Learn How to Play Chess: for Beginners

In this instructable, I will teach the reader how to play chess. This will include learning the pieces, and how they move. I will also provide general instructions on how each part of the game is played, though this part is slightly more advanced.

Chess can be played with physical board and pieces, but I will be showcasing how to play chess online, using chess.com. The game is the same as if you were playing chess on a physical chess board.

Chess is first and foremost a 2-player game with each player competing against each other. Each player starts the game with 16 pieces that each carry a specific role to help you battle your opponent. The goal of chess is not simply to take all of the opponent's pieces, but rather to deliver a checkmate. The game will go on by each player going back and forth moving one of their pieces until there is a checkmate, stalemate, resignation, or a mutual draw (or tie).

As you may have seen before, this is what a chessboard with all of its pieces at the start of the game looks like. It is a board with a checkered pattern between light squares and dark squares. The individual colors of the squares can differ, however, there will always be one light color and one dark color. It is an 8 by 8 board, the same used in checkers if you have played that before. You may also notice that the board edges have labels. This is to identify each square in the grid. The vertical column of squares for a letter is called a file, and the horizontal row of squares for a number is called a rank (Ex: E File is all of the squares on the E line, and the 4th Rank is all of the squares on the 4th line.) In the second picture, you can see an example of this grid system. You can see the E file and the 4th rank meet, and that specific square is called E4.

There are six different types of pieces in chess. Each chess piece has different types of moves. Because chess pieces have different abilities, some are more important than others. This diagram has the pieces in order from least important at the top, to the most important pieces at the bottom. These pieces in order are the pawn, the knight, the bishop, the rook, the queen, and the king. There are also two different colors of pieces, white and black. This is to identify the first and second player's pieces.

The white pieces are set up on the first and second ranks, and the black pieces are setup on the seventh and eighth ranks. Each player starts with eight pawns, spread across the entirety of the second rank for the white pieces and the seventh rank for the black pieces. Each player has two rooks, placed on A1 and H1 for white, and A8 and H8, for black. These are located in the four corners of the board. Each player has two knights, placed on B1 and G1 for white, and B8 and G8, for black. Each player has two bishops, placed on C1 and F1 for white, and played on C8 and F8 for black. Each player has one queen, placed on D1 for white, and played on D8 for black. Each player has one king, placed on E1 for white, and placed on E8 for black.

For the next few steps of learning how pieces move, I will use arrows to showcase where a piece started, and where it moves to. The pawn moves in essentially 3 ways. As shown in the first picture, the main way that a pawn moves is by advancing one square forward, indicated by the arrows in the first picture. The pawn cannot move backwards; it can only move forward. If a pawn has not already moved, a pawn can move forward two squares on its first move, as shown in the second picture. The way a pawn captures a piece, is by moving one space forward diagonally. It cannot make this move if it isn't capturing a piece. This is shown in the third picture.

A rook can move horizontally or vertically. It can move 1 square, or more, moving across the entire board if you want it to. If you remember back to the piece chart, you'll remember that the rook is among some of the more powerful pieces on a chess board. This is because of the rook's ability to see and challenge many parts of the chess board within one move.

A bishop moves in a similar fashion to the rook; however, it moves diagonally instead of horizontally or vertically. A bishop can move diagonally one square, or more, moving across an entire diagonal if you want it to. You may notice that bishops only move on one color. Each player has one light square bishop and one dark square bishop. Since they are stuck to their color, one player's bishop pair will never see the same squares.

The knight moves slightly differently to all of the other pieces. The knight (on one move) moves forward two squares, then left or right one square. It can jump over other pieces in its way, a characteristic that only the knight has. It can do this specific movement in any direction that you wish it to.

The Queen has the ability to move as a rook does, horizontally or vertically all the way across the board if you wish. However, it also has the ability to move in the same direction as the bishop, diagonally. The queen is essentially a rook and bishop in one. This is why it is the most important piece besides the king.

The King, despite being the most important piece on the board, has relatively limited movement. Like the queen, it can move in any direction, up or down, or diagonally in any direction. However, it is limited to just moving one space per movement. You may be wondering why, if the queen has better movement, why is the king the most important piece on the board. This is because the game is won or lost with the king, and no other piece. I will go into this more on the next step.

A check is a forcing move when you move a piece into attacking the king. When the king is attacked by a check, this demands that your next move is either moving the king away from the check, capturing the piece attacking the king, or by blocking the check with another piece. The example of the check in the first picture can only be stopped by blocking the check with the pawn.

The way you win the game, is by delivering a checkmate. A checkmate, similar to check, is when the king is under attack. The only difference is that a checkmate means that there is no way of stopping the opponent from taking the king on the next move. This is shown in the second picture. When a checkmate is delivered, the game is over, and the player delivering checkmate has won the game.

A stalemate is when your opponent has left you no possible moves, however the king is not in an immediate attack. This is shown in the third picture. A stalemate is a draw.

Now that you have an idea of what the pieces do, and how the game is played, this last step is a brief overview on the principles of chess that can lead to winning.

Principle 1: Strong Center

Generally, it is always a good idea to put two pawns and knights in the center, if you can. A strong commanding center allows you to take space from your opponent. Many beginners and intermediate players struggle with a lack of space.

Principle 2: Castling and King Safety

An important aspect of your success as a chess player is ensuring your most valuable piece (your king), is safe. Therefore, keeping your king protected, in a difficult location for your opponent to reach is an essential part of success in chess. One of the ways this is done, is by castling. This is the one exception of chess, where you move two pieces on the same move. As shown in the second picture, if the space between the king and the rook has opened up, the king and the rook swap over each other (King moves from e1 to g1, and rook moves from h1 to f1). This can also be done with the other rook going the other way. Castling is an important part of king safety, and I would recommend it to all beginners.

Principle 3: Developing Pieces

In chess, developing all of your pieces in the beginning of the game, is always a good rule of thumb. In the third image, you can see how, I have castled, have a strong center with three pawns and two knights. However, I have also developed both of my bishops and have much more space because of it. By not moving a piece more than once in the opening, and moving activating each piece, I now have a command over the game.

By following this guide and following these principles, you now have a grasp on how to play!