HOW TO PLAY · THE SUNDAY PLAYBOOK
chess
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Version: Standard chess. Casual games without a clock; FIDE rules are the reference for special moves and draws.
01Set the board
Two players need an 8 × 8 board and 16 pieces each. Put a light corner on your right. From White’s left, the back rank is rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook; place the eight pawns in front. Black mirrors this. Queens start on their own color. White moves first; alternate one move each.
a1 R · b1 N · c1 B · d1 Q · e1 K · f1 B · g1 N · h1 RN means knight. White pawns occupy a2–h2.
02Move and capture
Rooks travel along ranks or files; bishops along diagonals; queens combine both. They stop before friendly pieces and capture by landing on an enemy piece. Knights jump in an L: two squares in one direction and one sideways. Kings move one square. Pawns advance one empty square, or two from their starting square if both are empty; they capture one square diagonally forward. Only knights jump over pieces.
Reference: US Chess — Learn to Play.
03Keep your king safe
Check means your king is attacked. Escape by moving it, capturing the attacker, or blocking the attack where possible. No move may leave your king in check. Checkmate ends the game: the checked player has no legal escape. You never capture the king.
04Three special moves
Castling moves the king two squares toward a rook, then places that rook on the square the king crossed. Neither piece may have moved, nothing may stand between them, and the king cannot start in, cross through, or finish in check. A pawn reaching the last rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight. En passant is available only immediately after an adjacent enemy pawn advances two squares: capture it as if it advanced one.
Reference: FIDE Laws, Articles 3 and 5.
05Finish and score
Checkmate or resignation gives the winner one point. A draw gives each player half a point. Stalemate is a draw: no legal move, but the king is not checked. Draws also include dead positions and agreement. FIDE allows claims for threefold repetition or 50 moves by each player without a pawn move or capture; fivefold repetition and 75 such moves are automatic, with checkmate taking precedence on the final move.
Reference: US Chess — rulebook resources.
06Try it, then avoid these mistakes
Start with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3: White advances the e-pawn, Black replies, then White develops the g1 knight to f3. Reset and identify which squares that knight attacks. Keep the board correctly oriented; do not capture straight ahead with a pawn or castle through an attacked square.