How to play Chess
A practical guide for Royal Chess (standard rules).
Chess is a two-player strategy game on an 8×8 board. White always moves first. The goal is to checkmate the opponent’s king — attack it so it cannot escape.
The pieces
- King — one square in any direction. Must stay out of check. Can castle once per game (with conditions).
- Queen — any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
- Rook — any number of squares along ranks and files.
- Bishop — any number of squares diagonally (stays on one color).
- Knight — L-shape (2×1). The only piece that jumps over others.
- Pawn — moves forward one square (two from the starting rank). Captures one square diagonally forward.
Special moves
- Castling — move the king two squares toward a rook; the rook jumps to the square the king crossed. Neither piece may have moved; the path must be empty; you cannot castle out of, through, or into check.
- En passant — if an enemy pawn jumps two squares and lands beside yours, you may capture it “in passing” on the next move only.
- Promotion — a pawn that reaches the far rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop, or knight (pick in our promote dialog).
Check, checkmate, stalemate
- Check — your king is attacked. You must get out of check (move king, block, or capture the attacker).
- Checkmate — king is in check and there is no legal way out. The attacker wins.
- Stalemate — you have no legal moves but are not in check. The game is a draw.
Playing on Royal Chess
- Open Royal Chess.
- Choose 2 Players or vs AI (you play White).
- Click a piece, then a highlighted gold square.
- Use Undo or New Game anytime.