Chess
- Choose a color in the checkbox below.
- Click on the desired piece you wish to move.
- Then click the desired location you wish to move the selected piece to.
- (see below for detailed rules on how to play chess)
CPU White
CPU Black
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Game Log | ||||||||
How to play Chess
Chess is a two-player game in which one player is assigned white pieces and the other black. Each player has 16 pieces to start the game: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.
The game is played on a chess board consisting of 64 squares in an 8x8 grid. The squares are alternately light (white) and dark colored. For notational purposes, each square is given a name. From the view of the white player, the rows are numbered: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, with the lowest row being No. 1, and the upper row No. 8. The columns are named, from left to right: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h. A square's name consists of the combination of its column-letter and row-number; e.g., the square in the lower-left corner (for white) is a1.
Each player moves in turn, white always moving first. A move consists of placing one piece on a different square, following the rules of movement for that piece. There is one exception whereby a player can move two pieces simultaneously (see "Castling" below).
A player can take an opponent's piece by moving one of his or her own pieces to the square that contains an opponent's piece. The opponent's piece is removed from the board and is out of play for the rest of the game.
At the start of the game, the position of the pieces is as follows:
Thus, at the second row, there are eight white pawns; at the seventh row, there are eight black pawns. At the first row, from left to right, we have: a rook, a knight, a bishop, queen, king, a bishop, a knight and a rook. The movement of the pieces is restricted as follows: all pieces must end their movement on either an empty square, or a square containing one of their opponent's pieces (in which case that piece is captured).
Movement of the Pieces
Rook The rook moves in a straight line, horizontally or vertically. The rook may not jump over other pieces; that is, all squares between the one where the rook starts and ends its move must be empty. (As with all pieces, if an opponent's piece sits on the square where the rook ends his move, that piece is taken).
Bishop The bishop moves in a straight diagonal line. As with the rook, it may not jump over other pieces.
Queen The queen has the combined moves of the rook and the bishop; she may move in any straight line: horizontal, vertical or diagonal.
Knight The knight makes a move that consists of, first, one step in a horizontal or vertical direction, then one step diagonally. The knight is the only piece that jumps: it is allowable for another piece to occupy the first square over which the knight passes. For instance, white can start the game by moving the knight from b1 to c3. Furthermore, the piece that is jumped over is not affected by the knight.
Pawn The pawn's moves depend on whether it goes to an empty square or takes an opponent's piece. When a pawn does not take a piece, it moves one square straight forward. If a particular pawn has not been moved at all, it may make a double move straight forward. For instance, a white pawn on d2 can be moved to d4.
When taking a piece, the pawn goes one square diagonally forward.
There is a special rule called taking en-passant. When a pawn makes a double step from the second to the fourth row, and an enemy pawn occupies an adjacent square on the fourth row, this enemy pawn may move to the third-row square that was passed over, and take the other pawn. This en-passant taking must be done immediately; if the player who could take en-passant does not do so during the first move after the double step, the first pawn cannot be taken by a future en-passant move.
A double pawn step, and a following en-passant capture.
Pawns that reach the last row of the board are promoted. When a player moves a pawn to the last row of the board, the pawn is replaced with a queen, rook, knight or bishop of the same color. Almost always, players promote a pawn to a queen. The pawn need not be promoted to a piece that has been taken. Thus, it is possible, for instance, for a player to have two queens at once.
Before and after a promotion.
King. The king moves one square in any direction, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. There is a special type of move, made by a king and rook simultaneously, called castling: see below.
The king is the most important piece of the game, and moves must be made in such a way that the king is never in check: see below.
Castling
If the necessary conditions are met, a king and rook can move simultaneously in a castling move.The conditions are as follows:
-The king that makes the castling move has not yet moved in the game.
-The rook that makes the castling move has not yet moved in the game.
-The king is not in check (see "Check," below).
-The king does not move over a square that could be attacked by an enemy piece; i.e., when castling, there may be no enemy piece that can move (diagonally, in the case of pawns) to a square that will be passed over by the king. In short, you cannot castle through check.
-The king does not move to a square that could be attacked by an enemy piece; i.e., you may not end the castling with the king in check.
-All squares between the rook and king before the castling move must be empty.
-When castling, the king moves two squares toward the rook, and the rook moves over the king to the next square; i.e., white's king on e1 and rook on a1 move to: king c1, rook d1 (long castling); white's king on e1 and rook on h1 move to: king g1, rook f1 (short castling). The move is similar for black.
Position before and after castling: white short and black long.
Neither white nor black may castle: White is in check, and the black king may not move over d8.
Check, Mate, and Stalemate
Check When a player's king may be taken by an opponent's piece, the king is said to be in check. For instance, the white player moves a rook to a position from which the rook could take the black king in the next move, assuming black did nothing to alter the situation. We say that the white rook gives check.
Mate When a player is in check and cannot make a move that would remove the king from check, they are mated. The player who is "mated" has lost the game; the other player wins. There are three possible ways to remove a check:
1.) Move the king to a square where he is not in check.
2.) Take the piece that made the check.
3.) With a check made by a rook, bishop or queen: Move a piece between the checking piece and the king.
Stalemate When a player cannot make a legal move but is not in check, the player is said to be stalemated. The game is a draw.
When black must move, the game is a stalemate.
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