Chess for beginners: how each piece moves, check, and the first rules to learn

Chess has a reputation for being hard. The rules are not. Each piece moves in a simple way, and most of the difficulty comes from thinking about how those moves interact. This guide covers how each piece moves, the rules that beginners get wrong, and what to practise first.

The board

The board has 64 squares, eight across and eight down, in alternating colours. Each player starts with their pieces on the two rows nearest them. The board is set up so that each queen starts on a square of her own colour, which is an easy way to check the setup. White moves first, and players alternate turns.

How each piece moves

• King. One square in any direction. The king is the piece you must protect.
• Queen. Any number of squares in a straight line, along a row, a column or a diagonal. The strongest piece.
• Rook. Any number of squares along a row or column.
• Bishop. Any number of squares along a diagonal. Each bishop stays on one colour of square for the whole game.
• Knight. Two squares in one direction and then one square at a right angle, like an L. Knights are the only pieces that can jump over others.
• Pawn. One square straight forward. On its first move a pawn may go two squares. A pawn captures one square diagonally forward, never straight ahead.

Pieces capture by moving onto an opponent's piece. The captured piece is removed from the board. The only exception is the pawn, which captures diagonally.

Check and checkmate

A king is in check when it is attacked by an opposing piece. The player in check must respond on their next move. They can move the king out of attack, block the attacking piece, or capture it.

A position in which the king is in check and cannot escape is checkmate. The game ends at once, and the player who gave checkmate wins. A king may never move into an attacked square, and a king is never captured. It is only checkmated.

Special moves

• Castling. The king moves two squares toward a rook, and the rook jumps over to the other side of the king. It is allowed only when neither piece has moved, the squares between them are empty, the king is not in check and does not pass through an attacked square.
• Promotion. When a pawn reaches the far side of the board, it becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight. Most players choose a queen.
• En passant. A pawn that moves two squares can be captured by an enemy pawn that could have captured it had it moved one square. The capture must happen on the very next move.

Stalemate and draws

If the side to move has no legal move but is not in check, the game is a stalemate and it is a draw. Other draws include agreement, threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule. Learn stalemate early. Beginners often throw away a won game by accident.

What to practise first

1. Move each piece around an empty board, to see exactly where it can go.
2. Set up a king and one rook against a lone king and learn to deliver checkmate.
3. Play a few games where you only count captures, and make sure you never leave a piece undefended.
4. Learn to check every opponent move for a threat, before you make your own.

Beginners usually improve fastest by playing many short games, not a few long ones. Start with the rules above and build from there.