How to play chess
Chess is a game for two players on a board of 64 squares. Each side starts with sixteen pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. This page explains the rules one at a time. Next to each rule is a small board where you can try it: tap a piece to see where it can go, then tap a square to move it.
The goal
You win by checkmating your opponent's king: attacking it so that it cannot escape. The king is never actually taken. White moves first, then the players take turns, one move each. You must move when it is your turn; you cannot pass.
Setting up the board
Place the board so each player has a light square in the right-hand corner. The rooks go in the corners, then the knights, then the bishops. The queen stands on her own colour: the white queen on a light square, the black queen on a dark one. The king takes the last square, and the pawns fill the row in front.
The starting position. Tap a white piece to see where it can go, then tap a square to move it.
How the pieces move
Each piece moves in its own way. No piece can move through another, except the knight. You capture by moving onto a square held by an opponent's piece, which then leaves the board. You can never capture your own pieces.
The king
The king moves one square in any direction. It may never move to a square where it would be attacked. The whole game is about the king, so keep it safe.
Tap the king to see its squares, then tap one to move it.
The queen
The queen moves any number of squares in a straight line: along a row, along a column or diagonally. It is the strongest piece.
From the middle of the board the queen reaches 27 squares.
The rook
The rook moves any number of squares along a row or a column. Like every piece except the knight, it stops at the first piece in its way. It can capture an opponent's piece there, but it cannot jump over it.
Your own pawn on g4 blocks the rook. The black pawn on d7 can be captured.
The bishop
The bishop moves any number of squares diagonally. It stays on squares of one colour for the whole game, so each side has one bishop for the light squares and one for the dark squares.
The bishop can capture the black knight on f6. Its own pawn on b2 is in the way.
The knight
The knight moves in an L: two squares in a straight line, then one to the side. It is the only piece that jumps over other pieces, and it always lands on a square of the other colour.
The knight is boxed in by its own pawns, and can still jump out to eight squares.
The pawn
The pawn moves one square straight forward, never backwards. From its starting square it may move two squares at once. It captures differently from how it moves: one square diagonally forward. A pawn with a piece right in front of it cannot move forward.
The c2 pawn has not moved yet, so it can go one or two squares. The e4 pawn is blocked, but can capture on d5.
Check, checkmate and stalemate
Check
A king that is attacked is in check. You must get out of check straight away, and there are three ways: move the king to a safe square, put a piece between the king and the attacker, or capture the attacker. A move that leaves your own king in check is not allowed.
The black rook on e8 gives check. Find one way out, then start again and find another.
Checkmate
Checkmate is a check with no way out. The game ends at once, and the player who gave checkmate wins.
White to move. Find the checkmate in one move.
Stalemate
Stalemate is when the player to move is not in check but has no legal move. The game is then a draw, even when the other side is far ahead. It is the classic way to throw away a won game: when you are winning, leave the other king a square until you can checkmate it.
White to move. One queen move wins, another only draws. Find the checkmate.
Three special moves
Castling
Once per game, the king can castle: it moves two squares towards one of its rooks, and that rook jumps to the square on the king's other side. It counts as one move, puts the king somewhere safer and brings the rook into play. You may only castle when the king and that rook have not moved yet, there is nothing between them, the king is not in check, and the king does not pass through or land on an attacked square.
Tap the king and move it two squares to the left or right.
En passant
When a pawn moves two squares from its starting square and lands next to an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square. This is called en passant, French for "in passing". It is only allowed on the very next move.
Black has just moved a pawn from d7 to d5, next to yours on e5. Capture it en passant by moving to d6.
Promotion
A pawn that reaches the far side of the board is promoted: it becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight of its own colour, whichever you choose. You can have more than one queen this way.
Move the pawn to e8 and choose what it becomes.
Other ways to draw
Besides stalemate, a game is drawn when:
- both players agree to a draw;
- the same position occurs three times, with the same player to move (threefold repetition);
- both sides have made fifty moves without a pawn move or a capture (the 50-move rule);
- neither side has enough pieces left to checkmate, such as a king against a king, or a king and a bishop against a king.
Gunnie's Gambit spots the last three for you and ends the game.
Using Gunnie's Gambit
Play the computer
Choose Play at the top. Pick your colour under I play and a level under Opponent. Beginner and Novice make mistakes on purpose, the Elo levels play at about 1400 to 2400, and Full strength is the engine at its best. Move by tapping a piece and then a square, or type the move under Type a move, such as e4 or Nf3.
Hints and engine help
Stuck? Show hint gives the best move in the position. Under Engine help you can switch on Show evaluation, which tells you who is better and by how much, and Show best move. Both are off at the start, so you can play on your own.
Analyse a position
Choose Analyse to enter moves for both sides and see the best move, the evaluation and the top three lines, with arrows on the board. Paste a game under Position & PGN to carry on from it.
Review your game
When a game ends, choose Review game. The engine checks every move and marks inaccuracies (?!), mistakes (?) and blunders (??), with the better move as an arrow. Step through with the arrow keys or jump to the next mistake.
Keyboard
Every square is a button. Tab to the board, move between squares with the arrow keys, and press Enter or Space to pick up a piece and put it down.
Where to start
- Try every practice board on this page until the moves feel familiar.
- Play the Beginner level as White, and ask for a hint whenever you are stuck.
- When the game ends, choose Review game and look at your blunders first.
- Move up a level once you win most of your games.