Learn
How to play Chess?
In this page, I have listed all the important rules a chess player must know to start playing. Enjoy learning!
Contents
Lesson 1: Chess Rules
How to start a chess game?
To play chess, TWO players are needed. This is because chess has two sides, White and Black.
Who starts the game first?
White will start first, and then followed by Black. The players alternate move until the game ends.
How to end a chess game?
To end a chess game, there are 5 situation:
Win by checkmate - One winner and one loser. The player who delivered the checkmate wins.
A player resigns - Resignation, also known as admitting defeat, is when one of the players surrender.
Draw - No winner or loser, the result is tied.
Win on time - Chess games are always played with a chess timer, the player who runs out of time loses the game.
Forfeited - In a formal chess game where arbiters exist, if a player is caught breaking any rules, the arbiters can conclude that player as disqualified and prevent them from continuing the game. Their opponent will automatically become the victor.
Lesson 2: Chess Board
There are 64 squares in total.
32 light squares and 32 dark squares.
The 1-8 horizontal coordinates are referred as "rank" .
The a-h vertical coordinates are referred as "file".
The 1st to 4th rank is the White side.
The 5th to 8th rank is the Black side.
The a to d file is the Queenside.
The e to h file is the Kingside.
Lesson 3: Chess Pieces
Pawn
Knight
Bishop
Rook
Queen
King
Lesson 4: Starting Setup
Step 1:
Put all the pawns on the second rank of each player.
(White pawns on 2nd rank, Black pawn on 7th rank)
Step 2:
Put the rooks, knights, and bishops in order on all the corners.
Step 3:
Place the White queen on light square, and Black queen on dark square.
Step 4:
Put the kings next to the queens.
Finish!
Lesson 5: Piece Movement
Pawn
Pawn can only move forward one step each move.
But the first time a pawn move, it can also move forward two square.
Pawn captures sideway (left and right), and will continue to move on the new file it transferred to.
Any piece in front of a pawn will prevent the pawn from moving further, unless the blocker moves away.
Knight
Knight moves in an "L" pattern and can move backward.
Knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces.
Knight captures the same way it moves.
Bishop
Bishop moves diagonally in an "X" pattern and can move backward.
Bishop cannot jump over other pieces.
Bishop captures the same way it moves.
Rook
Rook moves straight in a "+" pattern and can move backward.
Rook cannot jump over other pieces.
Rook captures the same way it moves.
Queen
Queen moves straight and diagonally, and can move backward. Queen is like a combination of rook and bishop.
Queen cannot jump over other pieces.
Queen captures the same way it moves.
King
King can only move one square around it.
King captures the same way it moves.
King cannot move to a square that is controlled by the opponent's pieces (squares that allow the king to be captured). It will be considered as illegal move.
Lesson 6: Pieces Value
1 point
3 points
3 points
5 points
9 points
Infinite
Lesson 7: Check, Checkmate and Stalemate
Check
What is a check?
Check is a move where it attacks the opponent's king and threatens to capture it on the next turn.
The player that receives the check must stop the check by saving their king.
If a check is ignored and the player does not save their king, it will count as an illegal move.
First way to stop check:
Avoid the check.
Second way to stop check:
Block the check.
Third way to stop check:
Capture the checking piece.
Checkmate
What is a checkmate?
Checkmate is a position where the king is in check, but there is no way to stop the check.
Player that gets their king checkmated loses the game.
If there is not enough material to checkmate the king, the game will conclude as draw.
Example 1
(Black gets checkmated)
Example 2
(Black gets checkmated)
Example 3
(Black gets checkmated)
Stalemate
What is a stalemate?
Stalemate is a position where the king is not in check, but has no safe square to go to, and other pieces are practically impossible to move.
In short, stalemate is when it is your turn to move but there is no legal move to be done.
Stalemate results in draw, even if there are still a lot of pieces left.
Example 1
(Black gets stalemated)
Example 2
(Black gets stalemated)
Example 3
(Black gets stalemated)
Lesson 8: Special Moves
Castling
What is castling?
Castling is a move where the king move two steps towards one of the rook and the rook switch next to the king.
Castling Kingside
Castling Queenside
Conditions needed to perform castling:
The king and the rook (the rook that wants to perform castling) have not moved.
The king is not in check.
The squares between the king and the involved rook are empty.
The two squares the king move through are not controlled by the opponent's pieces. Meaning:
If White king wants to castle kingside, make sure both f1 and g1 are not controlled by any Black pieces.
If White king wants to castle queenside, make sure both c1 and d1 are not controlled by any Black pieces.
If Black king wants to castle kingside, make sure both f8 and g8 are not controlled by any White pieces.
If Black king wants to castle queenside, make sure both c8 and d8 are not controlled by any White pieces.
En-Passant
What is en-passant?
En-passant can be done when a pawn moves forward two square from its starting square, but end up next to an opponent's pawn.
That pawn then can be captured like a normal capture as if it only moved one square forward.
En-passant can only be done on the turn right after the two-square pawn advance. If the turn is used for moving other pieces, then en-passant can no longer be done on that pawn.
Example 1
Example 2
Pawn Promotion
What is pawn promotion?
Pawn promotion happens when a pawn reached the end of the board, meaning it arrived at the first rank of the opponent's territory.
The pawn that reached the end can be promoted to any other pieces (free to choose), except the king.
The White pawn is promoted to a queen and can move like the original queen.
The White pawn is promoted to a knight and can move like the original knight.