Welcome! I'm thrilled to help you jump into the world of chess. It's a beautiful game of pure strategy, and once you get the basics down, you'll be playing with confidence in no time.

To make sure we set just the right pace for you, do you already know how any of the pieces move, or should we start completely from scratch?

That is a perfect starting point! Since you already have some of the basics down, we can skip the absolute beginner's run-through and focus directly on filling in any missing gaps to get your army fully operational.

The Battlefield and the Foot Soldiers

Before we check on your piece knowledge, let's make sure your battlefield is set up correctly. A chess board must always be oriented so that each player has a light-colored square on their bottom-right corner. A handy phrase to memorize this is: "white on the right." If you look at the board coordinates, this means the bottom-right corner for the white pieces is always the h1 square.

Now, let's talk about the most numerous units on the board: the pawns. Pawns are the foot soldiers of chess, and they have some unique rules that make them completely different from any other piece.

Unlike any other piece on the board, a pawn moves straight forward, but captures diagonally. On its very first move of the game, a pawn has the option to march forward either one or two squares. After that first move, it can only march forward one square at a time.

I've set up a visual guide above showing how a pawn's movement options work when it's starting out. Notice how it moves straight, but attacks diagonally!

How does this march feel to you? Do you want to test your pawn knowledge with a quick scenario, or would you prefer to continue straight to the heavy-hitting pieces like the Rooks, Knights, and Bishops?