Q&A for How to Play Chess for Beginners

In tournament play, the promoted pawn would be replaced with whatever piece it was promoted to (usually a queen). Tournament chess sets typically have a couple of extra queens for this purpose. If you're playing at home and don't have any extra pieces, you could replace it with a piece that's been captured or come up with some way to temporarily mark it so you can tell. Once it's out among the other pieces, it's going to be really difficult to just remember which pawn was promoted (although, if you were recording all the moves, you could figure it out).

Chess is believed to have been invented in India, where, by the 6th century, it flourished—although the name of the inventor has been lost to history. Other theories trace chess's origin back to Sri Lanka or China, although others assert these games came later or were based on the Indian one. Without a doubt, the game was originally Asiatic and spread to Russia and Western Europe by the 8th or early 9th century.

Theoretically, you could promote every single one of your pawns to a queen. But as a practical matter, that would never happen (and isn't really the point of the game). Pawn promotion isn't super common and you're typically only going to see one or two (if any) pawns get promoted in a game.

Absolutely! And it makes no sense to make such a move. The king is a really weak piece and can only ever move one space (except when he's castling). So it would be exceedingly rare for the king to take anyone out, especially a queen, because no player would allow that to happen.

Not necessarily! It's generally advised to move the pawn in front of the king as one of your first moves, but that doesn't mean you have to do it. Some players opt to move a different pawn or a knight first. There's no rule that says you absolutely have to move that pawn, or any pawn for that matter. One of the beautiful things about chess is how much freedom you have to decide what your next move will be. There's no one move that will guarantee a loss (of course, there's also no one move, or set of moves, that will guarantee victory).

This will depend on what chess program you are using. In most programs you would simply indicate that you're moving your king two squares to the right or left, and the computer will assume you are also moving your rook to the opposite side of and adjacent to the king.

The rule states that if an identical position of all pieces occurs three times in a game, a draw may be claimed by either player. The concept of a "repeated position" can be rather complex and is beyond the scope of this Q&A format.

No, pawns may capture only by moving one space diagonally forward, with the exception of an en passant.

No. Neither king can get close enough to the other to capture him. In other words, the two kings can never stand on adjacent squares, because if you were to move into such a position you would put your own king in check, which is illegal. (By the way, no king is ever actually captured. If you place your opponent's king in check, and there is no escape for him, you simply announce, "Checkmate," and the game ends immediately.)

Your piece moves legally into a square occupied by an opponent's piece, and the opponent's piece is removed from the board.

Make a minimum of three moves until your king and your rook are free to castle. (Move the knight, move the pawn diagonal to the bishop, then move the bishop). So on the fourth turn in this sequence, you could castle.

Your king will be safer near the side of the board than in the middle. The pawns on the D and E files are usually pushed forward or captured, but the pawns on the A, B, C, F, G, and H files are less likely to be pushed forward or captured and can act as shields for the castled king.

A promoted pawn can become a queen even if you still have your queen on the board, which means you could have two (or more) queens at the same time. Actually, a promoted pawn can become any piece except a king, although having an extra queen or knight turns out to be the most helpful in many endgame scenarios.

Yes, your knight can move in any L-shaped path as long as it won't finish in a square already occupied by one of your own pieces. A knight can jump over other pieces (of either color) when making its move.

The king is invaluable meaning it is more important than any other piece in the game. The queen is the most powerful of the rest of the pieces, though. Chaturanga, the original chess game, meant "four parts" in Sanskrit. This referred to the four divisions of the Indian military, the elephantry (bishop), cavalry (knight), chariotry (rook), and infantry (pawn). The bishop is quite obviously not an elephant today nor the rook a chariot, but that's because the Europeans (1000 CE) interpreted the abstract pieces into something they could understand. (They had never seen elephants or ridden chariots). Also, the queen used to be an adviser, but the Europeans had queens sitting next to kings.

In most tournament and online games, you cannot "take back" a move after you have let go of your piece. In fact, in many tournaments, you cannot touch a piece without having to move it. These rules can, however, be relaxed in novice and casual games.

First of all, you can never move more than one piece in one turn (other than when castling). Pawns normally move one square at a time. However, on its first move any pawn may (but does not have to) move two spaces forward. After its first move (whether one space or two), a pawn is restricted to moving one space at a time.

No. Pawns can move only forward or diagonally forward.

A player can castle if the king is unchecked, the path is open towards the rook, no opponent's piece is attacking the king's pathway, and neither the king nor the rook has already moved. The king moves two squares in castling to either side, and the rook moves to the space on the other side of and adjacent to the king.

To move into an empty square, a pawn may only move straight ahead. To move into a square occupied by an opponent's piece (thereby capturing that piece), the pawn moves diagonally forward one space. A pawn may never move into a square already occupied by a piece of its own color.

No. You don't take any of your opponent's pieces. Instead, you replace your pawn with any other piece of your own color (except a king) whether or not it's been captured. That way you could win back a captured queen, for example, or if your queen has not been captured, you could convert the pawn to a second queen or a third rook, bishop, or knight. This is called promoting a pawn, and it's a very powerful move.

Simply declare that the promoted pawn is now a queen (or whatever piece you choose). If there's no such piece available, use a coin or other small object to represent the piece until one becomes available.

This scenario would not be a stalemate, assuming all other pieces are left as they were from setup. The kings are not in check, and legal moves can be made.

All of the pieces except the pawns can move backwards.

It is impossible to place a blocking piece between your king and a pawn that has placed him in check, since they would be in diagonally adjacent squares. As for knights, because they always move in an "L" formation and can jump over other pieces, it's impossible to place a blocking piece between your king and a knight that has placed him in check.

No, you only take your opponent's pieces if you move your pieces in such a way that allows you to capture them. However, you don't have to capture your opponent's pieces just because it's possible for you to do so.

White has a very slight advantage in that it moves first in a game. An aggressive player would usually choose white when given the choice.

No, that's not true. They can be in the same open rank or file as long as they are not in adjacent squares.

Yes, any time you place your opponent in check, you are required to say "check" out loud.

You are not really converting your pawn to a piece that has been captured. You are actually converting it to any piece of your choosing (except a king), captured or not. Thus, you could wind up with two queens or three rooks, for example. (Most people would choose a queen, because she's so powerful, but there are situations where choosing a knight would make sense). When you convert the pawn to another piece, place that piece in the same square the pawn was in before you converted it.