How to play chess

The board is eight squares by eight, light and dark in turn, set so that each player has a light square in the corner on their right. The columns are called files, lettered a to h from white's left, and the rows are ranks, numbered 1 to 8 from white's side.

So every square has a name, such as e4, and a move can be written down. The move list in this game uses those names, and so do the pictures on this page.

1. Put the board down with a light square in the corner at each player's right hand.
2. Fill each player's second row with pawns.
3. On the back row, from the corners inward: rooks, then knights, then bishops.
4. The queen goes on the middle square of her own colour: the white queen on d1, a light square, and the black queen on d8, a dark one.
5. The king takes the last square beside her. White moves first.

Each piece has its own move. None of them may pass through another piece except the knight, and none may land on a square held by a piece of its own side.

The rook moves in straight lines, forwards, backwards or sideways, as far as it likes until something is in the way. In many endings two rooks working together are worth more than a queen.

The bishop moves along diagonals. Each side has one that lives on the light squares and one on the dark, so the pair together cover the board.

The queen moves like a rook and a bishop together: any distance, in any of eight directions. She is the strongest piece on the board, worth about nine pawns.

The king moves one square in any direction. He may never step onto a square the other side attacks, and he is the one piece that is never taken, because the game ends before that can happen.

The knight jumps two squares in a straight line and then one to the side. It is the only piece that jumps over others, so a crowded board cannot block it, and it always lands on a square of the other colour.

The pawn moves one square straight forward, or two from its starting square if both are empty. It takes differently from how it moves: one square diagonally forward. A pawn never moves backwards.

Taking is always a choice in chess. A piece takes by moving onto the enemy piece's square, and the piece taken is out of the game.

Castling moves the king and a rook in one turn. The king goes two squares towards the rook, and the rook jumps over to the square on the king's other side. It tucks the king away and brings the rook into play.

It is allowed only if neither the king nor that rook has moved yet, the squares between them are empty, the king is not in check, and the king does not cross or land on a square the other side attacks.

En passant is a pawn capture. When a pawn moves two squares from its start and lands right beside an enemy pawn, that pawn may take it as though it had moved only one, but only on the very next move.

A pawn that reaches the far rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight, whichever its player chooses. Almost everyone picks the queen, so one side can have two or more of them. Here the board asks which piece you want.

A game that neither side can win is a draw. There are five ways it happens.

• Stalemate: the player to move is not in check but has no legal move. It is a draw, which is why a player far ahead has to take care in the last few moves.
• Repetition: the same position comes round three times with the same player to move.
• Fifty moves: each side has made fifty moves with no pawn moved and nothing taken.
• Not enough to mate: neither side has the pieces left to force checkmate, such as a king against a king, or a king and one bishop or one knight against a king.
• Agreement: one player offers a draw and the other accepts.

A game can be played with a clock. Each player has a store of time that runs only on their own turn, and a control such as 10 min + 5 s means ten minutes each to start with and five seconds added after every move.

A player whose time runs out loses, unless the other side has nothing left to checkmate with, and then it is a draw.

Against a bot on this phone the clock is optional and off to begin with. Online it is always on, because it is what stops a player who is losing from never moving again.

The bot plays at eight levels. Each one carries a rough rating on the scale chess sites use, so a player who knows their own number can pick a fair game.

• Level 1, about 400: learning the moves. It leaves its pieces where they can be taken.
• Level 2, about 700: it sees a piece left hanging, and not much more.
• Level 3, about 1000: it takes free pieces and rarely gives one away.
• Level 4, about 1300: it sees two-move tactics and opens sensibly.
• Level 5, about 1600: a solid club player.
• Level 6, about 1900: a strong club player who punishes a weak move.
• Level 7, about 2200: an expert.
• Level 8, about 2800: the engine at full strength.

A weaker level looks less far ahead, and it also misses the kind of move a person at that level misses: a long diagonal, a knight coming backwards, a quiet move that sets up a threat. So a game against it plays like a game against a person.

The rail above the board shows the other player's clock and the pieces you have taken from them, and the rail below shows yours. The last move is marked on the board on both of its squares.

Tap a piece to pick it up, and the squares it can go to are marked: a dot for an empty square and a ring for a capture. Tap one of them to move there, or tap the piece again to put it down. You can drag a piece as well.

A pawn that reaches the last rank opens a choice of the four pieces it can become. Moves opens the whole game written out, one row per move.

Against a bot without a clock, Take back undoes your last move and the bot's reply, and Hint shows the move the strongest level would play. Offer a draw sends the offer with your next move, and Resign asks once before it ends the game.

An online game always has a clock, and the room keeps the time rather than either phone. A player whose connection drops has a while to come back, and the wait grows with the time control: half a minute at the fastest and three minutes at the slowest.

If the first move is not made within twenty seconds at 3 or 5 minutes, or a minute at the longer controls, the game is called off. The same happens if a player leaves before each side has moved, and at a table for coins both stakes go back. In the second game of a table for coins, missing the first move loses that game instead.

Once the game is under way, a player who leaves and does not come back loses it, unless the player who stayed has nothing left to checkmate with, which makes it a draw. A seat is never handed to a bot and the clock never stops.

A table for coins is two games, one with each colour, and the colours for the first are drawn. One win each is a draw and the stakes go back.

• Before every move, look at what the other side's last move attacks. Most games between beginners are lost to a piece left where it can be taken.
• Bring your knights and bishops out early, and castle. A king left in the middle is easy to attack.
• Fight for the centre. Pieces on the middle squares reach further.
• Count what a trade gives and takes. A pawn is worth one, a knight or bishop about three, a rook five and a queen nine.
• When you are ahead, trade pieces off. When you are behind, keep them on and look for chances.

Chess has one set of rules everywhere, so the settings are about who you play and how fast. The table card above the start button says what you chose.

Chess

बुद्धिचाल in Nepali. The game on this page.

Check

An attack on the king. It has to be answered at once.

Checkmate

A check that cannot be answered. It ends the game.

Stalemate

No legal move and not in check. A draw.

Castling

The one move in which two pieces move: the king two squares, and a rook over it.

En passant

French for 'in passing'. A pawn taking another that has just gone two squares past it.

Promotion

A pawn on the last rank turning into another piece.

Fork

One piece attacking two at once.

Pin

A piece that cannot move without uncovering something worth more behind it.

Increment

The seconds added to a player's clock after each move they make.

Notation

Writing a move down: the letter of the piece and the square it goes to, so Nf3 is a knight to f3 and a pawn move is just the square. The move list here draws the piece instead of its letter.