One lesson at a time.

How to play chess

Two players take turns. White moves first. The goal is to checkmate the other king.

Set up the board

Chess uses an 8 × 8 board. Place a light square at each player’s bottom-right corner. Each player starts with 16 pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. The back row is rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook; each queen starts on her own color. Pawns fill the row in front. Our game boards set this up for you.

Move and capture

• King: one square in any direction, never into attack.
• Queen: any distance along a row, column, or diagonal.
• Rook: any distance along a row or column.
• Bishop: any distance diagonally.
• Knight: two squares in one direction and one sideways, making an L. It can jump over pieces.
• Pawn: one square forward, or two from its starting square if both squares are clear. It captures one square diagonally forward.

Except for knights, pieces cannot jump over other pieces. You cannot land on your own piece. Capturing replaces an opponent’s piece with yours. You never capture the king, and no move may leave your own king in check.

Check, checkmate, and draws

Check means the king is under attack. You must escape the attack by moving the king, capturing the attacker, or blocking the attack when possible. Checkmate means the king is in check and no legal escape exists: that player loses.

Stalemate means the player to move is not in check but has no legal move: the game is a draw. Other draw rules cover positions where neither player can ever checkmate, repetition, move counts without a pawn move or capture, and agreement. Some tournament draws require a claim; see the complete rules for those details.

Three special moves

• Promotion: a pawn reaching the last row must become a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. This does not by itself win the game.
• Castling: move the king two squares toward a rook and move that rook to the square the king crossed. Neither piece may have moved before, the squares between them must be clear, and the king cannot start in check, cross an attacked square, or finish in check.
• En passant: immediately after an enemy pawn advances two squares and lands beside your pawn, your pawn may capture it as if it had advanced only one square. This special capture is available only on the very next move.

What is an endgame?

An endgame is the later part of a game, usually with only a few pieces left. It is a stage of the game, not a different set of rules. Our short promotion exercise teaches one rule; it is not a complete introduction to chess.

This is a beginner summary. For illustrated explanations and complete rule details, read Rules of chess on Wikipedia (opens in a new tab).

How to stop hanging pieces in chess

Before asking what your move threatens, ask what it leaves behind.

A hanging piece can be captured without adequate compensation. The simple case is an undefended piece; the harder case is a piece whose defender cannot do its job. A pinned defender, an overloaded defender, or a forcing check can change the calculation.

A useful check before moving

1. Look at every enemy piece that attacks the piece you want to move.
2. Imagine your move on the board. Which squares and pieces are no longer defended?
3. Ask what your opponent can capture immediately, including with check.

Do this in slower games first. A routine that feels deliberate at ten minutes may become more natural with practice. It is still necessary to calculate: counting attackers and defenders alone does not settle every exchange.

How to stop blundering in chess

You cannot remove every mistake. You can give yourself a better chance to notice the obvious ones.

Many avoidable mistakes come from looking only at your own plan. After the opponent moves, briefly reset your attention: what does that move attack, uncover, or stop defending? This is especially important after a capture or a pawn move near a king.

Checks, captures, threats — for both sides

Start with the forcing moves. If your opponent can check your king, your planned attack may have to wait. If you can deliver checkmate now, a quiet developing move misses the point. Then examine captures and direct threats. This ordering helps you search; it does not mean every check is good.

For example, after 1. f3 e5 2. g4, Black can play Qh4#. White’s pawn moves opened the diagonal to the king. There is no legal capture, block, or king escape. A quick check of Black’s available checks would reveal the danger before 2. g4.

Make your practice specific

If your recent errors involve loose pieces, practice that theme. If you frequently miss knight forks, inspect the squares a knight can attack after its next move. Mixing a few unfamiliar positions into practice helps distinguish understanding from remembering an answer.

Use enough time to explain the solution to yourself. If you solve a puzzle by guessing, repeat it later. A slower correct explanation is more useful for learning than a quick tap you cannot justify.

How to review your own chess games

Review the decisions, not just the score.

Immediately after a game, you still remember where you felt uncertain. That is useful information an engine cannot reconstruct from the moves alone. Before opening analysis, choose one moment where you struggled and write or say what you were trying to achieve.

1. Replay without the engine first. Find a position where the game changed or you did not know what to do.
2. Name your candidate moves. Try calculating the opponent’s reply to each one.
3. Compare with analysis. Look at the engine’s preferred move and the resulting position. Do not stop at the label “mistake”.
4. Extract one useful reminder. “Check for knight forks before moving my king and rook onto vulnerable squares” is more actionable than “play better”.
5. Save the position and revisit it. Return later without looking at the answer. Then try a different position with a similar idea.

What an engine evaluation can and cannot tell you

An engine score estimates the position at a particular search depth. It can change with more calculation. Different tools may assign different move labels or accuracy scores. A large evaluation drop is a signal to investigate, not an explanation of your thinking.

ChessStep uses a limited Stockfish search to highlight opportunities and lets you save positions for another attempt. It does not infer your emotions, promise a rating gain, or replace a teacher’s understanding of your goals.

Bring a game from Chess.com

On the review page, enter your public username and choose a finished standard game. Public archives may update with a delay. If a game is missing, export that game’s PGN using Chess.com’s share or download controls and paste it here. A PGN contains the moves needed to reconstruct the game; it does not require your password.