Many people are put off of chess by the bewildering variety of pieces and the many different ways they move. I admit, it is confusing at first. But you quickly get used to it and soon will be moving chess pieces around the board like a pro. Another reason people are sometimes put off by chess is that there are no excuses. How well you do does not depend upon the roll of dice or the draw of a card. Everything is right there in front of you on the board for all to see. There is no excuse you can use to salve your ego when you lose. At first, you are going to lose a lot! Stick with it. Improvement comes--as with basketball, playing the piano, and doing math--with practice, practice, practice.

1. Chess is a game played between two opponents, one playing the "white pieces" and one the "black pieces." Who plays which pieces may be determined by lot.

2. The player with the white pieces moves first. Thereafter, the players alternate turns. A player must move when it is his/her turn (no "passing" is allowed). At each turn a player moves by moving one and only one of his/her own pieces (exception: castling). A move may also involve capturing an enemy piece, in which case that enemy man is removed from the board immediately after the turn of the player who has just captured it. A player's turn is over immediately upon his/her releasing the moved piece. In less friendly (tournament) games there is an additional rule called the "touch move" rule, which says the first touched piece must be moved if it is legal to do so, or if you touch an opponent's piece first, you must capture it if you can do so legally.

3. The game is played on a chessboard of 64 squares, 32 light and 32 dark. The squares are arranged on the board in an 8x8 "checkerboard" pattern. At the start of the game, the board is placed so that each player has a light square in the lower righthand corner ("light on the right"). On boards where the rows and columns are designated by numbers and letters, square a1 is at the white player's left hand and h8 at the black player's left hand. If you're going out to buy a set, try to get one where the board has this notation along the edge of the squares. It will make things easier for you to start with.

4. The horizontal rows of squares are called ranks. The ranks are designated by the numbers 1 through 8, starting on white's side of the board. The vertical columns of squares are called files. The files are designated by the letters a through h, with file a being on the left of the board from white's perspective. Lines of squares of the same color (light or dark) going diagonally across the board are called diagonals. (Ranks, files, and diagonals are sometimes called lines. A line with no men on it is called an open line.)

5. Each player begins the game with 16 "men," which include eight pieces (1 king, 1 queen, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 2 rooks) and eight pawns. The men are placed on the board as follows:

1. White's pawns are placed on rank 2 while black's pawns are placed on rank 7, one pawn to a square.
2. White's king is placed on square e1, while black's king is placed on e8.
3. White's queen is placed on square d1, while black's queen is placed on d8. Remember: "the queen goes on her color" (white Q on a light square and black Q on a dark square).
4. White's bishops are placed on c1 and f1, while black's bishops are placed on c8 and f8.
5. White's knights are placed on b1 and g1, while black's knights are placed on b8 and g8.
6. White's rooks are placed on a1 and h1, while black's rooks are placed on a8 and h8.

This photo shows the board set up correctly to start a game. Imagine the player of the white pieces seated at the left and the player of the black pieces seated at the right. Notice that both players have a light square next to their right hands. Notice also that the white queen is on a light square and the black queen is on a dark square.

6. The object of the game is to attack the enemy's king in such a way that the king cannot escape capture on the next move. An attack on the enemy king which threatens to capture the king on the next move is called check. If the enemy king cannot escape capture on the next move it is checkmate. Checkmate wins the game. The game may also be won if the opponent deems his/her situation hopeless and resigns. This is usually done by announcing, "I resign," or by tipping over the king. (Shah mat: the king is dead!)

7. It is not necessary to announce check and checkmate; however, it is customary to do so. A player who does not notice s/he is in check, and makes some other move that does not relieve (eliminate) the check, must take the move back and move out of check. When your king is in check, any move that does not relieve the check is illegal. A check may be relieved by moving your king, by capturing the checking piece, or by interposing one of your own pieces between your king and the checking piece. When your king is in check, it is illegal to counterattack by placing the enemy king in check, unless that move also relieves the check on your own king. You also may not make any move that places your king in check. If you do so by accident, you must take back the move and make another.

8. A chess game may also be drawn (tied). Draws can occur in any of the following ways (don't worry about all these right now--the most important ones for beginners are b and e):

1. mutual agreement between the two players,
2. insufficient material on the board to force checkmate (e.g., a king and a knight vs. a king, or a king and a bishop vs. a king),
3. 50 consecutive moves by each player without a pawn being moved or a pawn or piece being captured (the "50 move rule"),
4. threefold repetition of the same position on the board, provided one of the players detects the repetition and declares the game drawn because of it (this must be done immediately after the repetition occurs or immediately before the move that results in the threefold repetition and only by the player whose turn it is to move),
5. stalemate (if a player has the turn to move and cannot make a legal move without placing his/her own king in check, the position is a stalemate and the game is drawn).

9. A chess man captures an enemy man by moving onto the square occupied by that enemy man. This is done in the course of making an ordinary move with a piece. However, the pawn has a special capturing move (to be described below) and cannot capture by making an ordinary pawn move. With the exception of the knight, chessmen cannot jump over other men, either one's own or the enemy's. (This ain't checkers! In chess, only the horses can jump.)

10. Chessmen move as follows. You may want to refer to the examples below as you are reading through this, or wait until the end and work through all the examples then.

1. Pawns. (Pawns are the toughest, so let's deal with them first.) Pawns move forward only (pawns cannot retreat). On its first move, any pawn can move forward two squares, or it may move only one square forward. After its first move, the pawn moves forward only one square at a time. A pawn captures by moving one square diagonally ahead onto a square occupied by an enemy man. A pawn cannot move if the square in front of it is occupied and it has no captures. If a pawn reaches its last rank (rank 8 for a white pawn or rank 1 for a black pawn), it must be immediately promoted to any piece other than a king. The piece does not have to be one that has already been captured. (Thus, a player can have two or more queens on the board at the same time.) During pawn promotion, the promoting player's turn is not over until the piece replacing the pawn has been released.
2. King. The king moves one square in any direction (exception: castling). The king cannot move into check. The king cannot move onto a square already occupied by one of his own men. The king captures by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy man.
3. Queen. The queen moves along ranks, files, or diagonals (side to side, forwards and back, and diagonally), but always in a straight line (the queen cannot make a zigzag move on one turn). The queen can move as far as the line is open but cannot move onto a square occupied by one of her own men. The queen captures by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy man.
4. Rooks. The rooks move along open files or ranks (backwards and forwards or side to side) in a straight line only (no zigzagging or moving diagonally). The rook can move as far as the rank or file is open but cannot move onto a square occupied by one of its own men. The rook captures by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy man. (The rook is also involved in a move called castling, which will be covered in the next lesson.)
5. Bishops. The bishops move along open diagonals (diagonally) in a straight line (no zigzagging or moving along ranks or files). The bishop can move as far as the diagonal is open but cannot move onto a square occupied by one of its own men. The bishop captures by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy man. (Note: each bishop is "trapped" on squares of one color. A bishop that starts its life on a light square will be forever and always confined to the light squares, and the same goes for dark-squared bishops.)
6. Knights. The knights move two squares in one direction along a rank or file (side to side or forwards and backwards), then one square at right angles (thus, the knight's move is "L-shaped"). The knight can move only to a square not occupied by one of its own men, but it can jump over its own and enemy men to get there. (Thus, a check by a knight cannot be relieved by interposing, because the knight will just "jump over" the interposing piece.) The knight captures by moving onto a square occupied by an enemy man.

We will use the following position from a game to illustrate these moves. I recommend that you carefully set up the position on your own board and work through the following examples. Be sure you understand why each move is legal or illegal according to the rules above.

Pawn moves. White has a pawn on the square h2. Since pawns cannot move backwards, we know this pawn hasn't moved yet as it is still on its home square. This pawn has two legal moves. It can move one square forward, landing on h3. Or since this would be its first move, it can also move two squares forward, landing on h4. The white pawn on f2, however, cannot move at all, because it is obstructed by its own knight. It has no legal moves. Neither does the white pawn on e4. Its path is blocked by the black pawn sitting in front of it (on e5), and it has no captures. The white pawn on d4 can move. Do you see its two legal moves? It can move ahead one square (but not two squares because this would not be its first move), and it can also capture the black pawn on e5. Pawns cannot move diagonally unless they are capturing, and they can only capture by moving diagonally. There is one other way a pawn can capture, but that will be covered in the next lesson.

Now let's look at some black pawns. The black pawn on square a6 has already made a move. We know this because it is no longer on its home square. The black pawn on h7 has not yet moved, however. If it were black's play in this game, the a6 pawn could move ahead one square to a5. The h7 pawn could move ahead one square to h6 or two squares to h5. Black's pawn on e5 cannot move ahead because it is blocked by the white e4 pawn, but it can capture the white pawn on d4. Black's c7 pawn cannot move at all because it is blocked by its own knight. Notice that black's e5 pawn is attacked by white's d4 pawn. It is defended, however, by its black teammate on d6. Pawns defend by standing one square diagonally behind the piece it is defending.

King moves. White's king, sitting on square e1, its home square, hasn't moved yet. I don't know this because it is still on its home square. Kings (and all pieces other than pawns) can move backwards, so it's possible at some time in the past that the white king moved up to e2 and then back to e1. Since this position is from a game I played, however, I just happen to know that it hasn't done that. The white king has four legal moves in this position, one of which is castling, which you don't know about yet (see the next lesson for castling). The king can move one square in any direction, as long as the square it's moving to is not attacked by an enemy piece. Thus, the white king can move to d2 or e2 or f1. The black king has only one legal move in this position, to f8. All other squares are obstructed by the king's own men.

Queen moves. Queens move in any direction they want, forwards and backwards and diagonally (but in only one direction per move). White's queen cannot move sideways here, because its path is obstructed by the king and a bishop. Legal moves for the white queen are to d2, d3, and e2. The black queen is even more hemmed in than her white counterpart. She can move only to c8 and b8 at this point.

Rook moves. The white king and h1 rook could castle in this position, but you don't know about castling yet (see the next lesson). The h1 rook could move to g1 and to f1 but not to e1 because the white king is already on that square. It also cannot move forward because it has one of its own pawns in front of it. The black rook on square a8 can legally move to a7 (but no farther because of the obstructing pawn) as well as to b8 and c8. A rook cannot move diagonally, like the queen can, which makes it a considerably weaker piece than the queen.

Bishop moves. White's bishop on a4 has already moved, but we can't be sure about the white bishop on c1. It's still sitting at home, but maybe that's because it moved and then retreated. We might guess that the a4 bishop moved first from its home square at f1 to square b5. Black didn't want it there, so he attacked it by moving his pawn on a7 to a6. At this point, the white bishop would be one square diagonally ahead of the black pawn, so the white bishop, under assault from a lowly pawn, opted to skedaddle (not a chess term by the way) by stepping back from b5 to a4. From a4 the bishop has three legal moves. Can you name them? It could move back to b5, although this wouldn't be a very good idea because the b5 square is attacked by the black pawn on a6. Bishops are more powerful than pawns, so I'm sure black would be happy to trade his pawn for the white bishop. The a4 bishop could also move back to square b3, but it could not move to square c2 because there is already a white pawn on that square. What's the bishop's other legal move? It can capture the black knight on square c6. It would do that by occupying the c6 square and removing the black knight from the board. The other white bishop, currently on c1, can move to d2, e3, f4 (not wise), g5 (also not wise), or h6 (also not wise). Although the bishop to f4, g5, or h6 moves would allow black to capture the bishop, and therefore have to be regarded as unwise, they are still legal. There is no rule in chess against making stupid moves.

The black bishop currently on d7 could move anywhere along the c8 to h3 diagonal (c8, e6, f5, g4, and h3). None of these moves would be a good idea, however. Do you see why? Don't worry if you don't. (While it's true the black bishop could move to e6 without itself being captured, if black were to make this move, white would step up a square with the d4 pawn, which would put black's c6 knight on the hot seat.) The other black bishop, on e7, is currently allowed to move to f6, g5 (where I'm sure white would immediately capture it), or h4.

Knight moves. Knights are unique among chess pieces in that they can move around corners and can also leap over other pieces. White's knight on f3 got there in one move from its home square of g1, and it leapt over a row of pawns to do it. From f3 it can capture the black pawn on e5 (not a good idea since the pawn is defended by another pawn and knights are worth more than pawns). It can also move to g5, h4, back to g1, and to d2, but it can't go to d4, e1, or h2 since there are other white pieces on those squares. The black knight on g8 hasn't moved yet (although we cannot tell that from where it sits--it may have moved out and then back). It has two legal moves: to h6 and to f6. Now let's look at the black knight on c6. As the position stands now, this knight can move to b8, a7, a5, and b4, and it can also capture the white pawn on d4. Suppose, however that we remove the black bishop on d7. Just take this bishop off the board. Now what are the legal moves for the c6 knight? There are none, because any move by this knight would leave the black king in check, and leaving your king in check is illegal. If the player of the black pieces didn't see this and moved the knight anyway, he'd then have to take the move back and move something else. (White could not take advantage of black's illegal move by taking the black king with his a4 bishop. White would be obliged to point out that black had made an illegal move.)

So there's your introduction to how the pieces move. There are two more moves you'll need to learn before you've mastered the rules of chess. We'll cover those in the next lesson and also play through a sample game.

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