Home / regles-echec

Chess game guide

Purpose:

Your objective is simple: checkmate the opponent King.

How?

It’s game over for one of the player if:

The King is threaten and can’t be moved anymore

The pawn which checkmates can’t be eliminated

Any piece can’t get between the King and the threaten piece

Set up:

You have 16 pieces of each colour to arrange on the board.

Game rules:

The player with the white pieces always moves first (drawing straws, Rock-Paper-scissors, it’s up to you)

If one of you wants to get revenge, exchange your pieces. No favouritism.

Afterwards, the players alternate moves. You can’t pass your turn. Any piece can capture others as long as the move is possible.

Ex: a pawn can capture the Queen (well done if you succeed!)

During your move, if a piece is on your way, you capture it and take its place. Your turn ends here.

So, the rules, the rules, it’s great, but now we want to play. Arrange your pieces like above. Let’s go!

Piece movement:

Pawns

▪️They move forwards and can’t move backwards.

▪️On the starting line, they can move from 2 cases. Then, they can only move from one case.

▪️They capture pieces only in diagonal.

▪️If one of them reaches the end of the board, it is promoted and can be replaced by any other pieces except the King.

The Knight

▪️It jumps to any square in L shape.

▪️During its move, it arrives in an opposite colour case compared to its starting case.

▪️It is the only one which can jump under other pieces.

▪️It captures other pieces at the end of its moves, not during.

The Bishop

▪️It moves diagonally as far as the player wants.

▪️You have two bishops, one of them moves on the brown cases and the other on the beige cases.Don’t take your eyes off them ;)

The Queen

▪️It is the most powerful piece in the game.

▪️It can move horizontally, vertically or in diagonal as far as the player wants.

The King

▪️This is the piece you have to protect at all costs. If your King is checkmated, the game ends.

▪️It moves from one case horizontally, vertically or in diagonal.

The Rook

▪️It can move vertically or horizontally as far as the player wants.

Special moves in chess

Now you know the basics, we’ll up the level a little bit.d’un cran. Brace yourself, let’s go!

Castling

A very hard move but it gives a big advantage.

Why?

The King is protected, as it is no more at the centre of the board. So it is more difficult to capture it.

The following Rook is now at the centre of the board and allows you to move more freely.

It is the only move which enables you to do two moves in a row: your King and one of your Rook.

To make it, you must to fill 3 conditions:

There must be no pieces between the concerned King and Rook

The chosen King and Rook must not have been played since the beginning of the game

The King must not pass through a square that would put him in checkmate

If all of theses conditions are validated, you can choose between:

Kingside Castling

King + Right Rook

The King moves from 2 squares on the right. The right Rook goes up from 1 square and then moves from 2 squares on the left and finally goes down 1 square.

Queenside Castling

King + Left Rook

The King moves from 2 squares on the left. The left Rook goes up from 1 square, then moves from 3 squares on the right and finally goes down from 1 square.

En passant

This move concerns the Pawns. They haven’t said their last words! It enables a pawn to take another pawn which is not directly on a square where it could be captured.

To make this move, here are 2 conditions:

The opponent pawn must be on the starting line and move 2 squares

Your pawn must be located on an adjacent row

Warning: If you don't take the opportunity to capture it, you won’t be able to do it later. It’s now or never.

Stalemate

It’s a particular situation in chess which implies that:

One the player is completely blocked, any of these pieces can’t unblock the situation

They can’t play without risking checkmate

In this situation, White pawns can neither move their pawns, nor their knight, nor their king.

We say that there is stalemate. Nobody wins the game.

Little advice by Alaskan MAKER:If you want to win the game for sure, move your pieces without totally blocking your opponent.

Draw :

The match ends up with a draw either if:

There is stalemate

The same position appears 3 times in a row

50 moves have been played without any capture or moving pieces

One of the player does perpetual checkmate without capturing the opponent King

The pawns on the board don’t allow you to finish the party

ex: King vs King