Chess for beginners: learn to play in five minutes
Chess has a reputation for being hard, but the rules fit on one page. Learn them below, then practise in Quick Chess, where an Easy level and a hint button help you get started.
The goal
You win by checkmating the other player's king: attacking it so it cannot escape. You never capture the king itself. If your king is attacked, that is called check, and you must deal with it on your next move.
How the pieces move
- King: one square in any direction.
- Queen: any number of squares in a straight line or diagonal.
- Rook: any number of squares along a row or column.
- Bishop: any number of squares diagonally, always staying on the same colour.
- Knight: an L shape, two squares one way and one to the side. It is the only piece that can jump over others.
- Pawn: forward one square (two from its start). It captures one square diagonally forward. A pawn that reaches the far side becomes any piece, usually a queen.
Three special moves
- Castling: move the king two squares towards a rook, and the rook jumps over it. It is allowed once, only if neither piece has moved, nothing is in between and the king is not in check.
- En passant: a pawn that moves two squares can be captured by a neighbouring pawn as if it had moved one.
- Promotion: a pawn reaching the last row is replaced by a queen, rook, bishop or knight.
Draws
A game is a draw by stalemate, when the player to move has no legal move and is not in check, by repeating the same position three times, after 50 moves without a capture or pawn move, or when neither side has enough pieces to checkmate.
Five opening rules
- Control the centre with your pawns and pieces.
- Develop your knights and bishops early.
- Castle early to protect your king.
- Do not move the queen out too soon, or it will be chased.
- Before every move, ask what your opponent is threatening.
Practise
Start on Easy and use Undo to try ideas. To train checkmate patterns, play Chess Puzzle, a set of eight one-move checkmate puzzles. Then move up to Medium and Hard.
