How to play chess: the complete beginner's guide

Here is something most beginners are surprised by. The king is never actually taken off the board. The game stops the moment there is no legal way to save it.

That moment is called checkmate, and it is how you win. Checkmate means the other player's king is under attack and cannot get out of it.

FIDE is the world chess federation. Its Laws of Chess say the game is won by the player who checkmates the other king. The game ends at once.

The board has 64 squares in an 8 by 8 grid. The squares are light and dark, one after the other.

• The rows going across are called ranks. They are numbered 1 to 8.
• The columns going up and down are called files. They are named a to h.
• Every square has a name made of its file and its rank, such as e4 or g7.

Sit the board so that the corner square on your right hand side is a light square. FIDE's Laws of Chess, article 2.1, say exactly that.

Each player starts with 16 pieces. Here is what every one of them does.

The king moves one square in any direction: up, down, sideways or diagonally. It may never move to a square where it would be attacked. Losing the king ends the game, so it is the piece you protect first.

The queen is the strongest piece. She moves any number of empty squares in a straight line: up, down, sideways or diagonally. She cannot jump over anything.

The rook looks like a small tower. It moves any number of empty squares up, down or sideways, but never diagonally. Two rooks working together are very strong.

The bishop moves any number of empty squares along a diagonal. Each player has one bishop on light squares and one on dark squares, and a bishop can never change colour for the whole game.

The knight is the horse. It moves in an L shape: two squares in one direction, then one square to the side. The knight is the only piece that jumps over other pieces.

The pawn moves one square straight forward. On its very first move it may go one or two squares. It captures differently: one square forward on the diagonal. A pawn that reaches the far end of the board turns into a new queen, rook, bishop or knight.

1. Set the board up with a light square in the right hand corner.
2. Put the pawns on the second rank, in front of everything else.
3. Put the rooks in the corners, then the knights, then the bishops.
4. Put the queen on the square that matches her own colour, and the king next to her.
5. White moves first, then Black, then White again, one move each turn.

FIDE's Laws of Chess, article 1.2, say that the player with the light pieces moves first and then the players move one after the other. You must move on your turn. Passing is not allowed.

Check means the king is being attacked right now. When you are in check you must answer it straight away.

There are only three ways to answer a check:

1. Move the king to a safe square.
2. Capture the piece that is giving the check.
3. Put one of your own pieces in the way, so the attack is blocked.

A knight check can never be blocked, because a knight jumps. You must move the king or take the knight.

A game ends in one of these ways.

• Checkmate. The king is in check and there is no legal move. That player loses.
• Resignation. A player who is losing badly may give up.
• Stalemate. The player to move is not in check but has no legal move at all. The game is a draw.
• Agreement. Both players agree to a draw.
• Repetition. If the same position happens three times, a player may claim a draw. That is article 9.2 of the Laws of Chess.
• The fifty-move rule. If 50 moves by each side pass with no capture and no pawn move, a player may claim a draw. That is article 9.3.
• Time. In a timed game, a player whose clock runs out normally loses.

These numbers help you decide whether a trade is good. They are a guide, not a rule.

• Pawn: 1 point.
• Knight: 3 points.
• Bishop: 3 points.
• Rook: 5 points.
• Queen: 9 points.
• King: no number, because the game ends without it.

So giving up a rook to win a queen is a good trade. Giving up a queen to win a knight is a bad one. There is one big exception: any material is worth giving up if it leads to checkmate. The game in the study above shows exactly that, because White throws away the queen and mates two moves later.

Three simple habits will win you a lot of games.

1. Take the middle. Push one of your centre pawns two squares on move one.
2. Bring out your knights and bishops. Move each one out once, and do not move the same piece again and again.
3. Make your king safe. Castling tucks the king into a corner behind its pawns.

One more habit matters just as much. Before every move, look at what the other player's last move attacks. Most beginner games are decided by a piece left where it can simply be taken.