Chess is a strategy game for two players on a board of 8×8 = 64 squares, with no luck involved. Each player has 16 pieces: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights and 8 pawns. The player with the white pieces always moves first, then the players alternate. You move only one piece per turn; the single exception is castling, where the king and a rook move together.

Placing the board correctly

Put the board so that each player has a light square in the bottom-right corner: remember 'light on the right'. Files are lettered a to h and ranks numbered 1 to 8 from White's side, so every square has a name such as e4 or d5.

Setting up the pieces

• Rooks go in the corners (a1 and h1; a8 and h8 for Black).
• Knights stand next to the rooks (b1, g1).
• Bishops go next to the knights (c1, f1).
• The queen goes on her own colour: the white queen on the light square d1, the black queen on the dark square d8.
• The king takes the remaining square next to the queen (e1 / e8).
• The eight pawns fill the second rank (the seventh for Black).

The goal: checkmate

The aim of chess is to checkmate the opponent's king. The king is never captured. When a piece attacks the king it is in check, and the threat must be removed immediately in one of three ways: move the king to a safe square, block the attack by putting a piece in between, or capture the attacking piece. If none of these is possible, it is checkmate and the game is over.

How a game can be drawn

• Stalemate: the player to move has no legal move but is not in check. For the side that is winning it is the most painful result: stalemating a lone king turns a won game into a draw.
• Threefold repetition: the same position occurs three times with the same player to move.
• Fifty-move rule: fifty moves by each side with no pawn move and no capture.
• Insufficient material: neither side can possibly mate (king vs king, king and bishop vs king, king and knight vs king).
• Agreement: both players agree to a draw.

The most common beginner mistakes

• Bringing the queen out too early so the opponent can attack it while developing.
• Moving without checking what the opponent's last move threatens.
• Delaying castling and leaving the king in the centre.
• Leaving pieces undefended, the number one cause of lost material.
• Stalemating the opponent when completely winning.

💡 Before every move ask yourself three questions: What does my opponent's last move threaten? Which of my pieces are undefended? What checks, captures and threats do I have? This habit alone changes results quickly.

Next step

Once you know the rules, the fastest way to improve is to solve puzzles regularly and to play real opponents. Solve a free puzzle every day on mytourneys' Daily Puzzle page and find tournaments in your city or country in the tournament calendar. To learn exactly how each piece moves, read 'How Do Chess Pieces Move?'.