The board and the pieces
Chess is played by two players, White and Black, on a board of 64 squares in eight rows called ranks and eight columns called files. The board is placed so that each player has a light square in the right-hand corner.
Each side starts with sixteen pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. On the back rank, from left to right for White, they stand rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. The queen starts on a square of her own colour: White's queen on the light square d1, Black's on the dark square d8. The pawns fill the rank in front. Each piece has its own page explaining how it moves, from the pawn and the knight to the king.
White always moves first, and the players then alternate, one move each. You may not pass.
Special moves
Three moves follow their own rules: castling, the en passant pawn capture, and promotion of a pawn that reaches the far rank.
Check and checkmate
A king that is attacked is in check. The player must get out of check at once, by moving the king, capturing the attacker, or blocking the line of attack. You may never make a move that leaves your own king in check. If there is no way out, it is checkmate and the game is over.
How a game ends
A game is won by checkmate, when the opponent resigns, or when the opponent runs out of time on the clock, provided you still have a way to checkmate.
A game is drawn in any of these ways:
Tournament rules worth knowing
Touch-move. If you deliberately touch one of your pieces, you must move it; if you touch an opponent's piece, you must capture it, as long as a legal move exists. Say "j'adoube" (I adjust) before straightening a piece on its square.
The clock. Each player has a time budget. Press the clock with the same hand you moved with. In many events an increment adds a few seconds after each move.
Illegal moves. In standard FIDE play, a completed illegal move is corrected and the opponent receives two extra minutes. A second illegal move by the same player loses the game. Rapid and blitz events have their own penalties.
Recording the moves
Games are written in algebraic notation. Each square has a name from a1 to h8. Pieces are K, Q, R, B and N, and pawns have no letter. A capture adds x, check adds +, and checkmate adds #. So Nf3 is a knight moving to f3, exd5 is the e-pawn capturing on d5, and O-O is kingside castling. See the glossary for more terms.
What are the pieces worth?
A common rule of thumb values a pawn at 1, a knight and a bishop at 3, a rook at 5 and a queen at 9. The king is beyond value, since losing it loses the game. These numbers guide trades, but position often matters more than the count.
