Chess is played by two people on a board of 64 squares. Each starts with 16 pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. White moves first, then the players take turns, one move each. You win by checkmate: attacking the other player’s king so that it has no way out. The rules here follow the FIDE Laws of Chess, the rule book used at clubs and tournaments around the world, including in Australia.
The board, and setting it up
The board is eight squares by eight, light and dark in turn. Turn it so that the corner square nearest each player’s right hand is light. “Light on the right” is the easy way to remember it, and it’s the set-up mistake people make most often.
The columns are called files and are lettered a to h from White’s left. The rows are called ranks and are numbered 1 to 8 from White’s side. So every square has a name, like e4. Our notation lesson uses those names to write games down.
Setting up, from the corners in:
- Rooks in the corners.
- Knights next to the rooks.
- Bishops next to the knights.
- The queen on the middle square of her own colour: the white queen on the light square (d1), the black queen on the dark square (d8).
- The king on the last square left, next to his queen (e1 and e8).
- The eight pawns along the row in front.
The two queens face each other across the board, and so do the two kings.
The pieces
- King 1 each
- Queen 1 each
- Rook 2 each
- Bishop 2 each
- Knight 2 each
- Pawn 8 each
A few rules hold for every piece:
- You move one piece a turn. You can’t pass.
- You capture an opponent’s piece by moving onto its square. It comes off the board. You can never capture your own piece, and you’re never forced to capture (unless it’s the only legal move).
- Only the knight can jump. Every other piece stops when something is in its way.
- You may not make a move that leaves your own king attacked.
In the diagrams below, a green dot is a square the piece can move to and a green ring is a piece it can capture.
The king
The king moves one square in any direction: forwards, backwards, sideways or diagonally. He can never move onto a square an enemy piece attacks, so the two kings can never stand next to each other. He also has one special move, castling, below. The king is never captured: the game ends at checkmate, a move before that would happen.
The queen
The queen is the strongest piece. She moves any number of squares in a straight line, along a file, a rank or a diagonal, until something is in her way. Think of her as a rook and a bishop in one.
The rook
The rook moves any number of squares along a file or a rank, up, down or sideways, but never diagonally. It can’t jump: a piece in the way stops it, and if that piece is the opponent’s, the rook can capture it.
The bishop
The bishop moves any number of squares diagonally. That means a bishop stays on the colour it started on all game. Each player has one bishop for the light squares and one for the dark.
The knight
The knight moves in an L shape: two squares in a straight line, then one square to the side. It’s the only piece that jumps, so pieces in between don’t matter. It captures only on the square it lands on. A knight always lands on the opposite colour to the one it left.
The pawn
Pawns are the odd ones out. They:
- move straight forward one square, never backwards;
- may move two squares forward on their very first move, if both squares are empty;
- capture diagonally, one square forward to the left or right, and only that way;
- are blocked by any piece straight in front, theirs or the opponent’s.
Pawns have two special moves of their own, en passant and promotion.
What the pieces are worth
The rules don’t give the pieces values, but players use a rough scale to judge a trade:
| Piece | Rough value (pawns) |
|---|---|
| Pawn | 1 |
| Knight | 3 |
| Bishop | 3 |
| Rook | 5 |
| Queen | 9 |
| King | Can’t be traded: lose it and you lose the game |
It’s a rule of thumb, not a law. A well-placed knight can be worth more than a rook stuck in a corner.
Check and checkmate
When a move attacks the opponent’s king, the king is in check. Players often say “check” out loud in a friendly game, but the rules don’t require it.
A player in check must get out of it straight away, in one of three ways:
- Move the king to a square that isn’t attacked.
- Block the check by putting a piece in between (this doesn’t work against a knight, which jumps).
- Capture the piece giving check.
If none of those is possible, it’s checkmate and the game is over: the player who gave checkmate wins.
The shortest possible game ends in checkmate on Black’s second move. It’s called Fool’s Mate: White moves the pawns in front of the king out of the way, and the black queen walks in.
Stalemate
If the player whose turn it is has no legal move but their king is not in check, the game is a draw by stalemate. It doesn’t matter how far ahead the other player is. This is the classic way to throw away a won game: you chase the lone king into a corner and take away its last square without giving check.
Castling
Castling is the one move where two pieces move at once. The king moves two squares towards a rook, and that rook jumps over the king to the square right next to it. Castling on the king’s side is called kingside (or short) castling; on the queen’s side, queenside (or long) castling. Move the king first, then the rook. At a tournament, if you touch the rook first you can’t castle on that side that turn, and touch-move means you have to move the rook.
You can castle only when all of these are true:
- The king has never moved in this game.
- That rook has never moved in this game.
- There’s nothing between the king and the rook.
- The king is not in check right now.
- The king doesn’t pass over or land on a square an enemy piece attacks.
The first two are for good: once the king has moved, castling is gone for the rest of the game, even if he walks back. The last three only stop you castling for now. The rule about attacked squares is about the king: in queenside castling the rook passes over b1 (or b8), and it doesn’t matter if that square is attacked.
En passant
En passant (French for “in passing”) stops a pawn using its two-square first move to slip past an enemy pawn. If your pawn is on its fifth rank and an enemy pawn on the file next door moves two squares to land right beside it, you may capture that pawn as if it had moved only one square. Your pawn moves diagonally to the square the enemy pawn passed over, and the enemy pawn comes off.
You must do it on your very next move or the chance is gone. Only pawns can capture en passant, and only pawns can be captured that way.
Promotion
When a pawn reaches the far side of the board (the 8th rank for White, the 1st for Black), it must be exchanged, as part of the same move, for a queen, rook, bishop or knight of its own colour. It can’t stay a pawn and it can’t become a king.
You choose, and the choice has nothing to do with what has been captured, so a player can have two or more queens. Almost everyone picks a queen. Choosing anything else is called underpromotion; once in a while a knight gives checkmate, or a queen would give stalemate.
How a game is drawn
A game ends in a draw (half a point each) in any of these ways:
- Stalemate, above.
- Agreement. One player offers a draw and the other accepts. At a tournament, the right moment to offer is after you’ve made your move and before you press the clock.
- Threefold repetition. If the same position is about to appear, or has just appeared, for at least the third time, the player whose turn it is can claim a draw. “The same position” means the same pieces on the same squares, the same player to move, and the same castling and en passant possibilities. The repeats don’t have to come one after the other.
- Fivefold repetition. If the same position appears five times, the game is drawn automatically, without a claim.
- The 50-move rule. If the last 50 moves by each player have been made with no pawn moved and nothing captured, the player to move can claim a draw.
- The 75-move rule. At 75 moves by each player without a pawn move or a capture, the game is drawn automatically. (If the 75th move gives checkmate, the checkmate counts.)
- Dead position. If neither player can checkmate with any series of legal moves, the game is drawn at once. King against king, king and bishop against king, and king and knight against king are the usual examples.
With a clock there’s one more: if your time runs out but your opponent can’t possibly checkmate you, it’s a draw, not a loss. Our lesson on using a chess clock covers the clock rules.
How a game is won
- Checkmate.
- Resignation. A player can give up at any time. Many games between strong players end this way, long before checkmate.
- On time. With a clock, a player whose time runs out loses, unless the opponent can’t checkmate (above).
Touch-move, at a club or tournament
In a serious game, if you deliberately touch one of your own pieces, you must move it (if it has a legal move). If you deliberately touch one of your opponent’s pieces, you must capture it (if you can). Once you’ve let go of a piece on a legal square, the move is made. To straighten a piece on its square without having to move it, say “I adjust” (or the French j’adoube) first. Only the player whose turn it is may adjust pieces. Friendly games at home often skip this rule; agree before you start.
Three tips for your first games
Not rules, just advice almost every coach gives:
- Go for the middle. Pawns and pieces in the centre (e4, d4, e5, d5) control more of the board.
- Get your knights and bishops out early, before moving the queen a lot, and don’t move the same piece twice without a reason.
- Castle early to tuck your king away and bring a rook towards the middle.
Before every move, ask what your opponent’s last move threatens. Most games between beginners are decided by a piece left where it can be taken for free.
Common questions
Who moves first in chess?
Which way round does the chessboard go?
Is stalemate a win?
Can you castle out of check?
Can you have two queens?
What is the 50-move rule?
Sources
- FIDE Laws of Chess, taking effect from 1 January 2023: Article 2 (the board and setting up), Article 3 (the moves, castling, en passant and promotion), Article 4 (touch-move and adjusting), Article 5 (checkmate, stalemate, dead position, resignation and agreement), Article 6.9 (time running out) and Article 9 (repetition, the 50- and 75-move rules). FIDE Handbook. link. Checked 11/11/2026.