Chess rules overview

From left, a white king, black rook and queen, white pawn, black knight, and white bishop in a set of Staunton chess pieces.

From left, a white king, black rook and queen, white pawn, black knight, and white bishop in a set of Staunton chess pieces.

The position of the pieces at the start of a game of chess.

Chess is game for two players, called White and Black. White alway makes the first move to begin a game, and thereafter the players move alternately.

Chess is played on a square board of 8 rows (called ranks) and 8 columns (called files), giving 64 squares of alternating light and dark color, which are referred to as "light squares" and "dark squares".

Each player begins the game with 16 pieces which can move in defined directions (and in some instances, limited range) and can remove other pieces from the board: each player's pieces comprise 8 pawns, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 2 rooks, 1 queen and 1 king. All pieces can remove opponent's pieces by landing on the space they occupy.

One player controls the white pieces and the other player controls the black pieces; the player that controls white is always the first player to move. In chess, when a king is directly threatened with capture by one or more of the opponent's pieces, the player is said to be in check. When in check, only moves that can evade check, block check, or take the offending piece are permitted. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and no move can be made that would prevent the king's capture. Normally a checkmate will require the cooperation of several pieces, but can also be achieved with one. A stalemate, which is a draw, occurs if a player's king is not in check and no legal moves are available; A draw can also occur if there are insufficient pieces left on the board to produce a checkmate (for example, if only the two kings remain).