Chess

Overview

Chess is a two-player game of perfect information — nothing is hidden, and there is no element of chance. White moves first and players alternate. The game ends by checkmate, resignation, or one of several drawing conditions.

This entry is checked against the FIDE Laws of Chess (Handbook E.I.01), in force from 1 January 2023 and governing all rated competition. Article numbers below are FIDE's own.

1. The board and setup

The board is 8×8, alternating light and dark squares. Files run a–h left to right from White's side; ranks run 1–8 from White's side.

Place the board so each player has a light square in their nearer right corner.

Pieces occupy the two ranks closest to each player:

Rank	Pieces, a-file to h-file
First	Rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook
Second	Eight pawns

The queen starts on her own colour — white queen on d1 (light), black queen on d8 (dark). "Queen on her colour" is the standard mnemonic.

2. How the pieces move

Piece	Movement	Rough value
King	One square in any direction	—
Queen	Any distance along rank, file or diagonal	9
Rook	Any distance along rank or file	5
Bishop	Any distance along a diagonal	3
Knight	Two squares one way, one perpendicular	3
Pawn	One forward, two on its first move	1

The knight is the only piece that jumps over others. It always moves to a square of the opposite colour to the one it left.

Pawns are the only piece that captures differently from how it moves: forward one square, but capturing one square diagonally forward. A pawn can never move backward.

Every other piece captures by moving onto the occupied square. You may never capture your own piece, and no piece except the knight may jump over another.

The piece values are a guide for beginners, not a rule. Position routinely overrides material.

3. Special moves

Castling

A single move of king and rook together, once per game per side.

The king moves two squares toward the rook, and the rook jumps to the square the king crossed.

All of the following must hold:

• Neither the king nor that rook has moved at any point in the game.
• All squares between them are empty.
• The king is not currently in check.
• The king does not pass through an attacked square.
• The king does not land on an attacked square.

Note what is not on that list: the rook may be attacked, and the rook may pass through an attacked square. Only the king's path matters.

Kingside castling (O-O) is short; queenside (O-O-O) is long.

En passant

If a pawn advances two squares from its starting position and lands directly beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as though it had moved only one square.

This must be done immediately — on the very next move. The right expires otherwise.

It exists to stop a pawn using its two-square option to slip past an opposing pawn that would have been able to capture it.

Promotion

A pawn reaching the eighth rank is immediately replaced by a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour.

The choice is free and unrelated to captured pieces — you may have two, three or nine queens. Promoting to a knight is occasionally correct and is called underpromotion.

Promotion is compulsory. A pawn cannot stay a pawn on the last rank.

4. Check and checkmate

A king under attack is in check. You must immediately remove the threat by:

1. Moving the king to a safe square,
2. Blocking the line of attack, or
3. Capturing the attacking piece.

If no legal move achieves this, it is checkmate and the game ends immediately.

You may never make a move that leaves your own king in check — including moving a pinned piece, or capturing a piece whose removal would expose the king.

Kings may never move adjacent to each other.

Announcing "check" aloud is a courtesy, not a rule, and is not done in competition.

5. Draws

A game is drawn by any of these:

Stalemate. The player to move has no legal move and is not in check. This is a draw, not a loss — the single most common rule misunderstanding in chess.

Dead position. FIDE's term, and it is broader than the "insufficient material" list people memorise. Article 5.2.2:

The game is drawn when a position has arisen in which neither player can checkmate the opponent's king with any series of legal moves.

That covers king versus king, king and bishop versus king, king and knight versus king, and bishops on the same colour — but also any blocked position where mate is impossible for either side. It ends the game immediately, with no claim.

Threefold repetition. The same position, with the same player to move and the same available moves, occurs three times. The positions need not be consecutive. A player must claim it; it is not automatic.

Fifty-move rule. Fifty consecutive moves by each player with no capture and no pawn move. Also claimed, not automatic.

Seventy-five-move rule and fivefold repetition are automatic draws, declared by the arbiter without a claim.

Agreement. Either player may offer a draw; correctly, after making a move and before pressing the clock.

6. Notation

Algebraic notation records moves as piece letter plus destination square.

Symbol	Meaning
K Q R B N	King, queen, rook, bishop, knight
(nothing)	Pawn move — e4 means a pawn to e4
x	Captures — Nxe5
+	Check
#	Checkmate
O-O / O-O-O	Castling, kingside / queenside
=	Promotion — e8=Q
! ?	Good move, dubious move — commentary, not notation

Where two identical pieces could reach the same square, disambiguate by file or rank: Nbd2, R1e2.

7. Clocks and time controls

Competitive chess uses a two-faced chess clock. You press it with the same hand you moved with, immediately after moving.

Format	Typical time
FIDE defines only two of these, and defines them by the clock rather than by
custom:

Format	FIDE definition
Rapid	Thinking time more than 10 minutes but less than 60 per player
Blitz	10 minutes or less per player — or allotted time plus 60× any increment coming to 10 minutes or less (Appendix B.1)

Anything at 60 minutes or more is standard (often called classical); 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment is the common tournament setting but is not itself a FIDE category. "Bullet" is not a FIDE term at all — it is online usage for very fast blitz.

Increment adds time after each move. Delay waits before the clock starts running.

Running out of time loses — unless, in the words of Article 6.9, "the opponent cannot checkmate the player's king by any possible series of legal moves", in which case it is a draw. Note that this is a wider test than a material count: a lone opponent king draws, but so does any position from which mate is unreachable.

8. Competition rules

Touch move. If you deliberately touch one of your pieces, you must move it if it has a legal move. Touch an enemy piece and you must capture it if legally possible. Say "j'adoube" or "I adjust" before touching a piece you only want to centre.

Move completion. A move is complete when you release the piece. You may not take it back, even before pressing the clock.

Illegal moves. In standard play, the first illegal move gives the opponent two extra minutes; the second loses the game. In blitz, the first illegal move loses immediately if claimed.

Is the king ever captured?

No. The king is never taken off the board. The game ends the moment checkmate is declared — the position where the king cannot escape. You cannot kill or capture a king, and any move leaving your own king capturable is simply illegal.

Commonly argued

• Stalemate is a draw, not a win. Trapping a lone king with no legal move and no check throws away the game.
• You may castle with a rook that is under attack, and it may pass through an attacked square. Only the king's squares matter.
• You may castle if the king has been checked earlier, so long as it is not in check right now and has never moved.
• En passant is not optional, but it is immediate. Use it on the next move or lose the right.
• You can have more than one queen. Promotion is not limited to captured pieces.
• Pawns cannot capture straight ahead. A pawn directly blocked by any piece is stuck.
• Threefold repetition must be claimed (9.2) and so must the fifty-move rule (9.3). Neither ends the game by itself. Fivefold repetition (9.6.1) and seventy-five moves (9.6.2) are automatic, with no claim needed.
• Blitz is 10 minutes or less and rapid is 10 to 60, by FIDE's own definitions. "Bullet" is not a FIDE category.