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Game in a public park in Kiev, using a chess clock

The rules of chess (also known as the laws of chess) are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, the modern rules first took form in Italy during the 16th century. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The rules also varied somewhat from place to place. Today Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), also known as the World Chess Organization, sets the standard rules, with slight modifications made by some national organizations for their own purposes. There are variations of the rules for fast chess, correspondence chess, online chess, and chess variants.

Chess is a game played by two persons on a chessboard, with 32 pieces (16 for each player) of six types. Each type of piece moves in a distinct way. The goal of the game is to checkmate, i.e. to threaten the opponent's king with inevitable capture. Games do not necessarily end with checkmate—players often resign if they believe they will lose. In addition, there are several ways that a game can end in a draw (a tie).

Besides the basic movement of the pieces, rules also govern the equipment used, the time control, the conduct and ethics of players, accommodations for handicapped players, the recording of moves using chess notation, as well as procedures for irregularities that occur during a game.

Initial setup

Starting position

Chess is played on a chessboard, a square board divided into 64 squares (eight-by-eight) of alternating color, which is similar to that used in draughts (checkers) (FIDE 2008). No matter what the actual colors of the board, the lighter-colored squares are called "light" or "white", and the darker-colored squares are called "dark" or "black". Sixteen "white" and sixteen "black" pieces are placed on the board at the beginning of the game. The board is placed so that a white square is in each player's near-right corner, and a black one in the near-left. Each player controls sixteen pieces:

Piece	King	Queen	Rook	Bishop	Knight	Pawn
Number	1	1	2	2	2	8
Symbols

At the beginning of the game, the pieces are arranged as shown in the diagram to the right. The second row from the player contains the eight pawns; the row nearest the player contains the remaining pieces. Popular phrases used to remember the setup, often heard in beginners' clubs, are "queen on own color" and "white on right". The latter refers to setting up the board so that the square closest to each player's right is white (Schiller 2003:16–17).

Identifying squares

Naming the squares in algebraic notation

Each square of the chessboard is identified with a unique pair of a letter and a number. The vertical files are labeled a through h, from White's left (i.e. the queenside) to his or her right. Similarly, the horizontal ranks are numbered from 1 to 8, starting from the one nearest White's side of the board. Each square of the board, then, is uniquely identified by its file letter and rank number. The white king, for example, starts the game on square e1. The black knight on b8 can move to a6 and c6.

Play of the game

Each player has control of one of the two sets of colored pieces and is typically referred to by the nominal color of his or her respective pieces, i.e., White or Black. White moves first and, as in most board games, the players alternate moves. Making a move is compulsory; it is not legal to "pass", even when having to move is detrimental. Play continues until a king is checkmated, a player resigns, or a draw is declared, as explained below. In addition, if the game is being played under a time control players who exceed their time limit lose the game.

The official chess rules do not include a procedure for determining who plays White. Instead, this decision is left open to tournament-specific rules (e.g. a Swiss system tournament or Round-robin tournament) or, in the case of non-competitive play, mutual agreement, in which case some kind of random choice is often employed.

Movement

Basic moves

Basic moves of a king	Moves of a rook
Moves of a bishop	Moves of a queen
Moves of a knight	Moves of a pawn