How to Play Chess: Rules, Moves and Strategy for Beginners

The board and the pieces

The board has 64 squares in two colours. Set it so each player has a light square at their right-hand corner. Each side has one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. White always moves first.

How each piece moves

• The king moves one square in any direction.
• The queen moves any number of squares in a straight line or along a diagonal.
• A rook moves any number of squares along a row or column.
• A bishop moves any number of squares along a diagonal, so it always stays on one colour.
• A knight moves in an L shape, two squares one way and one square to the side, and it is the only piece that can jump over others.
• A pawn moves one square forward, or two squares on its first move, and captures one square diagonally forward.

Check, checkmate and stalemate

When a king is attacked it is in check, and the player must get out of check at once: move the king, block the attack or capture the attacker. If there is no way out, that is checkmate and the game is over. A player may never make a move that leaves their own king in check.

If a player has no legal move but is not in check, the game is a draw called stalemate. Other drawn games include a position where neither side has enough pieces to checkmate and a position repeated three times.

Special moves

• Castling: the king moves two squares towards a rook and the rook jumps over it, if neither has moved, the squares between them are empty and the king is not in check or passing through check.
• En passant: a pawn that has just moved two squares can be captured by an enemy pawn as if it had moved only one, but only on the very next move.
• Promotion: a pawn that reaches the far row is replaced by a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour, usually a queen.

Opening principles

• Fight for the centre with your pawns.
• Bring your knights and bishops out early, before the queen and rooks.
• Castle quickly so your king is safe and your rook joins the game.
• Do not move the same piece twice in the opening without a good reason.
• Look at what your opponent just threatened before every move.

Tactics every beginner should know

A fork is one move that attacks two pieces at once, and knights are especially good at it. A pin freezes a piece because moving it would expose a more valuable piece behind it. A skewer is the reverse: the valuable piece is attacked first and must move, which exposes the one behind. Spotting these in your own games wins material quickly.

Piece values help you judge a trade: a pawn is worth about one point, knights and bishops about three, a rook about five and the queen about nine. Giving up a queen for a rook and a pawn is usually a mistake.

The endgame

When most pieces are gone the king becomes a fighter, so bring it to the centre. Push passed pawns, which are pawns with no enemy pawn in front or beside them, and learn how a king and queen checkmate a lone king. If you are ahead in material, trade pieces. If you are behind, keep them on the board.

Common mistakes

• Bringing the queen out too early and chasing it around.
• Forgetting to look for the opponent's threats.
• Capturing without checking whether the capturing piece will be taken back.
• Leaving pieces undefended.

Playing chess on boardflix

Play the computer on Easy, Medium or Hard, or take turns with a friend on one screen. To play someone far away, create a private room and share the link. Colours are assigned in the room and a rematch swaps them.

Frequently asked questions