In competitive games, the colors are allocated by the organizers; in informal games, the colors

are usually decided randomly, for example by coin toss, or by one player's concealing a white
and black pawn in either hand and having the opponent choose. The player with the white
pieces moves first, after which players alternate turns, moving one piece per turn (except for
castling, when two pieces are moved). A piece is moved to either an unoccupied square or one
occupied by an opponent's piece, which is captured and removed from play. With the sole
exception of en passant, all pieces capture by moving to the square that the opponent's piece
occupies.

Moving is compulsory; it is illegal to skip a turn, even when having to move is detrimental. A
player may not make any move that would put or leave the player's own king in check. If the
player to move has no legal move, the game is over; the result is either checkmate (a loss for the
player with no legal move) if the king is in check, or stalemate (a draw) if the king is not.

Each piece has its own way of moving. In the diagrams, the dots mark the squares to which the
piece can move if there are no intervening piece(s) of either color (except the knight, which
leaps over any intervening pieces).

Moves of the king

a b c d e f g h

Chessboard480.svge6 black circlef6 black circleg6 black circlee5 black circlef5 white kingg5 black
circlee4 black circlef4 black circleg4 black circle

7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1
a b c d e f g h

Moves of a rook

a b c d e f g h

Chessboard480.svgd8 black circled7 black circled6 black circlea5 black circleb5 black circlec5
black circled5 white rooke5 black circlef5 black circleg5 black circleh5 black circled4 black
circled3 black circled2 black circled1 black circle

7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

a b c d e f g h

Moves of a bishop

a b c d e f g h

Chessboard480.svga8 black circleg8 black circleb7 black circlef7 black circlec6 black circlee6
black circled5 white bishopc4 black circlee4 black circleb3 black circlef3 black circlea2 black
circleg2 black circleh1 black circle

7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4
3 3

2 2

1 1

a b c d e f g h

Moves of the queen

a b c d e f g h

Chessboard480.svgd8 black circleh8 black circlea7 black circled7 black circleg7 black circleb6
black circled6 black circlef6 black circlec5 black circled5 black circlee5 black circlea4 black
circleb4 black circlec4 black circled4 white queene4 black circlef4 black circleg4 black circleh4
black circlec3 black circled3 black circlee3 black circleb2 black circled2 black circlef2 black
circlea1 black circled1 black circleg1 black circle

7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

a b c d e f g h

Moves of a knight

a b c d e f g h

Chessboard480.svgc6 black circlee6 black circleb5 black circlef5 black circled4 white knightb3
black circlef3 black circlec2 black circlee2 black circle

8
7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

a b c d e f g h

Moves of a pawn

a b c d e f g h

Chessboard480.svga5 black crossb5 black circlec5 black crossb4 white pawnf4 black circlee3
black crossf3 black circleg3 black crossf2 white pawn

7 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

a b c d e f g h

The king moves one square in any direction. The king also has a special move called castling that
involves also moving a rook.

A rook can move any number of squares along a rank or file, but cannot leap over other pieces.
Along with the king, a rook is involved during the king's castling move.

A bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, but cannot leap over other pieces.
The queen combines the power of a rook and bishop and can move any number of squares
along a rank, file, or diagonal, but cannot leap over other pieces.

A knight moves to any of the closest squares that are not on the same rank, file, or diagonal.
(Thus the move forms an "L"-shape: two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two
squares horizontally and one square vertically.) The knight is the only piece that can leap over
other pieces.

A pawn can move forward to the unoccupied square immediately in front of it on the same file,
or on its first move it can advance two squares along the same file, provided both squares are
unoccupied (black dots in the diagram); or the pawn can capture an opponent's piece on a
square diagonally in front of it on an adjacent file, by moving to that square (black "x"s). A pawn
has two special moves: the en passant capture and promotion.