How to play Chess

By Ari Hlynsson · 1 player vs computer, or 2 online · Updated 11 September 2026

Checkmate the opposing king: attack it so that it cannot escape, on an eight-by-eight board where each of six kinds of piece moves in its own way.

The rules, step by step

1. 1

   White moves first, then the players alternate, one move each. A piece moves to an empty square, or onto a square holding an enemy piece, which is captured and removed.

2. 2

   The rook moves any distance along a row or column; the bishop any distance along a diagonal; the queen either way. None of them may jump. The knight moves two squares one way and one the other, and is the only piece that may jump over others.

3. 3

   The king moves one square in any direction. A pawn moves one square forward, or two from its starting square, and captures one square diagonally forward. It is the only piece that captures differently from how it moves.

4. 4

   Castling moves the king two squares towards a rook and the rook to the square the king crossed. It is allowed only if neither has moved, the squares between them are empty, and the king is not in check and does not pass through or land on an attacked square.

5. 5

   A pawn that reaches the far row becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight of your choice. A pawn that has just moved two squares may be captured by an enemy pawn beside it as if it had moved one; that is en passant, and it is allowed only on the very next move.

6. 6

   A king under attack is in check and must be got out of it at once. If it cannot be, that is checkmate and the game is over. If the side to move has no legal move and is not in check, that is stalemate, and the game is a draw.

Tips that change how you play

• Develop before you attack. Get the knights and bishops off the back row, castle, and connect the rooks before you start anything, because an attack with two pieces against a defended king fails and leaves you behind.
• Count before you take. A capture is only good if the piece you win is worth more than the piece you lose in the exchange that follows. Count the attackers and defenders on the square and work out who takes last.
• Ask what your opponent's last move threatens before you make yours. Most games between beginners are decided by a piece left where it could be taken, and the move that would have saved it was one look away.

A pin and a fork, worked through

Suppose white has a bishop on b5 and black has a knight on c6 with the king behind it on e8. The bishop attacks the knight, and the knight cannot move: if it did, the bishop would be attacking the king, and no move that leaves your own king in check is legal. That is a pin, and the knight is stuck until something changes. Now suppose white also has a knight on e5 that can reach d7. From d7 it attacks the black king on e8, so the king must answer the check; but from d7 it also attacks the black queen on d8 and a rook on b8, and after the king moves one of them is lost. That is a fork, a single piece attacking two things at once, and it is the shape behind most of the material that changes hands in ordinary games. The pin made the fork possible: the knight on c6 was the piece that would have guarded d7.

Mistakes that cost beginners the game

Bringing the queen out early to grab a pawn.

A queen alone in the middle of the board is a target, and every developing move your opponent makes with a threat on it gains them a tempo. Bring it out once the minor pieces are placed and it has somewhere safe to work from.

Forgetting that a pinned piece is not defending anything.

A piece that cannot move without exposing its king is not a defender, whatever square it appears to cover. Before you rely on a defender, check that it is free to move. Before you attack, look for the pin that would make one of theirs useless.

Playing on in a won ending until it is a draw.

A king and rook against a king wins, but only if you know the technique, and shuffling for fifty moves without a capture or a pawn move is a draw by rule, as is the same position three times. Push the king to the edge with the rook, keep your own king close, and mate it there.

Common questions about Chess