Chess Lesson 1: Pieces, Moves and Winning

Chess is a two-player game with alternating turns. You play White, your opponent plays Black, and White moves first. Each turn is one move — one legal action, not necessarily one square.

The game is decided by the kings. Attack the enemy king so that it has no way to escape and you have delivered checkmate: you win. You do not need to capture every piece, and the king is never actually taken off the board. This lesson covers squares and moves; opening names can wait.

The board has eight columns (files) and eight rows (ranks); pieces stand inside the squares. From White's side, files run a to h from left to right and ranks run 1 to 8 from near to far. Find the e file, count up to rank 2, and the square where they meet is e2.

At the start your second rank is full of pawns. The back rank, left to right, is rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. Remember "the queen stands on her own colour": White's queen on d1, White's king on e1. Flipping the board only changes your view; square names stay the same.

King ♔: one square in any direction — keep it safe. Queen ♕: any distance along ranks, files or diagonals; the strongest piece. Rook ♖: any distance along ranks and files. Bishop ♗: any distance diagonally, so it always stays on one colour. None of these can jump over other pieces.

Knight ♘: two squares in a straight line, then one to the side — an "L" — and it may jump over pieces. Pawn ♙: one square forward; on its very first move it may go two, if both squares are empty. A pawn captures one square diagonally forward and can never move backwards. A pawn that reaches the last rank must become a queen, rook, bishop or knight: this is promotion.

Except for pawns, a piece captures the same way it moves: land on the enemy piece's square and remove that piece. You can never land on one of your own pieces.

A king under attack is in check. On your turn you must deal with it at once, in one of three ways: move the king to a safe square, capture the attacking piece, or put a piece in between. A knight's attack jumps, so it cannot be blocked. If none of the three works, it is checkmate and the game is over.

Don't confuse that with stalemate: the king is not attacked, but the side to move has no legal move at all. Stalemate is a draw, not a loss. Games can also be drawn by agreement or by repeating the same position. First learn to tell "in check with no way out" (a loss) from "not in check but no move" (a draw); special moves come in Lesson 2.

In "Your turn: an opening sequence for both sides", choose Try the moves. Select the white pawn on e2, then e4. On its first move a pawn may advance two squares, as long as e3 and e4 are both empty. Selecting a piece only picks it up; selecting the destination makes the move.

Then follow the prompt to move Black's pawn from e7 to e5 and feel the rhythm of taking turns. The white pawn has now moved, so it can no longer advance two squares. Also note that pawns move straight but capture diagonally: the pawn on e4 cannot capture the black pawn directly ahead on e5.

This section practises one idea: when a rook, bishop or queen travels far, every square it passes over must be empty. Select this case and step forward one move at a time, starting with the queen on d4.

White plays Qd4–h8 with check, sliding through e5, f6 and g7. Black answers Ke8–e7, then White plays Ra1–a8 up the a-file. Notice the queen did not stop on d8 beside the king: unprotected there, it could simply be captured. Before each move, check that every square in between is empty and that the destination is safe.

Choose Try the moves, then select each indicated piece and its destination. You play both sides so you can see how turns alternate. This is one teaching line; other legal openings are fine too.

After each move, look at the highlighted origin and destination before reading the next prompt. You can step back and retry or switch to watching the demo. Real games usually do not allow take-backs.