Goal: checkmate the enemy king — attack it so it has no legal escape.
The pieces
- Pawn ♙ one step forward (two from home); captures diagonally.
- Knight ♞ in an “L”; the only piece that jumps.
- Bishop ♟ any distance diagonally.
- Rook ♜ any distance in a straight line.
- Queen ♛ any distance in any direction.
- King ♚ one step; may castle once with a corner rook.
Special moves
- Castling: king shuffles two squares toward a rook (allowed when neither has moved and the path is safe).
- En passant: a pawn may capture a just-double-stepped pawn as if it moved one square.
- Promotion: a pawn reaching the far rank becomes a queen / rook / bishop / knight.
Playing
- Click a piece to see its legal moves, then click a highlighted square to go there.
- Use Undo, Flip, or play vs Computer (Easy / Medium / Hard).
- Shortcuts: N new · U undo · R rules.
- The game is saved in this browser — close the tab and come back.