Learn to Play Chess - First Steps

By Mark Weeks, About.com Guide to Chess

Want to play chess but aren't sure where to start? Let About Chess lead you through the steps you need to get started playing the world's greatest game.

1. The Six Chess Pieces and Their Moves
2. The Special Moves
3. Getting Started to Play
4. How a Chess Game Ends

5. More About the Pieces
6. During a Chess Game
7. Getting Serious about Chess

The Six Chess Pieces and Their Moves

The first thing to learn is how the six pieces move -- King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight, and Pawn. Our first link ('Introduction') covers the preliminaries ('a game for two players'), shows how the pieces appear in our diagrams, and previews the important rules that you also find here.

• Introduction to the Rules of Chess
• How the King Moves
• How the Queen Moves
• How the Rook Moves

• How the Bishop Moves
• How the Knight Moves
• How the Pawn Moves
• Guide to the Six Chess Pieces

The Special Moves

After the basic moves of the six pieces, there are a few special moves that expand the powers of specific pieces. The first special move, called 'Castling', involves the King and a Rook. The other two special moves are for Pawns.

• How to Castle
• How to Capture En Passant
• How to Promote a Pawn

Getting Started to Play

Before you can play a game, you need to know how to set up a chess board. Our second topic under getting started -- Chess Notation -- is not usually necessary for beginners. Since we are discussing chess via the miracle of Web technology, not face to face, we need a way to talk about chess positions. That makes notation more important than usual.

• How to Set Up a Chess Board
• Chess Notation
• Chess Quizzes for Beginners : Notation, Setup, and Moves

How a Chess Game Ends

A chess game can end in one of two different ways. Either one of the players wins or the game is a draw.

• How to Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate
• Chess Quizzes for Beginners : Check and Checkmate
• Draws
• Checkmates with Names
• Elementary Endgames

More About the Pieces

Knowing how the different pieces move is just a start. It's also important to know how their world of 64 squares, the chess board, affects them and how they interact with each other.

• Relative Value of Chess Pieces
• The Chess King Explained
• The Chess Queen Explained
• The Chess Rook Explained

• The Chess Bishop Explained
• The Chess Knight Explained
• The Chess Pawn Explained
• Relative Value of Pieces and Principles of Play (Advanced)

During a Chess Game

One of the great attractions of chess is how such simple rules can produce such complicated problems. Here we introduce some of the tools that help reduce the complexity to manageable proportions.

• The Phases of the Game
• Tactical Play
• Positional Play
• Chess Openings - Initial Position

Getting Serious about Chess

Most people learn to play chess at home or with friends. Some people reach a point where they want to expand their circle of opponents and meet other keen players.

• How To Improve at Chess
• Chess Equipment
• Where to Play
• Top 10 Ways to Lose