Rules for Playing Chess

Setup

• The playing pieces start on the two rows closest to each player. From left to right, the row closest to each player contains a rook, a knight, a bishop, the queen, the king, a bishop, a knight and a rook, while the row directly above them contains the eight pawns.

Gameplay

• Whoever controls the white set of pieces always goes first. Afterwards, both players alternate moves while attempting to capture their opponent's pieces.

Checkmate

• The goal of the game is to trap your opponent's king, which is referred to as a checkmate. To do this, you must position your pieces in such as way that one could take the king on the next turn, and there is no move the opponent can make that would either protect the king or move it out of harm's way.

Movement

• The king can move one space in any direction, while the queen can move any number of spaces in any direction and the rook can move any number of spaces, but only vertically or horizontally. Bishops can move an unlimited number of diagonal spaces, while knights move in an L-shape--that is, two spaces one way and a third in a different direction.

Pawns

• Pawns, on the other hand, typically move one space forward, but there are two exceptions to this. Pawns can move either one or two spaces in their first move, and when they take a piece, they must do so diagonally. They also earn a promotion to another piece (of the player's choosing) if they successfully reach the opponent's end of the board.

Castling

• The rules for playing chess also include a maneuver called "castling" in which a king is allowed to move two spaces towards a nearby rook, and the rook moves to the side of the king closest to the middle of the board. This can only be done if neither piece has been moved yet and there are no other pieces between the king and the rook.