THE RULES OF CHESS

Chess is a game, played by two players. One player plays with the white pieces, and the other player plays with the black pieces. Each player has sixteen pieces in the beginning of the game: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.

The game is played on a chessboard, consisting of 64 squares: eight rows and eight columns. The squares are alternately light (white) and dark colored. The board must be laid down such that there is a black square in the lower-left corner. To facilitate notation of moves, all squares are given a name. From the view of the white player, the rows are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; the lowest row has number 1, and the upper row has number 8. The columns are named, from left to right, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h. A square gets a name, consisting of the combination of its column-letter and row-number, e.g., the square in the lower left corner (for white) is a1.

black

white

Alternately, the players make a move, starting with the white player (the player that plays with the white pieces.) A move consists of moving one of the pieces of the player to a different square, following the rules of movement for that piece - there is one special exception, named castling, where players move two pieces simultaneously.

A player can take a piece of the opponent by moving one of his own pieces to the square that contains a piece of the opponent. The opponents piece then is removed from the board, and out of play for the rest of the game. (Taking is not compulsory.)

At the start of the game, the position of the pieces is as follows.

Thus, at the second row, there are eight white pawns, at the seventh row, there are eight black pawns. At the first row, from left to right, we have a: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook. Note that the queens start of squares of their own color, with a dark square in each players left hand corner.

Movement of the pieces

Rook

The rook moves in a straight line, horizontally or vertically. The rook may not jump over other pieces, that is: all squares between the square where the rook starts its move and where the rook ends its move must be empty. (As for all pieces, when the square where the rook ends his move contains a piece of the opponent, then this piece is taken. The square where the rook ends his move may not contain a piece of the player owning this rook.)

Bishop

The bishop moves in a straight diagonal line. The bishop may also not jump over other pieces.

Queen

The queen has the combined moves of the rook and the bishop, i.e., the queen may move in any straight line, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.

Knight

The knight makes a move that consists of first one step in a horizontal or vertical direction, and then one step diagonally in an outward direction. The knight jumps: it is allowed that the first square that the knight passes over is occupied by an arbitrary piece. For instance, white can start the game by moving his knight from b1 to c3. The piece that is jumped over is further not affected by the knight: as usual, a knight takes a piece of the opponent by moving to the square that contains that piece.

Pawn

The pawn moves differently regarding whether it moves to an empty square or whether it takes a piece of the opponent. When a pawn does not take, it moves one square straight forward. When this pawn has not moved at all, i.e., the pawn is still at the second row (from the owning players view), the pawn may make a double step straight forward. For instance, a white pawn on d2 can be moved to d4.

When taking, the pawn goes one square diagonally forward.

There is one special rule, called taking en-passant. When a pawn makes a double step from the second row to the fourth row, and there is an enemy pawn on an adjacent square on the fourth row, then this enemy pawn inthe next move may move diagonally to the square that was passed over by the double-stepping pawn, which is on the third row. In this same move, the double-stepping pawn is taken. This taking en-passant must be done directly: if the player who could take en-passant does not do this in the first move after the double step, this pawn cannot be taken anymore by an en-passant move.

A double pawn step, and a following en-passant capture

Pawns that reach the last row of the board promote. When a player moves a pawn to the last row of the board, he replaces the pawn by a queen, rook, knight, or bishop (of the same color). Usually, players will promote the pawn to a queen, but the other types of pieces are also allowed. (It is not required that the pawn is promoted to a piece taken. Thus, it is for instance possible that a player has at a certain moment two queens.)

Before and after a promotion

King

The king moves one square in any direction, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. There is one special type of move, made by a king and rook simultaneously, called castling: see below.

The king is the most important piece of the game, and moves must be made in such a way that the king is never in check: see below.

Castling

Under certain, special rules, a king and rook can move simultaneously in a castling move.

The following conditions must be met:

The king that makes the castling move has not yet moved in the game. The rook that makes the castling move has not yet moved in the game. The king is not in check. The king does not move over a square that is attacked by an enemy piece during the

castling move, i.e., when castling, there may not be an enemy piece that can move (in case of pawns: by diagonal movement) to a square that is moved over by the king.

The king does not move to a square that is attacked by an enemy piece during the castling move, i.e., you may not castle and end the move with the king in check.

All squares between the rook and king before the castling move are empty. The King and rook must occupy the same rank (or row).

When castling, the king moves two squares towards the rook, and the rook moves over the king to the next square, i.e., black's king on e8 and rook on a8 move to: king c8, rook d8 (long castling), white's king on e1 and rook on h1 move to: king g1, rook f1 (short castling).

position before and after castling: white short, and black long

Neither white nor black may castle: white is in check, and the black king may not move over d8

Check, mate, and stalemate

Check

When the king of a player can be taken by a piece of the opponent, one says that the king is in check. For instance, the white player moves his rook to a position such that it attacks the black king, i.e., if black doesn't do anything about it, the rook could take the black king in the next move: we say that the white rook gives check. It is considered good manners to say check when one checks ones opponent.

It is not allowed to make a move, such that ones king is in check after the move. If a player accidently tries to make such a move, he must take the move back and make another move (following the rules that one must move with the piece one has touched, see below.)

Mate

When a player is in check, and he cannot make a move such that after the move, the king is not in check, then he is mated. The player that is mated lost the game, and the player that mated him won the game.

Note that there are three different possible ways to remove a check:

1. Move the king away to a square where he is not in check. 2. Take the piece that gives the check. 3. (In case of a check, given by a rook, bishop or queen: ) move a piece between the

checking piece and the king.

Stalemate

When a player cannot make any legal move, but he is not in check, then the player is said to be stalemated. In a case of a stalemate, the game is a draw.

When black must move, the game is a stalemate

Other rules

Resign and draw proposals

A player can resign the game, which means that he has lost and his opponent has won.

After making a move, a player can propose a draw: his opponent can accept the proposal (in which case the game ends and is a draw) or refuse the proposal (in which case the game continues).

Repetition of moves

If the same position with the same player to move is repeated three times in the game, the player to move can claim a draw. (When the right to make a certain castling move is lost by one of the players between positions, then the positions are considered to be different. For the fine points of this rule, see the official rules of chess.)

One case where the repetition of move occurs is when a player continues to give check forever. See an explanation with animated gif.

50 moves rules

If there are have been 50 consecutive moves of white and of black without

any piece taken any pawn move

then a player can claim a draw. For the fine points of this rule, see the official rules of chess.

Touching pieces

When a player touches one of his own pieces, he must, if possible, make a legal move with this piece. When a player touches a piece of the opponent, he must, if possible, take this piece.

Chess clocks and time

Often, players play the game with chess clocks. These clocks count the time that each player separately takes for making his own moves. Additional rules are then used, saying how many (possibly all) moves must be made before a player has used a certain time for his moves. For details, see the official rules of chess.

Other rules

There are other rules, telling what should happen in special occasions, like that players started the game with a wrong setup, etc. These are not so important for friendly games; for details, again see the official rules of chess.

THE RULES OF CHESS

Object of the Chess GameIt's rather simple, there are two players with one player having 16 black or dark color chess pieces and the other player having 16 white or light color chess pieces. The chess players move on a square chessboard made up of 64 individual squares consisting of 32 dark squares and 32 light squares. Each chess piece has a defined starting point or square with the dark chess pieces aligned on one side of the board and the light pieces on the other. There are 6 different types of chess pieces, each with it's own unique method to move on the chessboard. The chess pieces are used to both attack and defend from attack, against the other players chessmen. Each player has one chess piece called the king. The ultimate objective of the game is to capture the opponents king. Having said this, the king will never actually be captured. When either sides king is trapped to where it cannot move without being taken, it's called "checkmate" or the shortened version "mate". At this point, the game is over. The object of playing chess is really quite simple, but mastering this game of chess is a totally different story.Chess Board Setup

Now that you have a basic concept for the object of the chess game, the next step is to get the the chessboard and chess pieces setup according to the rules of playing chess. Lets start with the chess pieces. The 16 chess pieces are made up of 1 King, 1 queen, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 2 rooks, and 8 pawns. From the following diagram, you can identify the pieces and the general character of their shape and appearance and also the location or square the chess pieces start from according to the chess rules. Now the chessboard. The correct orientation, as per the chess rules, is with a black square on your left side as facing the chess board. One of the more common mistakes in setting up the chess board is reversing the king and queen chess pieces. Remember, as per the chess rules, the queen is always on her own color while the king is always on the opposite color.

How the Chess Pieces MoveNow that you have the chessboard setup with each piece sitting on its correct square, you need to know the chess rules of how each chess piece moves. The following are diagrams and instructions for the move of each chess piece.

Chess piece - KingHaving a king is mandatory even though he's pretty much worthless and really nothing more than a mere figure-head. But that's the rule of chess, like it or not, you have to have a king. The king is always the tallest piece on the chessboard and the king chess piece will usually have a cross-like object on top. By the rules of chess, his moves are pretty limited, he can only move one square at a time but he can move forward, backward, left, right and diagonally. Not to offer any particular strategy, but keep him safe and well protected!

Chess piece - QueenUnlike the king, the queen is no figure-head. She's the most powerful chess piece you have on the chessboard. The queen usually looks like a queen in the sense that she'll have a crown, sometimes with nice sharp points. According to the rules of playing chess, she can move vertically, horizontally, and diagonally just as many squares she wants (without jumping other chess pieces). So you'll want to be careful and not give her up too carelessly or without a steep price to your opponent.

Chess piece -BishopThe bishop, well, I guess you could say the top of the chess piece looks sort of like a bishop hat. Most bishops also have a cut near the top resembling that of a mouth. There are two bishops, always one on a light square and one on a dark square. Chess rules say that bishops move just like the queen except they can't move forward, backward, left or right. Diagonally only just as many spaces as desired without jumping another chess piece. Because bishops move diagonally, they will always remain on their original square color as per the rules of chess. So if in the middle of a chess game you notice either your opponent or your bishops are on the same color square - something's gone very wrong.Chess piece - KnightThe knight is the most unique chess piece you have! Not only does it usually resemble a horse, it is the only chess piece that can jump over another chess piece or pieces according to chess rules. The knight's move is rather different. Think of the move as "L" shaped - two squares either forward, backward, left, or right and then left or right one square. This special feature, being able to jump, can make the knight a very useful chess piece early in the game.

Chess piece - RookThe rook is also called the castle by some and it actually looks like a castle or at least a castle tower. The rook, as per chess rules, moves just like the queen except it can't move diagonally. Just forward, backward, left, and right but as many spaces as desired without jumping other chess pieces.

Chess piece - PawnThe poor little pawns are put out in front right in harms way while the other guys are hiding back behind. As per the rules of playing chess, they're expected to advance out in front and take the brunt of an oncoming attack or serve as a shield. It seems rather unfair considering they're pretty defenseless. These chess piece are allowed to only move one square at at time by the rules of chess. However, in thier first move, they can move two squares if they want. They can only move straight forward - no retreating for these soldiers according of the chess rules. And they can only capture one of the enemy by approaching diagonally. But, according t the chess rules, if one of these brave little soldiers can make it to the other side, they are rewarded with a promotion - to a queen! Some promotion that is!

Chess Board NotationThose that take chess pretty seriously, actually keep track of all their moves and record entire games. In order to record moves, someone came up with the smart idea of labeling the columns with letters and the rows with numbers, thus each square is uniquely identified. As you can see, white has a tremendous advantage because he or she doesn't have to look at upside-down numbers and read the alphabet backwards. One of the more important reasons to be the white or light chess players side.

CastlingCastling can be a very effective strategy in the defense of your king and providing a safe-haven for him. The act of "castling" involves two chess pieces, the rook and king and there are two different ways to castle. Rather than trying to describe the two methods (which might get confusing), we'll rely on the diagrams below to guide you through the correct moves. Now, there are special rules of chess and conditions that must exist in order to castle. The special conditions are:

Neither of the chess pieces involved, your king or rook that is being castled, have been moved during the chess game.

There are no other chess pieces between the king and the rook involved in the castling.

Your king is not in check and neither your king or rook can be taken by your opponent's next move after castling.

You can castle with either of the rooks as long as these special conditions are met. The moves involved in castling with the Queen side rook are different than castling with king side rook. This is quite natural given that there 2 spaces between the king and rook on the king side and respectively 3 spaces on the queen side. Below are diagrams showing both methods of castling:

King Side Castling (white)Before After Castling

Queen Side Castling (white)Before After Castling

En PassantThere is a unique chess rule which involves a special move in chess that many casual players are not aware of, the rule is called "en passant". This move involves only pawns and the situation for en passant may or may not occur during a game. But if it does, it's good to know the rule and how to execute the move properly. En passant is limited to a pawn moving from it's original position 2 squares landing adjacent to an opponents pawn. On the very next move and only the next move, this pawn can be captured as illustrated below:

White's Move Black's Move After Capture

All pawns of both sides are subject to the en passant rule of chess.

PromotionWe have already mentioned promotion of the pawn, but lets review exactly how this happens and what your options are. Promotion occurs when you get a pawn clear across to the other side. In the same move of the pawn reaches a far square, you remove the pawn and replace it with any chess piece you want, that is, except a second king. Even if you already have all of your chess pieces. For example, most people naturally choose a queen. So you can have two queens, and that's quite an advantage. But you can choose some other chess piece if you prefer, it's entirely up to you. Here are a couple of diagrams to illustrate just how promotion works:Before Promotion

Let's PlayNow that you have the chess board all setup, you know how each chess piece moves along with the special chess rules, lets get the game underway. White always moves first and most players prefer to be white because you can achieve a slight advantage by moving first. So what we recommend is you have a best out of three "rock-scissors-paper" to determine who keeps to be white. Or, if you prefer, you can cast lots by putting a different color pawn in each hand and then letting your friend choose one. From this point on, it's real easy, white makes the first move and then you just take

turns moving chess pieces and trying to checkmate your opponent's king while taking as many chess pieces as you can along the way. But before that first move, there's a few more rules that we better go over.Don't Let Go (until you're sure)!This is a very important chess rule, when you move your chess piece and let go, you're beyond the point of no return. The move is final. Now, if you move it to a square and keep your finger on top while pondering the genius or folly of the move, it's okay to backtrack and decide on a different move. So be certain about your move before you let go!

CheckYou know what checkmate or mate is, but we haven't yet explained the baby brother of checkmate called check. When a king has been attacked and can be taken on the next move but can escape, it is called check. Just like when you announced you were going to castle, it's also considered good manners to tell your opponent he's in check "CHECK". Standing up for the announcement is optional.

The EndingYou know about checkmate, which ends the game, but there are three other possible endings to a game. One possibility is a stalemate or draw, meaning that with the given pieces left on the board, neither player can win. For example, a king against a king. There are no winning possibilities for either side in this situation. Another possible outcome is for one player to resign. A game can become so one-sided (both remaining pieces and position) that the advantage is too great for the other player to overcome. When this happens, the disadvantaged player can simply call "uncle" and give it up. But don't give up too easy, mistakes can always be made. The third possibility is a draw, even though a checkmate is possible.