The Goal of the Game
Chess is played between two players, White and White's opponent Black, each controlling sixteen pieces. The objective is checkmate: trapping the opponent's king so it's under attack with no legal way to escape. Players alternate turns, White moving first, and a single legal move must be made on every turn.
The Board and Setup
The board is an 8x8 grid of alternating light and dark squares, always set up with a light square in each player's bottom-right corner. Each player starts with eight pawns on their second row, and behind them, from the outside in: a rook, knight, and bishop on each side, with the queen on her own matching color (white queen on a light square, black queen on a dark square) and the king on the remaining central square.
How Each Piece Moves
Pawn: Moves forward one square, or two squares on its very first move, and captures diagonally one square forward. Pawns are also the only piece involved in two special moves: en passant and promotion, both covered in depth further down this page.
Rook: Moves any number of squares horizontally or vertically, as long as the path is clear.
Knight: Moves in an L-shape, two squares in one direction and then one square perpendicular to that. It's the only piece that can jump over other pieces in its path.
Bishop: Moves any number of squares diagonally, as long as the path is clear. Each bishop stays on the same color square for the entire game.
Queen: Combines the movement of a rook and bishop, moving any number of squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. It's the most powerful piece on the board.
King: Moves exactly one square in any direction, and can never move into a square attacked by an enemy piece. The king also takes part in castling, a special two-piece move covered below.
Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate
When a king is under attack, it's in check, and the player must resolve it immediately on their next move. If there's no legal way to do that, it's checkmate and the game ends. If a player has no legal move at all but isn't in check, that's stalemate, and the game ends as a draw instead of a win. Our full guide to check, checkmate, and stalemate covers the exact rules and a hand-verified example of each.
The Special Moves
Beyond the basic piece movements above, a handful of special rules come up in nearly every game and are worth learning properly rather than picking up by accident:
Castling — a single move where the king and a rook move together, tucking the king to safety and activating the rook.
En passant — a special pawn capture available for exactly one move, right after an enemy pawn advances two squares past your own.
Pawn promotion — when a pawn reaches the far end of the board, it's immediately exchanged for a queen, rook, bishop, or knight.
Underpromotion — the rare but important cases where promoting to something other than a queen is actually the correct choice.
How a Game Ends
Games end in a win by checkmate, or in a draw through one of several distinct rules, including stalemate, threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule, insufficient material, and mutual agreement. Our full guide to draw rules covers exactly when each one applies.
Recording Moves and Tournament Etiquette
Chess moves are written down using algebraic notation, a compact system that lets any game ever played be read and studied later. Formal over-the-board games also follow the touch-move rule: touch a piece with intent to move it, and you're committed to moving it if legally possible. Our guide to touch-move and notation covers both in full.
Try It Yourself
The best way to learn the rules is to see them in action. Load the standard starting position into the analyzer and try making a few opening moves yourself:
Once you're comfortable with the basics here, our guide to spotting tactics is a natural next step toward actually winning games, not just playing legal ones.