Chess Rules!
An Ancient Game
Chess was invented somewhere in India or the Middle East 15002000 years ago. It was already an old, OLD game during the times
of the castles, kings, and knights in Europe. A thousand years ago,
Arabians brought a version of chess to Europe. The rules were
different then, and it took several days to play a single game! It took
another 500 years for the game to slowly change into the version we
play now. In the past 500 years, the rules have hardly changed at
all.
A Great Game
There's a reason why it has survived so long—it's a great game!
Chess has way more strategy than most games. A well-played game
is a work of art. To play the game well requires planning, creativity,
thinking ahead, logic, calculation, and patience. Playing chess is a
fun way to exercise your brain muscles.
The Chessboard
A game of chess is a battle of
minds fought on a battlefield with
an 8  8 array of light and dark
squares. Each square has a name
that tells you where it is on the
board. For example, the square b3
is on the b-file and the third rank.
Can you locate the e5 and f2
squares?
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b3
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Most of the time when you play
games of chess, you won't be
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thinking about the names of the
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squares, but you will need to
know them if you want to talk about and learn about chess.
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Chess Rules!
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Vertical columns of squares are
called files. For example, the
line of squares c1 through c8 is
called the c-file.
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Horizontal rows of squares are
called ranks.
The Pieces
Each player commands an army of 16 chess pieces.
1 King (K):
1 Queen (Q):
Heavy
Pieces
2 Rooks (R):
Pieces
2 Bishops (B):
Minor
Pieces
2 Knights (N):
8 Pawns:
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Chess Rules!
It's a little bit crazy, but even though the king and pawns are chess
pieces, a lot of times they are not called pieces. When chess players
talk about pieces, they usually mean queens, rooks, bishops, and
knights, and not the king or pawns. Queens and rooks are heavy
pieces while the bishops and knights are minor pieces. The king is
the king and pawns are pawns.
The Pieces and the Board
At the beginning of the game,
the pieces are set up like in the
picture: king and queen in the
middle, rooks in the corners,
and knights next to rooks. When
setting up the board, remember
that the "queen goes on her
color" and that the square in
your right-hand corner should
be white ("white on the right").
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Parts of the Board
The queenside is the half of the
board that the queens are on at
the beginning of the game. The
kingside is the half of the board
that the kings are on at the
beginning of the game.
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Queenside
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Kingside
Black's back rank
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White's 7th rank/Black's 2nd rank
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The
center
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The center of the board is the
four squares in the middle of the
board—d4, d5, e4, and e5.
Sometimes the squares next to
the center are included in
discussion of the "center."
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White's back rank
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Chess Rules!
The Game
The two players take turns moving pieces. White goes first. Each
player moves one piece per turn. You can never skip a turn—even
you want to! On your turn, you may move a piece to a better spot or
you may capture one of your opponent's pieces by crashing into it,
removing it from the board, and taking its place on that square.
Once a piece is captured, it is out for the rest of the game. The
object of the game is to keep capturing pieces until one of the kings
is captured by force (checkmate). At that point, the game is over.
The pieces all move in different ways, and each of them has its own
strengths and weaknesses.
A. Pawns Pawns are the weakest of the chess pieces but
have the trickiest rules for moving.
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On its first move, a pawn can
move either one or two squares
forward. After that it can only
move forward one square at a
time and never backwards.
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A pawn can capture pieces only
diagonally forward one square—
never straight forward, sideways,
or backwards. In the picture,
White's e-pawn cannot move
straight forward because it is
blocked by Black's e-pawn, but it
can capture the black f-pawn.
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Chess Rules!
Special Pawn Moves
1. Promotion
You can turn the weakest piece into the most powerful piece! When
a pawn makes it all the way across the board to its 8th rank, it gets
promoted to the piece of your choice: queen, knight, rook, or
bishop. The new piece immediately replaces the pawn on the
promotion square. Pawn promotions usually only occur late in the
game.
2. En passant
Take a deep breath and relax before reading about this sillysounding move. It isn't nearly as hard as it seems...If a pawn moves
forward two squares on its first move when it could have been
captured by a pawn if it had moved only one square instead, then
the pawn may still be captured en passant. The capturing pawn
moves diagonal one square forward to the square where the other
pawn would have been if it had only moved one square, and the
captured pawn is removed from the board. If the en passant capture
is to be made, it must be made immediately after the running pawn
moves its two squares. Ugh! What a mouthful! A picture helps.
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The black pawn moves two spaces
on the first move and tries to avoid
capture by running past the white
pawn.
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White pawn sticks out its foot and
trips the black pawn as it tries to run
past. The black pawn is captured.
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Chess Rules!
Where did this strange move come from? Over 500 years ago, the
rules changed to allow pawns to move two squares forward on their
first move. Some people didn't like this: "Doggonit! They'll be able to
run past my pawns on the fifth rank and escape! It's not fair!" The
en passant capture was invented so that pawns could still move
forward two spaces on their first move, but they couldn't do it just
because they were scared of being captured if they only moved one
square.
B. Rooks
Rooks can move as
far as they like in a straight line
along a rank or file—forward,
backward, left, right—but they can't
jump over other pieces. They capture
by crashing into an opposing piece,
removing it from the board, and
stopping on the square where the
captured piece was.
The rook in the picture can move to
any one of the squares with a star.
C. Bishops
Bishops can move
as far as they like diagonally—
forward, backward, left, right—but
they cannot jump over other pieces.
Like all chess pieces, they capture by
crashing into an opposing piece,
removing it from the board, and
stopping on the square where the
captured piece was.
The black bishop in the picture can
move to any of the starred squares.
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Chess Rules!
A bishop cannot move to a different colored square. A bishop that
starts on a light square stays on light squares the whole game and
is called a "light-squared bishop". And dark-squared bishops always
stay on dark squares.
D. Queen At the start of a
game, each player has one
queen. The queen is like a rook and
bishop combined. It can move as far
as you'd like it to in any direction
along a rank, file, or diagonal but
can't jump over other pieces. Like
other pieces, it captures by crashing
into another piece and taking its place
on the board.
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E. Knights Knights move in a small "L" shape. Like the other
pieces, they capture by landing on top of another piece. Unlike
other pieces, these horses can jump right over other pieces!
The knight in the picture can move to
any of the starred squares.
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Chess Rules!
F. King
The king can move one square in any
direction—forward, backward, left,
right, or diagonally. Like other pieces,
the king captures by landing on top of
an opposing piece and removing it from
the board.
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In the picture the black king can move
to any of the starred squares.
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Special Rules for King
When a piece attacks the king, we say the king is in check. When
the king is in check, the defending side must move so that the king
is no longer in check. It's the rule! Also, it is against the rules for a
king to move into check. If your opponent accidentally moves into
check, say, "That's check." Then let him or her move somewhere
else. Not only is that good sportsmanship, it's the rule.
There are three ways to get out of check:
1. Move the king to a safe square;
2. Capture the checking piece; or
3. Block the check with another piece.
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Chess Rules!
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Black to move. The king is in check
from the queen. The king can move
safely to f7, g6, h7, or h6. Other
moves are illegal!
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Black to move. The king is in
check and has no safe squares to
move to, BUT Black can move out
of check by capturing White's
queen with the knight or blocking
the check with the bishop.
Q: What's wrong with moving to f8 or g8?
A: It would be in check from the rook, so it's
illegal for it to move there.
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Black to move. Now if Black captures
the queen, he moves into check from
the bishop. Black can't get out of
check here. That's called checkmate,
and Black loses.
Black to move. Black can get out
of check by capturing the white
queen with the king.
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Chess Rules!
Checkmate
When the king is in check and there
is no way to get out, it is called
checkmate. The game is over
because the king would be captured
by force on the next move.
In the picture, the white king is in
check from the queen and has no
safe squares to move to. Checkmate.
Black wins.
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Black to move. The black king is
in check from the knight on d5.
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Question: How can Black get out
of check?
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Answer: No way to get out of
check. Checkmate! White wins.
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Chess Rules!
Stalemate
When the king is not in check but there are no legal moves for it or
any other pieces to make, it is called stalemate. The game is over,
but it is a draw—neither side wins.
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White to move. The white king is not
in check, and there are no legal moves
for White to make. Stalemate.
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White to move. The white king
cannot move, but White does have a
legal move: pawn to b8! Not stalemate.
Chess Rules!
G. Castling
Castling is a special chess move where you can move two pieces in
the same turn.
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Castling: The General Idea When the king and rook haven't
moved yet and there are no pieces between them, slide the king two
spaces toward the rook and then jump the rook over the king and
land right next to him—just like in the pictures. That's castling. You
can also castle on the queenside, like in the pictures below:
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Chess Rules!
Castling: Special Details
1. You cannot castle if either the rook or king has moved.
2. You cannot castle into check, out of check, or through check.
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The bishop guards the square where
the king would land after castling. No
castling into check!
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White is in check from the black
queen. No castling out of check!
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The white king would have to go
through the f1 square to castle,
but that square is guarded by the
black bishop. No castling
through check!
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Chess Rules!
Miscellaneous Rules
Draws
Sometimes it is too difficult (or maybe even impossible) for either
side to find a way to checkmate their opponent. When this happens,
the game ends in a draw, which is the chess way of saying, "Tie
game!" Officially, there are several ways for a game to end in a draw.
1. Insufficient material — Insufficient means "not enough" and
material means "pieces." So a draw by insufficient material means
that neither side has enough pieces left to force a checkmate. For
example, it's impossible to force a checkmate with just two kings on
the board. If you get down to two kings, it's a draw. To force a
checkmate, you need at least a queen, rook, two minor pieces, or a
pawn. If neither side has a rook or queen or two minor pieces or any
pawns, the game ends in a draw by insufficient material. If one side
has nothing left except a king but the other side has a king and
pawn, it is not necessarily a draw because the pawn may still be
able to promote into a queen or rook.
2. Perpetual check — Perpetual means "goes on forever." If one
side can keep putting the opposing king in check forever without
checkmating, the game is drawn by perpetual check.
In one game in the 2006 world
championship match between Vladimir
Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, White
(Topalov) was behind by a rook, but he
found a way out. He moves his queen to
g6 to put Black in check. Black then
has to move his king to h8. Then: white
queen to h6, check; Black king to g8;
white queen to g6, check; Black king to
h8; white queen to h6, check; Black
king to g8. Back and forth—check,
check, check, check... Draw by
perpetual check.
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Chess Rules!
3. Stalemate
Your king is not in check right now, but any move you make will put you in
check. Your opponent didn't leave you a single legal move, but you are not
checkmated. This is a draw by stalemate.
4. Threefold repetition
If the exact same position comes up three times in a game, it is a draw by
threefold repetition. You can't just move your own pieces back and forth three
times to get a threefold repetition because your opponent's pieces also have to
repeat their position three times. In novice games, threefold repetition almost
never happens except in the endgame when there are hardly any pieces left on
the board and one side is having trouble figuring out how to get around the
enemy king to promote a pawn.
5. Fifty moves without a capture or a pawn advancing
If both players make fifty moves in a row without anyone moving a pawn or
capturing something, it is a draw. You have to start the counting over any time
any pawn moves forward or anything is captured by either player. This is a
convenient rule to remember when you are left with just your king, but your
opponent still has a rook or queen but isn't sure how to checkmate you. He or
she will chase your king all over the board, but if there is no checkmate within
fifty moves, it is a draw!
6. Mutual agreement
If both players agree to stop playing and call it a draw, it's a draw. Don't ever
offer a draw if you are losing — it's bad sportsmanship.
If you want to offer a draw, first make your move and then say, "Draw?" or "I
offer a draw." Your opponent will either accept your offer, reject it, or simply
make a move (which really means, "I reject your offer.")
A draw by mutual agreement is totally different from one player quitting
because he feels like he's losing. It's o.k. if you get frustrated and quit a game,
but then it's a loss and not a draw. If you are losing and don't want to keep
playing, tip your king over gently, shake your opponent's hand, and say, "Good
game. I resign." [Resign is the official chess word for "surrender."]
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