Check
When a piece attacks the king, the king is “in check”. The player must escape check right away — by moving the king, blocking the attack, or capturing the attacker.
Chess is played on a board of 64 squares by two players, White and Black. White always moves first, and players take turns. Each army has 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. The green dots show every square a piece can move to.
The king is the most important piece — if it is trapped, the game is over. It moves just one square in any direction: forwards, backwards, sideways or diagonally.
Tip: Keep your king safe! Hide it behind pawns, usually by castling early.
The queen is the strongest piece. She can move as many squares as she likes in a straight line or along a diagonal — like a rook and a bishop together.
Tip: Don’t bring your queen out too early — enemy pieces will chase her around.
The rook moves in straight lines — up, down, left or right — as far as it likes. Rooks love open files with no pawns in the way.
Tip: Two rooks working together on the same row or column are very powerful.
The bishop moves diagonally as far as it likes. Each bishop stays on the same colour of square for the whole game!
Tip: One bishop walks on light squares, the other on dark squares — keep both if you can.
The knight moves in an “L”: two squares in one direction, then one square to the side. It is the only piece that can jump over other pieces!
Tip: Knights are tricky — they can attack two pieces at once. That is called a fork.
Pawns move straight forward one square. On their very first move they may jump two squares. They capture diagonally, one square forward.
Tip: A pawn that reaches the far side becomes a queen (or any piece you choose). That is called promotion!
When a piece attacks the king, the king is “in check”. The player must escape check right away — by moving the king, blocking the attack, or capturing the attacker.
If the king is in check and there is no way to escape, it is checkmate and the game is over. Checkmate is how you win a chess game.
If it is your turn, you are NOT in check, but you have no legal moves, the game is a draw called stalemate. Be careful not to stalemate your opponent when you are winning!
Once per game, the king can move two squares towards a rook, and the rook jumps over to the other side of the king. It keeps the king safe and brings the rook into play. Neither piece may have moved before.
When a pawn reaches the last row, it turns into a queen, rook, bishop or knight — almost always a queen!
A special pawn capture: if an enemy pawn jumps two squares and lands right next to your pawn, you may capture it as if it had moved only one square — but only on the very next move.
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