How to Set Pieces on a Chess Board

The game of chess has been played for centuries and is a descendant of previous simple strategic board games. Chess is a war game based on ancient battle scenarios transferred to a board with 64 squares and 32 game pieces, with the objective of capturing the king of your opponent. And just as real armies set up troops for battle, the chess player must set up his board for game battle using those 32 pieces. Learning this set-up is paramount in learning to master the game.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Chess board and pieces

Set up Your Chess Board

1. Set the board between you and your opponent on a steady surface. Make sure that there is a white (or light) corner to the right of each player.

2. Learn the particulars of the board itself. The rows that go sideways are called ranks. The rows going top to bottom are called files, while the rows going diagonally are called diagonals.

3. Familiarize yourself with the five different game pieces. In each color (black and white) you will have one king, one queen, two each of bishops, knights and rooks, and eight pawns.

4. Position the king and queen in the two middle squares of the rank closet to you. The black queen must be placed on a black square and the white queen must be placed on a white square (each player does this on her own side of the board).

5. Situate the bishops, knights and rooks on the same rank (or row) as the king and queen, with one of each on either side of the king and queen.

6. Place the eight pawns in a straight line across the chess board in the row directly in front of your other pieces.

Tips & Warnings

• Although chess pieces come in all shapes, colors and materials, the lighter color is always considered white and the darker color is always considered black, with the white player always making the first move.
• Remember that not all pieces can move all ways. Bishops only move diagonally across the board in any direction. Knights move in any direction and jump over other pieces, but must move three squares at a time. Rooks move backward and forward, side to side or up and down. Pawns only move one space forward at a time. The queen can move in any direction, but cannot jump other pieces. The king can move in all directions, but only one space at a time.