How to Play Chess

About Chess

Chess is a two-player strategy game played on an 8x8 board. Each player starts with 16 pieces: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns.

Piece Movement

• King — moves 1 square in any direction.
• Queen — moves any number of squares in any direction.
• Rook — moves any number of squares horizontally or vertically.
• Bishop — moves any number of squares diagonally.
• Knight — moves in an L-shape (2+1 squares). Can jump over other pieces.
• Pawn — moves 1 square forward (2 from starting position). Captures diagonally.

Special Moves

• Castling — King moves 2 squares toward a rook, and the rook jumps over the king. Only if neither piece has moved, no pieces are between them, and the king is not in or passing through check.
• En Passant — A pawn that just moved 2 squares can be captured by an adjacent enemy pawn as if it had moved only 1 square.
• Pawn Promotion — When a pawn reaches the last rank, it is promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight.

Check & Checkmate

• Check — Your king is under attack. You must escape check on your next move.
• Checkmate — Your king is in check and there is no legal move to escape. The game is over.

Draw Conditions

• Stalemate — The player to move has no legal moves but is not in check.
• Insufficient Material — Neither side has enough pieces to deliver checkmate.
• Threefold Repetition — The same position occurs 3 times.
• Fifty-Move Rule — 50 moves without a pawn move or capture.

Winning

Checkmate your opponent's king, or your opponent resigns. The game can also end in a draw.