Chess rules

CHESS RULES

How To Set Up The Chess Board

Chess game is played on the 8x8 board. Each square is notated from A1 to H8. There are 6 different figure types: King, Queen, bishop, knight, rook and pawn.

All pieces should be allocated as shown on the below picture. Pay attention that queen occupies a square that matches her color (white queen on white square, black queen on black Square).

To start a game, White always moves first.

How The Chess Pieces Move

The king is the most important piece because you lose the game when he is attacked and can't get to safety. This is called checkmate. When king is attacked this situation is called check.

When king is threatened by being placed in check, you must remove the threat. A king can move one square in any direction (except castling), but it cannot move into check or next to the enemy king. It can capture any enemy piece except the king.

The queen is the most powerful piece because it can move in any straight-line direction: vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. It also can move any number of squares.

Rook may move vertically or horizontally through any unoccupied square. It participates with the king in a special move called castling.

Bishop may move diagonally through any unoccupied square.

Unlike other pieces, the knight moves in two directions at once in an "L" - shaped pattern. Knight also has the special ability to jump over any piece.

Unlike other pieces, a pawn moves only forward unless it is capturing an enemy piece, which it does by moving diagonally one square to the left or right. It moves only one square except on its first move when it may move one or two squares forward. Pawn also may use en passant capture. When pawn advances across the board to the final rank then it can be promoted to any chosen piece.

Special Moves

Normally you may move just one piece at a time. However, Castling involves moving two pieces at the same time: your king and a rook if they have both not been moved yet.

The king moves to two squares laterally — kingside or queenside — and the rook moves next to it on the other side. The king cannot be in check before or after castling or move through check. For example, the bellow picture represents the situation when king may perform kingside castling by moving e1g1 and rook – h1f1, or queenside – e1c1, a1d1.

If an enemy pawn advances two squares as its initial move and lands next to one of your pawns, your pawn may capture it on your next move as if it had moved just one square. Known as an en passant capture, this special move is lost if not played immediately after the enemy pawn moves. The bellow example represents en passant capture, when back pawn moves c7c5 and white pawn may capture b5c6.

How A Chess Game Ends

A game is won when one player can checkmate the other. Checkmate occurs when a player who is next to move is in check and cannot move the king out of check. A game may also end when a player resigns.

Games do not always end with a win or a loss. They may also end in a draw, which is the result of neither player winning. Both players can agree to a draw, and a draw also results when a stalemate —a player on the next turn cannot make a legal move and is not in check—occurs.

A draw also occurs when neither player has sufficient pieces to checkmate an opponent, or when an event known as threefold repetition occurs (the same position occurs three times with the same player to move), or when the 50-move rule is met (the last 50 moves by each player doesn’t result in a capture or a pawn move).

Good luck friends!