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All the Rules of Chess (Complete Beginner's Guide)

Published 2026-06-28 · Updated 2026-06-28 · 8 min read · by the 88chess Editorial Team

Chess has a small set of rules that combine into endless variety. Here's everything you need to start playing correctly.

The board and setup

Chess is played on an 8x8 board with a light square in each player's bottom-right corner. Each side has 16 pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. White always moves first, and players alternate turns.

How the pieces move

• King: one square in any direction.
• Queen: any distance in a straight line or diagonal.
• Rook: any distance horizontally or vertically.
• Bishop: any distance diagonally (stays on one colour).
• Knight: an 'L' shape (2+1); the only piece that jumps over others.
• Pawn: one square forward (or two from its start), capturing one square diagonally forward.

Check and checkmate

When a king is attacked it's in check and must escape immediately — by moving, blocking, or capturing the attacker. If there's no legal way out, it's checkmate and the game ends.

Special moves

• Castling: the king moves two squares toward a rook and the rook jumps to its other side — if neither has moved, the squares between are empty, and the king isn't moving through or into check.
• En passant: a pawn can capture an enemy pawn that just advanced two squares, as if it had moved only one — but only immediately.
• Promotion: a pawn reaching the far rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop, or knight.

How games are drawn

Stalemate (no legal move, not in check), insufficient material, threefold repetition, the 50-move rule, or mutual agreement all draw the game.

Now play

That's the whole rulebook. The rest is practice — start a free game and learn by doing.