Chess Rules for Beginners (Complete Guide)

Here are all the chess rules in one place. If you are completely new to the game, you are exactly where you need to be.

We built this guide around four themes.

• The basic rules of chess.
• A close look at the advanced rules (castling, en passant, promotion, and friends).
• The first strategic ideas for starting a game well.
• The questions beginners ask us most often.

The rules are only the first step. Once you know them, our full method to learn how to play chess step by step walks you through your first games and helps you start improving.

What Are the Basic Chess Rules?

Give this guide twenty minutes of your attention and you will be able to say, honestly, "I know how to play chess." These are the chess rules for beginners we teach first, and along the way we recommend games, exercises, and puzzles to reinforce each rule as you learn it, because reading alone never made anyone a chess player.

The short version first.

• King. Moves one square in any direction.
• Queen. Moves in a straight line, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, over any distance.
• Rook. Moves in a straight line, horizontally or vertically, over any distance.
• Bishop. Moves only diagonally, over any distance.
• Knight. Moves in an L shape and can jump over pieces.
• Pawn. Moves one square forward (or two on its first move) and captures diagonally.

Now let's slow down and take things one at a time. If you already know the rules of chess well, scroll down to the section on your first moves and start absorbing the big opening principles instead.

What Is the Goal of a Chess Game?

The goal of chess is to put the enemy king in checkmate. That means the king is attacked by an enemy piece and no legal move can save it.

Contrary to popular belief, the king is never actually captured. The game stops the moment it is under attack and cannot move away, capture the attacking piece, or hide behind another piece.

To get there, each player uses their pieces to control the board, create threats, and gradually shrink the enemy king's options. You also have to look after your own king, because you are never allowed to play a move that leaves it in check.

A game can also end without a checkmate, most commonly by resignation, by a loss on time, or by a draw.

Here is a concrete example with White to move.

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White brings the rook to the eighth rank, like this.

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The white rook now attacks the black king (we say the king is in check). Black has no way to answer the check. That is checkmate. Under the rules of FIDE, the International Chess Federation, the game stops immediately and White wins. The black king was never captured, the game simply ended one move before.

How Do You Set Up the Chessboard?

The chessboard has 64 squares (32 light squares and 32 dark squares) organized into files, ranks, and diagonals.

The board has a right way up. Both players must have a light square in the bottom right corner.

The files are labeled with the first eight letters of the alphabet, while the ranks use numbers. Together they give every square on the board its own coordinates.

For example, the square marked with a red circle below is the c4 square, because it sits at the intersection of the c-file and the fourth rank.

Now let's meet the pieces that will be moving around this board.

How Do You Place the Pieces on the Board?

Here are the chess pieces and pawns. The king (written K in chess notation), the queen (Q), the rook (R), the bishop (B), the knight (N, since the king already claimed the K), and the pawn.

These initials are used to record where a piece moves on the board. For example, Ke4 means the king just moved to the e4 square. This is chess notation, and it matters more than you might think, because it is how you read the solutions to exercises or even a whole chess book.

Pawn moves are the exception. They are written without any initial, so d4 simply means a pawn just arrived on the d4 square.

We will come back to chess notation a little later. First, the value of the pieces.

• The queen is worth 9 points.
• The rook is worth 5 points.
• The knight and the bishop are worth 3 points each.
• The pawn is worth 1 point.

These values matter during a game because they tell you who has the material advantage. Count up the points on each side, and whoever has more holds the material advantage (which does not always mean their position is better!).

Here is the starting position of the game.

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Notice the rooks in the corners of the board, the knights right next to them, then the bishops framing the king and queen. The white queen stands on a light square while the black queen stands on a dark square.

White always moves first. The two players then take turns, and the first one to trap the enemy king wins.

Knowing the chess board setup is obviously essential. It is the foundation of everything else, so take whatever time you need to memorize the starting position.

On to the movement of each piece.

How Do the Chess Pieces Move?

Memorizing the movement of all these pieces, each with its own quirks, is not as easy as it sounds. Our advice is to take your time and make sure you have fully understood one piece before moving on to the next. Here is how the chess pieces have moved for more than five centuries.

How the Pawn Moves

The pawn in chess always moves straight forward, one square at a time. There is one exception. If a pawn has never moved, it may choose to advance either one or two squares.

At the start of the game, the pawns sit on the second rank (the seventh rank for Black), as in the diagram below.

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In the position below, the white pawns can advance to the squares shown by the arrows.

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Look closely at the pawns on c2 and f2. They have not moved yet, and they are still on their starting squares. They are therefore the only pawns allowed to advance two squares. They can also, of course, settle for a single square.

If a piece stands directly in front of a pawn, the pawn is blocked and cannot move.

To capture an enemy piece, the pawn needs that piece to stand diagonally in front of it, one square away.

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The black pawn here is perfectly placed to be taken. The white pawn captures it by taking its place on the square.

Like this!

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We told you to take your time before moving on to the next piece, but is there a trick that makes the rules of chess easier to absorb?

How to Learn the Rules of Chess With a Practice Partner

The trick is to avoid rushing and to introduce the pieces one at a time. If you have someone to play with, you can stop right after learning the pawn move and play the pawn game, sometimes called Pawn Wars.

Set up the pawns on their starting squares.

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White starts, and the two players take turns. The first player to get a pawn to the other end of the board wins!

The game looks very simple, but you will quickly discover there are real tactics and strategies to be found in it.

Once you have mastered the pawn, add one more piece. Little by little, you will master the movement of every piece in the game.

If you are teaching a very young child (four or five years old), it is often worth spending a long stretch playing nothing but the pawn game. Our guide to chess for kids goes further on teaching very young children.

How to Learn the Rules of Chess Without a Partner

If you have no practice partner, we cannot recommend strongly enough that you reinforce each rule with small exercises. As soon as you have learned how a piece moves, resist the urge to jump straight to the next one, and solve a few little puzzles with it instead. These small exercises are perfect for training your logic and your concentration.

How the Rook Moves

Rooks move as many squares as they like, horizontally or vertically.

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The rook in chess cannot jump over pieces or pawns. To capture, the rook simply replaces the enemy piece or pawn on its square.

How the Bishop Moves

The bishop moves along diagonals, as many squares as it likes.

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It does not bounce off the edge of the board, so each move follows a single diagonal. It cannot jump over pieces or pawns, and it captures enemy pieces and pawns by replacing them on their squares.

Now mix the bishop's movement with the rook's and you get the queen, the most powerful piece in the game.

How the Queen Moves

The queen moves horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, as many squares as it likes.

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The queen is a long-range piece that controls an enormous number of squares.

It cannot jump over pieces or pawns either. To capture, the queen also replaces the enemy piece or pawn on its square.

How the King Moves

Like the queen, the king moves horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, but only one square at a time!

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To capture, the king also replaces the enemy piece or pawn on its square.

The king represents your life in the game. If your opponent attacks it and no legal move can save it, you have lost the game!

How the Knight Moves

The knight moves in the shape of a capital L. Move it two squares in one direction (vertically or horizontally), then one square at a right angle to that.

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A knight on d4 can therefore reach these eight squares. Trace the path from the starting square to the landing square, moving vertically then horizontally, and you get a capital L, three squares by two.

A knight can jump over pieces and pawns.

To capture an enemy piece, the knight also replaces it on its square.

That covers the movement of the pieces. Time for the advanced rules of chess!

How Do You Capture a Piece in Chess?

To capture a piece in chess, you move one of your pieces onto a square occupied by an enemy piece. The captured piece is removed from the board and your piece takes its place.

Every piece captures the same way it moves. The queen, the rook, the bishop, the king, and the knight all capture along their normal paths.

The pawn is the big exception. It moves straight ahead but captures an enemy piece sitting one square diagonally in front of it. It can never capture a piece standing directly in its path.

A piece can never capture another piece of its own color. And apart from the knight, no piece can pass over another piece standing in its way.

Capturing is never mandatory, even when a capture is available. Before taking a piece, it is worth checking that your piece cannot be recaptured immediately by your opponent.

Finally, the enemy king is never actually captured. When it is attacked and no legal move can save it, it is in checkmate and the game is over.

What Do Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate Mean?

In chess, the terms check, checkmate, and stalemate describe three different situations involving the king. Telling them apart is essential, because they have very different consequences for the game.

What Is Check in Chess?

A king is in check when an enemy piece attacks it. The player must immediately respond with a move that protects the king.

There are generally three ways out.

• Move the king to a square that is not attacked.
• Capture the piece giving check.
• Place a piece between the king and the attacker, when that is possible.

One essential rule should always stay in the back of your mind. A player may never make a move that leaves their own king in check.

What Is Checkmate?

Checkmate happens when the king is under attack and no legal move can save it.

The king cannot step to a safe square, the attacking piece cannot be captured, and no piece can block the attack. The game ends immediately, and the player who delivered the mate wins.

Contrary to what many beginners assume, the king is never captured. The game stops the instant it is in checkmate.

What Is Stalemate?

Stalemate happens when a player is not in check but has no legal move to play.

In that situation the game is declared a draw. Neither player wins, even if one of them has far more pieces than the other.

The essential difference is simple. In checkmate, the king is under attack and the game is lost. In stalemate, the king is not under attack and the game is drawn.

What Are the Special Rules in Chess?

Beyond the normal movement of the pieces, chess has three special rules. They are castling, pawn promotion, and en passant. These moves can look surprising when you are starting out, but you will learn to spot them very quickly.

How Does Castling Work?

Castling is a special move that lets you move the king and a rook at the same time. Its main purpose is to tuck the king away safely while bringing the rook closer to the center of the board.

To castle in chess, the king moves two squares toward the rook, and the rook then hops over to the other side of the king.

There are two types of castling.

• Kingside castling, on the king's side of the board.
• Queenside castling, on the queen's side.

Castling is only legal when all of the following conditions are met.

• The king and the rook involved have never moved.
• No piece stands between the king and the rook.
• The king is not currently in check.
• The king does not pass through any square controlled by an enemy piece.
• The king's landing square is not attacked.

A rook may be under attack without preventing castling. The king, on the other hand, can never castle to escape a check, pass through a check, or land in check.

How Does Pawn Promotion Work?

When a pawn reaches the last rank of the board, it must immediately be replaced by another piece of the same color. This rule is called promotion.

The player turns the pawn into a queen, a rook, a bishop, or a knight.

In most positions the pawn becomes a queen, since it is the most powerful piece. Sometimes, though, it is better to choose a knight, a rook, or a bishop, either to create a specific threat or to avoid a stalemate.

You can have several queens, or several identical pieces, on the board at the same time. The piece you choose does not need to have been captured earlier.

What Is the En Passant Rule?

En passant is a special rule that only concerns pawns.

When a pawn advances two squares from its starting position and lands right beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had only advanced one square.

The capturing pawn moves diagonally onto the square the enemy pawn passed over, and the captured pawn is removed from the board.

This capture is only available immediately after the two-square advance. If the player makes any other move first, the right to capture en passant is lost for good.

How Does a Chess Game End?

A chess game does not always end in checkmate. It can also finish when a player resigns, when a player runs out of time, or through one of several rules that produce a draw.

Checkmate

A player wins by putting the enemy king in checkmate. The king is attacked and no legal move can save it.

The player in check can neither move the king to a safe square, nor capture the attacking piece, nor block the attack. The game stops immediately, and the king is never actually captured.

Resignation

A player may resign when they judge their position to be lost. This often happens after losing a large amount of material, or when checkmate has become unavoidable.

The opponent wins the game on the spot. There is no need to play the mate out on the board.

Losing on Time

When a clock is used, each player has a limited amount of time for all of their moves. A player whose time runs out normally loses the game.

There is one exception. If the opponent has no possible series of legal moves leading to checkmate, the game is declared a draw.

Draw by Agreement

Both players can agree to end the game in a draw.

A player offers the draw after making their move. The opponent may accept the offer, decline it, or simply play on.

Stalemate

Stalemate occurs when a player is not in check but has no legal move available.

The game is then declared a draw, even if one player has far more material than the other. Stalemate in chess is a major defensive resource in certain lost positions.

Threefold Repetition

A player can claim a draw when the same position appears for the third time, with the same player to move and the same possibilities available.

The three occurrences do not need to happen on consecutive moves. After five repetitions of the same position, the game is automatically drawn.

The 50-Move Rule

A player can claim a draw when both players have made 50 consecutive moves without a pawn move or a capture.

The count resets to zero as soon as a pawn moves or a piece is captured. After 75 moves by each player without a pawn move or a capture, the game is automatically declared drawn, unless the final move delivers checkmate.

Insufficient Material

The game is drawn when neither player can possibly deliver checkmate with the pieces left on the board.

This applies in particular to the following situations.

• King against king.
• King and bishop against king.
• King and knight against king.

In these positions the game stops, because no checkmate can ever be constructed.

The Rules of Chess at a Glance

This table gathers the main chess rules in one place, from the goal of the game and the movement of the pieces to the special moves and the different ways a game can end.

The Chess Rules as a PDF

If you want to go further with the rules of chess, we're preparing a printable PDF for beginners, with clear diagrams and progressive exercises. It isn't ready yet, join the waitlist and we'll send it to you when it's out. These worksheets will help you

• understand the fundamental rules of the game more deeply,
• train with practical exercises and their solutions,
• and consolidate your basics at your own pace, wherever you are.

It will be the ideal tool for building your knowledge and gaining confidence before moving on to more advanced strategies.

Chess Rules FAQ

Here is a series of questions we get asked all the time.

What is the difference between stalemate and checkmate?

The difference comes down to one detail with huge consequences. In checkmate, the king is in check, so checkmate wins the game while stalemate only produces a draw. For a deeper look at this question, read our article on stalemate vs checkmate. A few small practice games can help make the distinction stick.

How can you be sure the board is not set up backward?

It is very simple. You must have a light square in the bottom right corner in front of you. The same goes for your opponent!

The board above is set up correctly because the h1 and a8 squares are light.

Where does the queen go in the starting position?

Each queen goes on her own color. The white queen stands on a light square and the black queen stands on a dark square. They occupy the central squares of the board, as shown below.

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Is the queen worth 9 points or 10?

The point system in chess is not an exact science. Some players reason that a queen equals two rooks, which would make it worth 10 points. Others say a queen equals three minor pieces, which gives it 9. Either way, the queen remains the most powerful piece in the game!

Can a pawn move backward?

No. The pawn is the only piece in the game that cannot move backward. Every pawn move should be carefully calculated, because there is no undoing it! All the other pieces can happily retreat.

How do you record your moves in chess?

It is not complicated. Think of it as a code you learn to decipher. Our article on chess notation goes deeper into this topic.

Do you have to castle in chess?

Castling is not mandatory, but it is strongly recommended! A king that stays in the middle of the board will often end up under fire from the enemy pieces. To keep it well protected, castle and then, if possible, leave the three pawns in front of it untouched.

Do you have to announce check?

You are not required to announce check. Quietly saying "check" to your opponent is still considered good manners.

How much thinking time should you take per game?

Take your time to think. That is our number one piece of advice when you play chess. A time control of at least 20 minutes per game seems like a healthy minimum to us!

Who moves first in a chess game?

White always plays the first move. The players then alternate, moving one piece per turn, except when castling, which moves the king and a rook on the same turn.

Can the king be captured in chess?

No, the king is never actually captured. When it is attacked and no legal move can protect it, it is in checkmate and the game ends immediately.

Can the king capture a piece?

Yes, the king can capture an enemy piece standing on a neighboring square. It cannot make that capture, however, if the landing square is defended by another enemy piece. A king can never put itself in check.

Which pieces can move backward in chess?

Every piece can move backward except the pawn. The king, the queen, the rook, the bishop, and the knight can all retreat along their usual paths. The pawn only ever advances toward the other side of the board.

How long does a chess game last?

The length of a game depends on the time control. A blitz game can be over in a few minutes, a rapid game generally lasts between 20 minutes and an hour, and a classical tournament game can go on for several hours.

Which Rules Should Guide Your First Moves?

Here is our checklist of principles for playing the opening phase well.

• Control the center with your pawns.
• Develop all your minor pieces (the bishops and the knights) toward the center of the board.
• Move each minor piece only once, and place it directly on an active square.
• Protect your king by castling.
• Do not bring your queen out too early.
• Use your rooks, do not leave them sitting in the corners of the board!

Those are the big principles that guide the opening. The core idea is to mobilize all of your pieces before your opponent does. You want to win the development race so you can be the first to seize the initiative and attack. While chasing that goal, you also prepare a safe hideout for your king. Do all this and you will be in great shape to handle the middlegame with confidence. Even at the highest level, these principles are broadly respected.

Go deeper with our dedicated guide to chess opening principles.

How Do You Write Down a Chess Game?

We also want to stress how much chess notation matters, because it is what lets you understand the solutions to all those famous chess exercises. Remember that to find the coordinates of a square, you take the intersection of a file and a rank (the e4 square sits at the intersection of the e-file and the fourth rank). Add the initial of the piece (N for knight, B for bishop, R for rook, Q for queen, and K for king) and you have the move. So Ne4 means you moved your knight to the e4 square.

Castling is written with the letter O. O-O means kingside castling and O-O-O means queenside castling. Finally, captures are marked with an x. Nxe4 means the knight captured the enemy piece sitting on e4. And that covers the essentials of chess notation!

How Do You Actually Have Fun Playing Chess?

Having fun is not automatic with this many pieces and pawns, each moving its own way. So here is our advice for genuinely enjoying the game of chess.

Tip 1. Move Toward Strategy Quickly

It may sound strange that we first told you to take your time with the rules and are now telling you to hurry toward chess strategy. The reason is that once you play with all the pieces, the game becomes seriously complicated. Without a minimum of organization, you never manage to develop your play. And you do not really have much fun either. A few core strategic ideas change everything.

Tip 2. Move Toward Tactics Quickly

Delivering checkmate is what excites players young and old more than anything! Learning the first mating patterns will let you actually finish your games, and it is one of the most satisfying parts of learning chess.

The path, then, looks like this. First take your time absorbing the movement of each piece. Then pick up the basics of strategy and tactics so you can start having real fun. That is our recipe for making the rules of chess stick! We cannot promise you will become a grandmaster or play like five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen, but we can promise you are going to have a great time!

What Are the Benefits of Playing Chess?

Chess, with all its complexity, has fascinated scientists for a long time. It started with Alfred Binet, who would go on to build the first practical intelligence test a decade later. Studying chess players in 1894, he expected photographic recall and found something else, that strong players hold on to the meaning of a position rather than a picture of it. It continued with Michel Noir, whose 2002 French doctoral thesis taught chess to classes of ten-year-olds over seven months and found their clearest advantage over other children in attention and concentration.

Noir's argument is that chess exercises, rather than casual play, are what carry the cognitive benefit. Diving into deep concentration for several minutes at a stretch helps children structure their thinking and build their ability to focus.

Chess brings plenty of other benefits too, from imagination and creativity to calculation. So yes, you made a great choice when you picked up this game!

Your Move

• Continue with our guide to learning how to play chess, the natural next step once you know the rules.
• Discover the strategies for starting a game well.
• Or get the special moves right with our guides to castling and en passant.

That wraps up our guide to the rules of chess. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, feel free to share it with a friend who is learning the game!