Interactive lesson
Set up the board
Before the first move, the board has to be set up correctly. Play with the board below — turn it a quarter at a time, flip to the other side, hide the pieces to study the bare squares, or reveal the a–h / 1–8 labels — while you follow along.
Real boards have no letters or numbers — so labels stay off by default. Hit “Turn 90°” to rotate the board a quarter at a time: watch the light square leave your bottom-right corner — that orientation is set up wrong. “Hide pieces” gives you the bare board to focus on the squares, “Flip board” shows Black’s side, and you can drag any piece to try it.
The two rules that never change
White on the right. Turn the board so each player has a light-coloured square in their bottom-right corner. If the bottom-right square is dark, the board is rotated the wrong way.
The queen goes on her own colour. The white queen starts on a light square, the black queen on a dark square — so the two queens face each other. The king takes the square beside her. Get the queen right and the king follows.
Where every piece starts
The back row, from the corners inward: rook, knight, bishop, then queen and king in the middle two squares. The entire second row is filled with pawns. Both armies mirror each other across the board.
Files, ranks, and squares
You don’t need any letters or numbers to play — most real boards have none. But they’re how moves get written down, and they make lessons easier to follow. Turn them on with the Show labels button above.
- Files — the eight columns running away from you. Written down, they’re lettered a to h, left to right from White’s side.
- Ranks — the eight rows going across. They’re numbered 1 to 8, starting from White’s side. Put a file and a rank together and you’ve named a square — like e4, the famous centre square.
- Diagonals — lines of one colour running corner to corner. These are the bishops’ highways.
- Light & dark squares — every square is one or the other, and that colour is how you check the board is turned the right way: a light square belongs in your bottom-right. Press Turn 90° above and watch — when a dark square lands in that corner, the board is set up the wrong way round.
Next: how each piece moves →