Printable chess

How do I print a chess board with the pieces?

This page has two printable sheets in black and white. The first is the 64-square board, with the letters a to h and the numbers 1 to 8. The second has the 32 pieces to cut out, 16 white and 16 black, two extra queens and a picture of the starting position. The page teaches all the rules of chess.

How to set up

1. Pick the dark squares: hatched, which uses little ink, or outline, to color with pencils.
2. Print both sheets at 100% scale (or Fit to page on Letter paper).
3. Cut out the pieces along the dashed line. Each piece is a square tile that fits on one square of the board.
4. Keep the two extra queens. They are for pawn promotion.
5. Place the board between the two players with rank 1 facing the player with the white pieces. Each player has a light square in the right-hand corner.

Starting position

1. White fills ranks 1 and 2. Black fills ranks 7 and 8.
2. On the rank closest to each player, the rooks go in the two corners.
3. A knight goes next to each rook. A bishop goes next to each knight.
4. The queen goes on the square of her own color: the white queen on the light square (d1) and the black queen on the dark square (d8).
5. The king goes on the square that is left, next to the queen (e1 and e8).
6. Each player's eight pawns go on the rank in front, rank 2 for White and rank 7 for Black.
7. White makes the first move. Then the players take turns, one move at a time.

How each piece moves

• King: moves one square in any direction. It can never move to an attacked square.
• Queen: moves any number of free squares in a straight line or diagonally.
• Rook: moves any number of free squares in a straight line, forward, backward or sideways.
• Bishop: moves any number of free squares diagonally. Each bishop always stays on squares of the same color.
• Knight: moves in an L shape, two squares in one direction and one to the side. It is the only piece that jumps over others.
• Pawn: moves one square forward and never goes back. On its first move it may go two squares. The pawn captures only diagonally, one square forward.
• Capturing: a piece lands on the square of an enemy piece and removes it from the board. Capturing is not mandatory, and you never capture your own pieces.

Castling, en passant and promotion

• Castling: in a single move, the king goes two squares toward a rook, and that rook jumps to the other side of the king, on the next square.
• Castling is allowed only if the king and that rook have not moved yet, the squares between them are empty, the king is not in check, and the king does not cross or land on an attacked square.
• En passant: when an enemy pawn moves two squares and stops next to your pawn, you may capture it as if it had moved only one. Your pawn goes to the square the other pawn skipped.
• The en passant capture is allowed only on the move right after the two-square advance. After that, the right is gone.
• Promotion: a pawn that reaches the last rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight, as the player chooses. Swap the pawn tile for the tile of the chosen piece.

Check, checkmate and draws

• Check: the king is under attack. A player in check must get out of it on that same move: move the king, capture the attacking piece or put a piece in the way.
• No move may leave your own king in check. The king is never captured.
• Checkmate: the king is in check and has no way out. The player who gives checkmate wins the game.
• Stalemate: the player to move is not in check and has no legal move. The game is a draw.
• The game is also a draw when both players agree, when the same position appears three times, or after 50 moves in a row by each player with no capture and no pawn move.
• It is also a draw when neither player has the pieces to give checkmate, such as king against king, or king and one bishop or one knight against king.
• A player may resign at any time. In that case, the other player wins.

Tips to get started

• Start by advancing a center pawn. It opens the way for the queen and a bishop.
• Bring knights and bishops into play before moving the same piece twice.
• Castle early. The king gets safer and the rook joins the game.
• Before each move, check what your opponent's last move attacks.
• Count the value of trades: a pawn is worth 1, knights and bishops 3, a rook 5 and a queen 9.
• Use the letters and numbers on the board to write down the moves and replay the game later.

Frequently asked questions