Objective: The goal is to checkmate your opponent’s king. This happens when the king is in a position to be captured (in check) and cannot escape from capture.
Setup: The game is played on an 8×8 grid called a chessboard. Each player starts with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns.
Piece Movements:
King: Moves one square in any direction.
Queen: Moves any number of squares in any direction.
Rook: Moves any number of squares horizontally or vertically.
Bishop: Moves any number of squares diagonally.
Knight: Moves in an “L” shape: two squares in one direction and then one square perpendicular.
Pawn: Moves forward one square but captures diagonally. On its first move, a pawn can move forward two squares.
Special Moves:
Castling: A move involving the king and a rook. The king moves two squares towards a rook, and the rook moves to the square next to the king.
En Passant: A special pawn capture that can occur if a pawn moves two squares forward from its starting position and lands beside an opponent’s pawn.
Promotion: When a pawn reaches the opposite end of the board, it can be promoted to any other piece (except a king), usually a queen.
End of the Game:
Checkmate: The king is in check and cannot escape.
Stalemate: The player to move has no legal moves and their king is not in check.
Draw: Several conditions can lead to a draw, such as insufficient material to checkmate, threefold repetition, or the fifty-move rule.