How to Play Chess: Rules, Setup, and Winning Basics

Each player starts with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The board has 64 squares in alternating light and dark colors. The back rank is arranged, left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. A simple memory aid is 'queen on her own color' - the white queen starts on a light square, the black queen on a dark square. Pawns fill the row in front.

Piece movement: the rook moves any number of squares horizontally or vertically; the bishop moves diagonally; the queen combines both; the king moves one square in any direction; the knight moves in an L (two squares then one sideways) and is the only piece that can jump over others; pawns move straight forward one square (or two on their first move), capture diagonally, and never move backward. Check is when your king is attacked; you must get out of check. Checkmate is when the king is in check with no legal move. A draw can occur by stalemate (the player to move has no legal move and is not in check), insufficient material, threefold repetition, or the 50-move rule. There is no scoring system in a single casual game; competitive players use Elo ratings.

Myth: you can move any piece one square like the king. Fact: only the king moves one square; every other piece has its own movement rule. Myth: capturing is required whenever possible. Fact: in standard chess, captures are never forced (except that you must escape check). Myth: a pawn that reaches the last rank can become any piece including another king. Fact: a pawn promotes to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight - never a second king.

1. Place the board so each player has a light square in the bottom-right corner. 2. Set the back rank rook-knight-bishop-queen-king-bishop-knight-rook, queen on her color, then fill the second row with pawns. 3. White moves first; players alternate. 4. Capture by moving onto an enemy piece's square (knights and pawns excepted as noted). 5. Use castling to tuck your king to safety: move the king two squares toward a rook and jump the rook to its other side - allowed only if neither piece has moved, the squares between are empty, and the king is not in check or passing through an attacked square. 6. Capture a pawn en passant only immediately after it advances two squares past yours. 7. Promote a pawn on the last rank by swapping it for a queen or other piece. 8. Win by checkmate; agree a draw if the position is locked.