How to Play Chess

If you want to learn how to play chess here are some of the basics. Here is an introduction to chess. You will learn how to setup the chess board, move the pieces, castle, capture, checkmate, and more.

Setting Up The Chess Board
You place the chess board between the two players. The white pieces sit on one side, and the black pieces sit on the other. White squares should be in the right hand corner for both players. There is eight Pawns and they are placed on each player's second row with the remaining pieces placed in the first row. Rooks are placed on the corners, Knights go next to the Rooks, followed by Bishops.

The Queens are placed on their own colors. The White player puts the White Queen on the white square. The Black player puts the Black Queen on the black square. The easy way to remember that is "Queen on her own color." The King is placed on the remaining open square. The person that moves first is the player that is playing White. The players then alternate moves. There is no passing or skipping a move.

Moving The Pieces
Pawns can only move forward. Sideways or backwards moves are not allowed. Pawns can move two squares at a time if it is their first move. Meaning they still have to be on the second row in order to move two squares. After they move from the second row, they are only allowed to move one square at a time. Pawns move in a forward diagonal way when they are going to capture a piece. There must be an opponent's piece in the diagonal square in order for the Pawn to move there. Pawns do not capture pieces by moving forward. If the Pawn has a piece sitting directly in front of it then it cannot move and is blocked. Once you capture a piece it is removed from the board.