Chess is played on a square board made of 64 smaller squares, alternating in color. It's an 8x8 grid. The vertical columns are called files (labeled 'a' through 'h'), and the horizontal rows are called ranks (labeled '1' through '8'). When setting up the board, make sure each player has a light-colored square on their bottom-right corner.

Each player starts with an army of 16 pieces. One player has the light-colored pieces (White), and the other has the dark-colored pieces (Black). White always moves first.

The pieces are set up on the two ranks closest to each player. The second rank is filled with eight pawns. The first rank holds the other pieces. From the outside in, you have the rooks in the corners, then the knights, and then the bishops. The two center squares are for the most important pieces: the queen and the king. A simple rule for placing them is that the queen always goes on the square of her own color.

Each piece has a unique way of moving across the board. Understanding these movements is the first step to playing the game.

The Pawn: Pawns are the foot soldiers. On its first move, a pawn can advance either one or two squares forward. After that, it can only move one square forward at a time. Pawns are unique in how they capture. They attack one square diagonally forward. They cannot capture pieces directly in front of them.

If a pawn reaches the other side of the board (the 8th rank for White, or the 1st rank for Black), it gets a promotion. The pawn is immediately transformed into a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color.

The Rook: The rook moves in a straight line, any number of squares, horizontally or vertically. It cannot jump over other pieces.

The Bishop: The bishop moves diagonally, any number of squares. Like the rook, it can't jump over other pieces. Each player starts with two bishops: one on a light square and one on a dark square. A bishop will always stay on squares of its starting color.

The Knight: The knight moves in an 'L' shape: two squares in one direction (horizontal or vertical) and then one square at a 90-degree angle. The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces, friend or foe.

The Queen: The queen is the most powerful piece. She combines the moves of the rook and the bishop, moving any number of squares in a straight line: horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

The King: The king is the most important piece, but it's not the most powerful. It can move one square in any direction. The king can never move to a square where it would be under attack by an opponent's piece.

There are two special moves in chess that every player should know.

To castle, the king moves two squares towards a rook, and that rook jumps to the square on the other side of the king. You can only castle if:

1. Neither the king nor the chosen rook has moved yet in the game.
2. There are no pieces between the king and the rook.
3. The king is not currently in check.
4. The king does not pass through or land on a square that is under attack by an enemy piece.

The opposing pawn can then capture the two-square-advancing pawn as if it had only moved one square forward. This en passant capture must be done on the very next turn, or the right to do so is lost.

The objective in chess isn't just to capture pieces. It's to trap the opponent's king. This leads to three key concepts: check, checkmate, and stalemate.

When a king is in check, the player must get out of check on their next move. There are three ways to do this: move the king to a safe square, block the check with another piece, or capture the piece that is giving check. If none of these are possible, the king is in checkmate.

Checkmate is the end of the game. It occurs when a king is in check and there is no legal move to escape the check. The player who delivers checkmate wins.

But a game can also end in a draw. One way this happens is through stalemate. A stalemate occurs when a player is not in check, but has no legal moves to make. The game is immediately declared a draw, and no one wins.

Now that you know the rules, you're ready to test your understanding.

With these fundamentals, you have the building blocks for playing chess. The next step is to play games and start learning about strategy.