Chess is a popular chess game that is built on 64 squares, every chess player has 18 pieces which include 8 pawns and 8 pieces (one king, one queen, two knights, two bishops, and two rooks).

The purpose of playing chess is, to defeat your opponent’s king which is called a checkmate, a checkmate means when a king receives a check (threat) and the king can not hide from the attacking pieces.

If you want to play chess then you have to follow chess rules, the chess rules have two sections, one section is about rules for chess pieces and the second section is about general chess rules like draw rules, stalemate, touch to move, etc.

I will explain both sections in an easy way.

Let’s start.

What are the Rules of Chess Pieces

Let’s start with superior pieces and their capability and their rules in chess. I will explain all the chess rules related to the king, queen, rook, knight, bishop, and pawns with pictures.

Rules For The King in Chess

This is the starting position of the king and as I highlighted in the arrows, the king can only move one square on every side of the board, if the square is empty or available.

• The king can only move one square in any direction: up, down, left, right, or diagonally.
• If the king is in check, it must move on the very next move to a safe way or shelter his king by pieces or pawns, if the king remains in check and there is no room to hide from check then it’s checkmate and game over.
• There is one special rule about the king which is called castling, it means a king can move two squares toward the rook if the rook and king are not moved previously and if there is no check or no pieces stopping the king to move.

Here is an example of castling.

Rules For The Queen in Chess

As you can see all highlighted squares which are covered by the queen, you can feel how powerful the queen is in chess.

• The queen can move in any direction along a straight line (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) for any number of available squares.
• It’s not a rule but a guideline that if you have the chance, you should centralize the queen, as you can see above picture.

Rules For The Rook in Chess

The rook is a powerful piece that can move horizontally or vertically any number of squares. And the rook can move up and down or side to side across the board in a straight line.

Rules For The Bishop in Chess

The bishop can move and capture pieces on their color as highlighted above image.

• The bishop moves in its color, which means if it white’s bishop it will remain in white squares.
• Both players have two bishops, one on a white square and one on a black square.

Rules For The Knight in Chess

The centralized knight can attack 8 squares on the board, as I highlighted in the above image.

• The knight moves in an L-shape: two squares in one direction (either horizontally or vertically) and then one square in a perpendicular direction.
• In chess, the knight is a very dangerous piece, it can attack many squares at a time, and it’s the only piece that can jump over other pieces.

Rules For The Pawn in Chess

As I highlighted above, the pawn can move one square or two, and it can not move backward.

• Pawns can move one or two squares forward on their first move, but only one square forward after that.
• Pawns capture as highlighted above diagonally and can only move forward.
• If the pawn reaches the 8th square it can become any piece except for the king and pawn.

Chess Rules about En Passant

If a pawn moves two squares forward from its starting spot and ends up next to an opponent’s pawn, that opponent’s pawn can capture it “en passant.”

This means it can move diagonally to the square the first pawn skipped over, and the first pawn is removed from the board.

Chess Rules about Castling

Once per game, you can move your king two squares toward one of your rooks, while that rook jumps over the king to land on the square on the other side of the king.

This is called “castling.” You can only do it if neither the king nor the rook has moved before, the squares between them are empty, and the king isn’t in danger of being captured.

Chess Rules About Pawn Promotion

If your pawn makes it to the other end of the board, you can turn it into any piece except a king and pawn. This means you can choose to have a queen, rook, bishop, or knight instead of a pawn, which can be really helpful for your strategy.

Chess Rules about Check

When your king is in danger of being captured on the next turn, it’s called “in check.” You have to get your king out of danger, capture the threatening piece, or block the threat with another piece.

Chess Rules About Draw

If the game ends in a tie, it’s called a “draw.” This can happen if neither player can win or if the same position happens three times.

Conclusion

These are general and common chess rules, if you need full detailed, and comprehensive rules then here is the link to FIDE’s handbook: https://handbook.fide.com/.