How to Play Chess: A Beginner's Guide

Everything you need for your first game: the board, the pieces, how they move, the special moves and how to win. Plus opening tips and where to keep learning.

The board and the pieces

Chess is played on a board of 64 squares (8 × 8), set up so each player has a light square in the right-hand corner.

Each player has 16 pieces, 32 in total: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. Rooks go in the corners, then knights, then bishops. The queen starts on her own color with the king beside her, and the pawns fill the row in front. White always moves first.

How each piece moves

King: one square in any direction, never onto an attacked square.

Queen: any number of squares in a straight line or diagonal. The most powerful piece.

Rook: any number of squares horizontally or vertically.

Bishop: any number of squares diagonally, always on its starting color.

Knight: moves in an L shape (two squares one way, one to the side) and is the only piece that can jump over others.

Pawn: moves forward one square (two on its first move) and captures one square diagonally forward.

Special moves: castling, en passant and promotion

Castling: the king moves two squares toward a rook and the rook jumps to the other side of the king. Allowed only if neither has moved, nothing stands between them and the king is not in check and does not cross an attacked square.

En passant: if a pawn advances two squares and lands beside an enemy pawn, that pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square, but only on the very next move.

Promotion: a pawn that reaches the last rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight; almost always a queen.

How to win and what a draw is

The goal is checkmate: attacking the enemy king so it cannot escape, block or capture the attacker.

A game is drawn by agreement, stalemate (the player to move is not in check but has no legal move), threefold repetition, the 50-move rule or insufficient material to mate.

What Elo means

Elo is a rating system that measures your strength by results: you gain points for wins and lose them for losses, more or fewer depending on your opponent's rating. Online platforms use similar systems; Lichess uses Glicko-2.

Tips and where to keep learning

Control the center, develop knights and bishops early, castle to protect your king and don't bring the queen out too soon. Good first openings are the Italian Game and the Ruy Lopez as White, answering 1.e4 with 1...e5 as Black.

The Chess Galaxy Academy inside Xnova offers live online lessons with masters and ready-made studies. When you're ready, play free on Lichess and later in prize challenges and tournaments on Chess Galaxy (18+ only).

Frequently Asked Questions

How many pieces are in chess?

32 pieces, 16 per player: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.

What is en passant?

When a pawn advances two squares and lands next to an enemy pawn, that pawn may capture it as if it had moved one square, only on the next move.

What counts as a draw?

Agreement, stalemate, threefold repetition, the 50-move rule or insufficient material.

How long does it take to learn chess?

The rules take an afternoon. Playing well takes practice, tactics puzzles and, to improve faster, lessons with a coach.

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