How to play chess

Everything you need to play your first game, in ten short sections - from the setup of the board to castling, en passant and checkmate. Each rule links to an interactive lesson, so you can try it on the living board straight away.

The board and the setup

Chess is played by two players on a board of 64 squares, eight rows (ranks, numbered 1 to 8) and eight columns (files, lettered a to h). Turn the board so that each player has a light square in the right-hand corner.

Each side starts with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. White's pieces stand on ranks 1 and 2, Black's on ranks 7 and 8. The rooks go in the corners, then the knights, then the bishops. The queen stands on the square of her own colour (the white queen on d1, the black queen on d8) and the king next to her. The pawns fill the second rank in front.

White always moves first, then the players take turns, one move each. You cannot pass.

How the pieces move

• King - one square in any direction. The king may never move to a square where it would be attacked. Lesson: the King
• Queen - any number of squares in a straight line: along ranks, files and diagonals. She is the strongest piece. Lesson: the Queen
• Rook - any number of squares along a rank or a file. Lesson: the Rook
• Bishop - any number of squares diagonally, so it always stays on squares of one colour. Lesson: the Bishop
• Knight - in an "L": two squares in a straight line and then one to the side. It is the only piece that jumps over other pieces. Lesson: the Knight
• Pawn - one square straight forward, or two squares forward on its very first move. It captures differently: one square diagonally forward. Pawns never move backwards. Lesson: the Pawn

Queens, rooks and bishops cannot jump: the path must be free. A piece captures by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy piece, which is removed from the board. You can never capture your own pieces.

Castling

Castling is the only move in which two pieces move at once: the king moves two squares towards a rook, and that rook jumps to the square the king crossed. Castling kingside (with the h-rook) is written O-O, queenside (with the a-rook) O-O-O.

You may castle only if all of these are true:

• neither the king nor that rook has moved yet in the game;
• all squares between them are empty;
• the king is not in check, does not pass through an attacked square and does not land on one. (The rook may pass an attacked square - on the queenside the b-square may be attacked.)

Practise castling on the board

En passant

When a pawn moves two squares forward from its starting square and lands right next to an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square: it moves diagonally to the square the pawn crossed, and the pawn is removed. This is called en passant ("in passing").

The capture is allowed only on the very next move. If you play anything else, the chance is gone.

Practise en passant on the board

Promotion

A pawn that reaches the last rank (the 8th for White, the 1st for Black) must be exchanged at once for a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour - the player chooses. Almost always it becomes a queen, so you can have two or more queens at the same time. Choosing a knight or a rook instead is called under-promotion and is sometimes the only way to win or to avoid stalemate.

Practise promotion on the board

Check and checkmate

A king that is attacked is in check. The player in check must get out of it on the very next move, in one of three ways: move the king to a safe square, capture the attacking piece, or put a piece between the attacker and the king. Any move that leaves your own king in check is illegal.

If the king is in check and there is no way out, it is checkmate and the game is over: the side that gave checkmate wins. The king is never actually captured. Lesson: escape the check · Lesson: checkmate

The fastest possible checkmate is the Fool's Mate in two moves; the most famous beginner's trap is the Scholar's Mate in four. Learn all twelve classic checkmate patterns - the back-rank mate, the smothered mate, Anastasia's mate and more.

Stalemate and the other draws

Not every game has a winner. The game is a draw when:

• Stalemate - the player to move is not in check but has no legal move. It is a draw, not a win - a classic way to throw away a winning position. Lesson: mate, not stalemate
• Threefold repetition - the same position appears three times, with the same player to move.
• The fifty-move rule - fifty moves by each side pass without a capture or a pawn move.
• Insufficient material - neither side can possibly checkmate, for example king against king, or king and knight against king.
• Agreement - one player offers a draw and the other accepts.

Clocks, resigning and winning

You win by checkmate, when your opponent resigns, or when your opponent runs out of time - unless you no longer have enough pieces to checkmate, in which case running out of time is a draw. Common time controls are bullet (1 minute), blitz (3 to 5 minutes), rapid (10 to 30 minutes) and classical; an increment such as "3+2" adds two seconds after every move.

Reading chess notation

Every square has a name: its file letter and its rank number, from a1 (White's lower-left corner) to h8. A move is written with the piece's letter - K king, Q queen, R rook, B bishop, N knight, nothing for a pawn - and the square it moves to: Nf3, e4. An x marks a capture (Bxf7), + check, # checkmate, =Q a promotion, and O-O / O-O-O castling. The legendary games are written this way, move by move.

Ten tips for your first games

1. Fight for the centre (e4, d4, e5, d5) with your pawns and pieces.
2. Bring out your knights and bishops before moving the same piece twice.
3. Castle early to put your king in safety.
4. Do not bring your queen out too early - she will be chased around.
5. Before every move, ask: what does my opponent's last move threaten?
6. Check every capture, every check and every threat - for both sides.
7. Count the value: pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9.
8. Look for forks, pins and skewers.
9. When you are ahead, trade pieces; when you are behind, avoid trades.
10. In the endgame, the king becomes a fighter: bring it to the centre.

Then put it into practice: play against the computer, starting at the Squire level (about 400 Elo), and move up one level whenever you win.