The big facts page

90 chess facts, all checked

Every fact on this site in one place, each linked to its source. Our build checks each one against the source text; see the sources page. Where sources disagree you’ll find each one.

The board and setting up

1 A chessboard is an 8 × 8 grid of 64 equal squares, alternately light and dark. FIDE Laws of Chess
2 The board goes between the players so that the near corner square on each player’s right is a white (light) square. FIDE Laws of Chess
3 At the start, White has 16 light-coloured pieces and Black has 16 dark-coloured pieces. FIDE Laws of Chess
4 White makes the first move, then the players take turns. FIDE Laws of Chess
5 The aim is to put the other king under attack so that the other player has no legal move. FIDE Laws of Chess
6 The eight up-and-down columns of squares are called files, and the eight side-to-side rows are called ranks. FIDE Laws of Chess
7 A straight line of squares of the same colour, running from one edge of the board to the next edge, is called a diagonal. FIDE Laws of Chess
8 Chess is one of the oldest and most popular board games, played by two opponents on a checkered board. Britannica: chess
9 White’s king starts on e1 and Black’s king on e8. A king moves one square in any direction. Britannica: chess
10 The white queen starts on d1 and the black queen on d8. Britannica: chess
11 Each player has two rooks (once also called castles). They start in the corners: a1 and h1 for White, a8 and h8 for Black. Britannica: chess
12 The bishops start on c1 and f1 for White, c8 and f8 for Black. Britannica: chess
13 The knights start between the rooks and bishops: b1 and g1 for White, b8 and g8 for Black. Britannica: chess
14 White’s pawns start on a2, b2, c2 and so on; Black’s start on a7, b7, c7 and so on. Britannica: chess
15 At the start, White’s pieces and pawns stand on ranks 1 and 2, and Black’s on ranks 8 and 7. FIDE Laws of Chess

How the pieces move and capture

16 You may not move a piece to a square where one of your own pieces stands. FIDE Laws of Chess
17 If a piece moves to a square where an opponent’s piece stands, that piece is captured and taken off the board as part of the same move. FIDE Laws of Chess
18 The king, rook, bishop, queen and knight capture the same way they move. Britannica: chess
19 The king may move to any square next to it. FIDE Laws of Chess
20 The queen may move to any square along the file, the rank or a diagonal it stands on. FIDE Laws of Chess
21 The queen combines the powers of the rook and the bishop, which makes it the most powerful piece. Britannica: chess
22 The rook may move to any square along the file or the rank it stands on. FIDE Laws of Chess
23 The bishop, rook and queen may not move over any pieces in the way. FIDE Laws of Chess
24 The bishop may move to any square along a diagonal it stands on. FIDE Laws of Chess
25 So each player has one bishop that only ever travels on light squares and one that only travels on dark squares. Britannica: chess
26 The knight moves to one of the nearest squares that is not on the same rank, file or diagonal. FIDE Laws of Chess
27 A knight moves in an L-shape: two squares one way and then one square to the side. It can jump over other pieces. Britannica: chess
28 A knight always lands on a square of a different colour. Britannica: chess
29 A knight on e4 could move to f2, g3, g5, f6, d6, c5, c3 or d2. Britannica: chess
30 A pawn may move forward to the empty square right in front of it on the same file. FIDE Laws of Chess
31 On its first move a pawn may instead go two squares forward, if both squares are empty. FIDE Laws of Chess
32 A pawn captures an opponent’s piece diagonally in front of it, on a file next to its own. FIDE Laws of Chess
33 A pawn can only move forward. It can never go back. Britannica: chess
34 A pawn moves differently from the way it captures: it moves straight ahead but captures diagonally forward. Britannica: chess
35 Counting a pawn as 1, the other pieces are worth roughly: knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5 and queen 9. Britannica: chess
36 Britannica adds that winning matters more than counting pieces. Britannica: chess

Castling, en passant and promotion

37 In castling, the king moves two squares towards a rook, then that rook jumps to the square the king has just crossed. It counts as one king move. FIDE Laws of Chess
38 For example, White castles kingside by moving the king from e1 to g1 and the rook from h1 to f1. Britannica: chess
39 You can no longer castle if your king has already moved, or with a rook that has already moved. FIDE Laws of Chess
40 You cannot castle for now if the king’s square, the square it crosses or the square it lands on is attacked, or if any piece stands between the king and the rook. FIDE Laws of Chess
41 Castling is allowed only once in a game. Britannica: chess
42 If a pawn has just moved two squares and lands beside an opponent’s pawn, that pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square. This is called en passant, and it is only allowed on the very next move. FIDE Laws of Chess
43 A pawn that reaches the far rank must be swapped, in the same move, for a new queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour. FIDE Laws of Chess
44 You can choose any of those pieces, even if none of them has been captured. FIDE Laws of Chess

Check, checkmate and how games end

45 A king is in check when one or more of the opponent’s pieces attack it. FIDE Laws of Chess
46 You may not make a move that puts or leaves your own king in check. FIDE Laws of Chess
47 The game is won by the player who checkmates the other king. FIDE Laws of Chess
48 A player who says they resign loses the game. FIDE Laws of Chess
49 A game can also end when a player who thinks the position is hopeless gives up. This is called resigning. Britannica: chess
50 If the player to move has no legal move and their king is not in check, the game is a draw. This is called stalemate. FIDE Laws of Chess
51 If neither player can checkmate with any series of legal moves, the game is a draw: a dead position. FIDE Laws of Chess
52 Players can agree a draw, as long as both have made at least one move. FIDE Laws of Chess
53 There are three possible results: win, lose or draw. Britannica: chess
54 Britannica lists six ways to draw: agreeing to it, not enough pieces left to checkmate, endless check (perpetual check), stalemate, the same position three times with the same player to move, and 50 moves with no capture and no pawn move. Britannica: chess
55 In competitions a win scores one point, a draw half a point and a loss no points. Britannica: chess

Touch-move and manners

56 Each move must be played with one hand only. FIDE Laws of Chess
57 Only the player whose turn it is may straighten a piece on its square, and they must say so first, for example “j’adoube” or “I adjust”. FIDE Laws of Chess
58 If you touch one of your own pieces meaning to move it, you must move the first piece you touched that can be moved. FIDE Laws of Chess
59 If you touch an opponent’s piece meaning to capture it, you must capture the first piece you touched that can be captured. FIDE Laws of Chess

Writing moves down

60 The files are lettered a to h, from left to right for White. FIDE Laws of Chess
61 The ranks are numbered 1 to 8, from bottom to top for White. FIDE Laws of Chess
62 So every one of the 64 squares has its own letter-and-number name. FIDE Laws of Chess
63 In English, each piece is shown by a capital letter: K king, Q queen, R rook, B bishop and N knight (N, so it is not mixed up with the king). FIDE Laws of Chess
64 Pawns get no letter: a pawn move is written just as its square, such as e5 or d4. FIDE Laws of Chess
65 An x can be written for a capture, as in Bxe5. A pawn capture starts with the pawn’s file, as in dxe5. FIDE Laws of Chess
66 For a promotion, write the pawn move and then the new piece’s letter, as in d8Q. FIDE Laws of Chess
67 0-0 means castling kingside (with the rook on h1 or h8), and 0-0-0 means castling queenside (with the rook on a1 or a8). FIDE Laws of Chess
68 + means check, ++ or # means checkmate, and e.p. means an en passant capture. These marks are optional. FIDE Laws of Chess
69 A draw offer is marked (=). FIDE Laws of Chess
70 1 e4 means White’s first move pushes the e-pawn two squares, and 1 … Nf6 means Black answers by bringing a knight from g8 to f6. Britannica: chess

History

71 Chess first appeared in India in about the 6th century CE, as a game called chaturanga. Britannica: chess
72 By the 10th century it had spread from Asia to the Middle East and Europe. Britannica: chess
73 Muslims brought chess to North Africa, Sicily and Spain by the 10th century. Britannica: chess
74 Since at least the 15th century, chess has been called the “royal game” because it was so popular with the nobility. Britannica: chess
75 After 1475 a rule change turned the old counsellor piece, which could move only one square diagonally, into the modern queen, the most powerful piece on the board. Britannica: chess
76 Castling and the en passant capture were known in the 15th century but were not used much until the 18th century. Britannica: chess
77 With the new queen and bishop moves, checkmate could come in as few as two moves: the fool’s mate, 1. f3 e6 2. g4 Qh4#. Britannica: chess
78 The knight has been shown as a horse ever since chaturanga. Britannica: chess
79 The bishop has had other names, such as “fool” in French and “elephant” in Russian. Britannica: chess
80 In Russia the rook was usually shown as a sailing ship until the 20th century. Britannica: chess
81 Britannica’s main text says the Vikings are believed responsible for 78 walrus-ivory chess pieces found on the Isle of Lewis in 1831, dating from the 11th or 12th century. Britannica: chess
82 Britannica’s picture caption says the Lewis pieces were carved from walrus tusk ivory and whale teeth, are thought to be Norwegian, and date from the late 12th or early 13th century. Britannica: chess
83 The standard for modern chess sets was set in about 1835 by a simple design from an Englishman, Nathaniel Cook. Britannica: chess
84 After it was patented in 1849, the design was backed by Howard Staunton, then the world’s best player, and became known as the Staunton pattern. Britannica: chess
85 Only chess sets based on the Staunton design are allowed in international competition today. Britannica: chess
86 The first major international event was a series of six matches in 1834 between the leading French and British players. Britannica: chess
87 In 1886 Wilhelm Steinitz played Johann Zukertort in the first match named as being for the world championship. Britannica: chess
88 In 1924, representatives of 15 countries met in Paris to set up FIDE, the first permanent international chess federation. Britannica: chess
89 Vera Menchik of Great Britain won the first Women’s World Championship, run by FIDE in 1927. Britannica: chess
90 In 2024, aged 18, Gukesh Dommaraju beat Ding Liren to become the youngest ever world chess champion. Britannica: chess