How to play chess

Goal: trap the other king so it cannot escape. That is checkmate, and it wins the game.

How the pieces move

• King – one square any way. Never onto a square that is attacked.
• Queen – any distance in straight lines and diagonals.
• Rook – any distance up, down or sideways.
• Bishop – any distance on diagonals. It stays on one colour.
• Knight – an L: two squares one way, then one to the side. It can jump over pieces.
• Pawn – one square forward (two on its first move). It captures one square diagonally forward.

Special moves

• Castling – king moves two squares towards a rook, and the rook jumps over to the king's other side. Only if neither has moved, nothing is between them, and the king is not in check, does not pass through an attacked square and does not land on one.
• Promotion – a pawn that reaches the last row becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight.
• En passant – if a pawn jumps two squares and lands right beside your pawn, your pawn may capture it as if it had moved one square. Only on the very next move.

Check, checkmate and draws

• Check – the king is attacked. You must get out of check: move the king, block, or capture the attacker.
• Checkmate – in check with no way out. Game over.
• Draw – stalemate (no legal move but not in check), the same position three times, 50 moves each with no capture or pawn move, or not enough pieces left to checkmate.

White always moves first. Players take turns, one move each.