How to Play

Chess is a game for 2 players, one with the White (light) pieces and one with the Black (dark) pieces. Opposing Kings and Queens line up directly opposite each other. The square in the lower right hand corner is always a light one. The White Queen goes on a light square, the Black Queen on a dark square.

Board Setup  A board with the chess pieces in their initial position. Your color is chosen randomly and is always on the bottom. Note the numbers and letters on the side and bottom of the board. These are explained in the Game Notation section below.

The person playing White always moves first, and then the players take turns moving their pieces. Only one piece may be moved at each turn (except for castling explained in the Castling section below). TrayGames Chess will randomly pick a player to be white, so it doesn't matter who launches the game. Your pieces are always on the bottom of the board to start, from then on you'll know whose turn it is via the status bar. See the Game Interface section for more help.

Piece Movement

The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. All other pieces move only along unblocked lines. You may not move a piece to a square already occupied by one of your own pieces. However you can capture an enemy piece that stands on a square where one of your pieces can move.Below are diagrams that show the various pieces in chess and how they move.

The Queen  The Queen is the most powerful piece. She can move any number of squares in any direction, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, if her path is not blocked.

The Rook  The Rook is the next most powerful piece. The Rook can move any number of squares vertically or horizontally if its path is not blocked.

The Bishop  The Bishop can move any number of squares diagonally if its path is not blocked. Note that this Bishop starts on a light square and can reach only other light squares. At the beginning of the game each player has a bishop on a light square and a dark square.

The Knight  Think of the Knight's move as an L pattern. It moves two squares horizontally or vertically and then makes a right-angle turn for one more square. The Knight always lands on a square opposite in color from its old square. The Knight can jump over other pieces between its old and new squares.

The King  The King is the most important piece. When he is trapped, his whole army loses. The King can move one square in any direction (castling allows for two squares). The King may not move into check meaning onto a square attacked by an opponent's piece.

The Pawn  The pawn moves straight ahead, but it captures diagonally. It moves one square at a time, but on its first move it has the option of moving two squares. If a pawn advances all the way to the opposite end of the board, it is immediately promoted to another piece of your choice. It may not remain a pawn or become a King.

Castling

Each player may castle only once during a game and when conditions are met. Castling is a special move that lets a player move two pieces at once, the king and one rook. In castling, the player moves her king two squares to its left or right toward one of her Rooks. At the same time, the rook involved goes to the square beside the king and toward the center of the board. In order to castle the following conditions must be met:

• Neither the king nor the rook involved may have moved before
• The king may not castle out of check, into check, or through check
• There may not be pieces of either color between the king and the rook involved in castling

Castling is an effective way to safeguard your king and should be done early in the game. Check out the Strategy section for more game tips, especially if you are a beginner.

En Passant

This French phrase is used for a special pawn capture. It means in passing and it occurs when one player moves a pawn two squares forward to try to avoid capture by the opponent's pawn. The capture is made exactly as if the player had moved the pawn only one square forward. This is demonstrated in the picture to the right.

If the player does not exercise this option immediately, before playing some other move, the opposing pawn is safe from en passant capture for the rest of the game. This situation may arise for each pawn in similar circumstances however.

Game Notation

Chess notation is the key to publishing chess games. It gives us the means to record games, to publish them, and to discuss specific positions on the chess board. TrayGames Chess records the games moves and allows you to review or replay them.

For the rows of the chess board it assigns the numbers 1 through 8 starting from the white side. For the columns of the board it uses the letters a through h, left to right from the white side. The square at the intersection of a column and a row is identified by the letter for the column and the number for the row. The pieces are identified by a single letter - P for Pawn, N for Knight, R for Rook, B for Bishop, Q for Queen, and K for King. The letters are self-explanatory, except for the Knight, where N avoids confusion with the king.

A move is a combination of the moving piece plus the square to which it is moving. The move Qe4 means that a queen is moving to the square e4. By convention, the letter for the pawn is always omitted. The move e4 means that a pawn is moving to the square e4.

Check and Checkmate

The goal of chess is to checkmate your opponent's king. The king is not actually captured and removed from the board like other pieces. But if the king is attacked, checked, and threatened with capture, it must get out of check immediately. If there is no way to get out of check, the position is a checkmate and the side that is checkmated loses.

A player may not move into the line of check. If you are in check, there are three ways of getting out:

• Capture the attacking piece thus removing the threat
• Place one of your own pieces between the attacking piece and your king (unless the attacker is a Knight) thus blocking the check
• Move your the king away from the attack and out of check.

If a checked player can do none of these, she is checkmated and loses the game. If a king is NOT in check, but that player can make NO legal move, the position is called a stalemate and the game is scored as a draw. Another stalemate situation arises when neither player has enough pieces to checkmate their opponent. This happens if there is only a king and bishop on each side and the bishops are on diagonals of the same color. TrayGames Chess will detect these states automatically.