How to Play Chess – Simple Beginner’s Guide

🧩 1) Set Up the Chessboard

Place the board so a light square is in the bottom-right. Then set pieces up in this order on the back rank:

• Rooks in the corners
• Knights next to rooks
• Bishops next to knights
• Queen on her own color (white queen on light square)
• King on the remaining center square

♟️ 2) How the Chess Pieces Move

Memorise these six movement rules and you can play a full game.

• Pawns: move forward (usually 1 square), capture diagonally
• Knights: move in an “L” (they can jump over pieces)
• Bishops: move diagonally
• Rooks: move straight (files/ranks)
• Queen: moves like rook + bishop
• King: moves 1 square in any direction

✨ 3) Special Rules (Beginners Miss These)

These three rules come up constantly in real games.

• Castling: a king+rook move to get your king safer and activate a rook
• En passant: a special pawn capture (rare, but important)
• Promotion: a pawn reaching the last rank becomes a new piece (usually a queen)

👑 4) Check, Checkmate, and What “Check” Really Means

Check means your king is attacked. You must respond immediately by:

• Moving the king to safety, or
• Capturing the checking piece, or
• Blocking the attack (only if it’s a sliding piece like rook/bishop/queen)

Checkmate ends the game: your king is in check and has no legal escape.

✅ 5) Tips for Your First Games

These habits prevent most early losses.

• Control the center with pawns/pieces
• Develop knights and bishops early
• Castle your king for safety
• Don’t hang pieces: do a quick safety scan before moving

🧭 A Simple Rules Learning Path

If you want to learn in the smoothest order, use this sequence:

🕹️ 6) Play Online (Free)

Ready to try a real game? Start simple and build confidence.

• Play vs Computer (great for first games)
• Play Online Chess (real players)
• Register (optional, to track progress)