Chess Rules

Chess is played by two players on an eight-by-eight board of alternating light and dark squares. Each player starts with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. White moves first and the players alternate, moving one piece per turn. A piece captures by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy piece, which is removed from the board. The goal is checkmate, attacking the enemy king so that it has no legal way to escape capture.

How to win a game of chess

You win by delivering checkmate. When you attack the enemy king, that is check, and your opponent must answer it by moving the king, blocking the attack, or capturing the attacking piece. If none of those is possible, it is checkmate and the game ends at once.

Games also end in a draw. The most important drawing rule is stalemate: if the player to move has no legal move but is not in check, the game is drawn immediately, no matter how far ahead the other side is. Games are also drawn by agreement, by repeating the same position three times, by the fifty-move rule, and when neither side has enough material left to force checkmate.

The rules in detail

• En PassantEn passant is a special pawn capture in chess. When a pawn moves two squares forward from its starting position and lands directly beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had only moved one square. The capture is only legal on the very next move. It is the only capture in chess where the capturing piece does not end up on the square of the piece it captured.
• CastlingCastling is the only move in chess that moves two pieces at once. The king moves two squares toward one of its rooks, and that rook jumps over the king to the square immediately on the other side. It is legal only if neither the king nor that rook has moved before, the squares between them are empty, and the king is not in check and does not pass through or land on a square attacked by an enemy piece.
• Chess PiecesThere are six kinds of chess piece: king, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn. The king moves one square in any direction, the queen any distance in any straight line, the rook any distance along ranks and files, the bishop any distance diagonally, the knight in an L-shape of two squares then one, and the pawn forward one square, capturing diagonally. Each player starts with one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.
• Chess NotationChess notation is the standard written record of moves, and the system used today is algebraic notation. Each square has a name from its file letter (a to h) and rank number (1 to 8), so the square in White's bottom-left corner is a1. A move is written as the piece's letter plus the square it moves to, so Nf3 means a knight moves to f3. Pawn moves have no letter and are written as the destination square alone, such as e4.
• Pawn PromotionPawn promotion happens when a pawn reaches the far end of the board, the eighth rank for White or the first rank for Black. The pawn is immediately replaced by a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour, chosen by the player. Promotion is compulsory: the pawn cannot stay a pawn. It also does not depend on what has already been captured, so a player can have two or more queens at once.

Frequently asked questions

What are the basic rules of chess?

Chess is played by two players on an eight-by-eight board. White moves first and players alternate, moving one piece per turn. Each piece moves in its own fixed way, and a piece captures by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy piece. The goal is checkmate: attacking the enemy king so that it cannot escape capture on the next move.

How does a chess game end?

A game ends in checkmate, resignation, or a draw. Checkmate wins immediately. A draw can happen by stalemate, by agreement, by threefold repetition of the position, by the fifty-move rule, or when neither side has enough material to deliver checkmate.

What is the difference between check and checkmate?

Check means the king is under attack and the player must respond by moving the king, blocking the attack, or capturing the attacking piece. Checkmate means the king is under attack and none of those responses is available, which ends the game.

What is stalemate in chess?

Stalemate is when the player to move has no legal move but their king is not in check. The game is an immediate draw, even if one side has a large material advantage. It is the most common way a winning position is thrown away.

Who moves first in chess?

White always moves first, and players then alternate turns. Passing is not allowed: on your turn you must make a legal move, and if you have none the game ends in checkmate or stalemate.