Chess rules for beginners

The board and the pieces

The board is placed so that each player has a light square in the right-hand corner. Each side has a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. The pawns stand on the second row; the other pieces stand on the first row, with the queen on the square of her own colour.

White always moves first, and the players take turns. You may not pass, and a piece cannot move through other pieces, except the knight.

How the pieces move

• King: one square in any direction.
• Queen: any number of squares along a row, a column or a diagonal.
• Rook: any number of squares along a row or a column.
• Bishop: any number of squares along a diagonal.
• Knight: in an L shape, two squares one way and one square to the side; it jumps over other pieces.
• Pawn: one square forward, or two from its starting square; it captures one square diagonally forward.

A piece captures by moving onto a square occupied by an opposing piece, which leaves the board.

Special moves

• Castling: the king moves two squares towards a rook, and that rook jumps to the other side of the king. It is allowed only if neither piece has moved, the squares between them are empty, and the king is not in check, does not pass through an attacked square and does not end in check.
• En passant: when a pawn moves two squares and lands beside an opposing pawn, that pawn may capture it as if it had moved one square, but only on the very next move.
• Promotion: a pawn that reaches the far row becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight of your choice.

Check and checkmate

A king that is attacked is in check. You must get out of check at once by moving the king, capturing the attacker or blocking the attack. A move that leaves your own king in check is not allowed.

If a king is in check and there is no way out, it is checkmate and that player loses.

Draws

• Stalemate: the player to move is not in check but has no legal move.
• Threefold repetition: the same position occurs three times.
• The fifty-move rule: fifty moves by each player without a capture or a pawn move.
• Insufficient material: neither side has enough pieces left to checkmate.
• Agreement: both players agree to a draw.

Time and resigning on JoinPal

Online games have a clock kept by the server, either for the whole game or per move, with an optional increment of 1 to 10 seconds after each move. A player whose time runs out loses. You may resign at any time, and leaving an ongoing game counts as resigning.