn that jumped is removed.

It must be done on the very next move, or the chance is gone.

1. Black moves the pawn d7 → d5, two squares, past the white pawn on e5.
2. White takes it en passant: e5 → d6, and the black pawn on d5 leaves the board.

Promotion

A pawn that reaches the last row becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour — the player chooses. Usually a queen, so a player can have two or more queens. The page asks which piece you want.

The pawn on b7 steps to b8 and becomes a queen.

Draws

Stalemate. Black to move: the king is not in check, but every square it could go to is attacked. A draw — so take care when you are winning.

☁️ Fog of War

A variant you can choose when you start a game. You only see your own pieces and the squares they can move to (and the square in front of each pawn); the rest is fog. There is no check: a king may walk into danger without warning, and whoever takes the other king wins.

The opponent's moves stay hidden until the game is over, then the whole board is shown. A piece you lose sight of stays as a faint shadow with a ? where you last saw it. When one of your pieces is taken, you see what took it. Fog of War is just for fun and does not count for rewards.

Playing here

▶ Play Chess