The chess board

There are sixty-four (64) squares on a Chessboard.
If you play the white pieces, the letters (files) are sorted by alphabetical order: A - H.
If you play the black pieces, the letters are sorted in reverse alphabetical order: H - A.
The numbers on the side of the board are called ranks.
If you play the white pieces, they are counted upwards: 1 - 8.
If you play the black pieces, they are counted downwards: 8 - 1.

The King

The king can be moved two different ways:

• To any adjoining square, which is not attacked by one or more of the opponent's pieces.



• 
  Castling – the king is transferred from its initial square two or three squares towards the rook, then that rook is transferred to the square the king has just crossed.
  Castling must be the first move of the king and the rook of the same color and on the same ranks.
  Castling is the only situation where two pieces move at the same time. Castling cannot be made if the king is under attack.
  If there are pieces between the rook and the king, the castling is temporarily prevented.

The Queen

The Queen can be moved to any square along the file, the rank or the diagonal it stands on and it cannot skip over intervening pieces. The Queen can control larger number of squares than any other chess piece, making it the most powerful piece on the board.

The Bishop

The bishop can be moved to any square along the diagonal line it stands on.
The bishop cannot skip over any intervening pieces.

The Rook

The rook can be moved to any square along the file (vertical/horizontal)it stands on.
The rook cannot skip over any intervening pieces.

The Knight

The knight can be moved to one of the squares near the square it stands on, but not on the same rank, file or diagonal.The knight is the only piece that can skip over intervening pieces.

Pawn

The pawn normally can be moved only forward, to one of the immediate unoccupied square or alternatively :

• First move
  The pawn can be moved one or two squares from its initial position along the same file (provided both squares are unoccupied).



• Promoting
  When a pawn reaches the rank furthest from its initial position, it must be promoted within the same move to a new piece: queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same color. The player's choice is not limited to pieces that have been captured previously.



• En passant
  En passant is a capture made immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an opposing pawn could have captured it if it had only moved one square forward. In this situation, the opposing pawn may, on the immediately subsequent move, capture the pawn as if it had only moved one square forward; the resulting position would then be the same as if the pawn had only moved one square forward and the opposing pawn had captured normally. En passant must be done on the very next turn, or the right to do so is lost.

1. White moves first.

* In tournaments, the choice of the pieces' color is random.
2. Only one piece may occupy a square at any given time.
3. A player's piece can capture an opponent's piece by moving the player's piece onto a square occupied by the opponent. At the same move, the opponent's piece is removed from the chessboard.
4. When a player makes a move that threatens the opposing king with capture (not necessarily by the piece that was moved), the king is said to be in check. If a player's king is in check then the player must make a move that eliminates the threat of capture; a player may never leave his king in check at the end of his move.
   If a player's king is placed in check and there is no legal move that player can make to escape check, then the king is said to be checkmated, the game ends, and that player loses.
5. When a player is not in check, but cannot move because any move would lead to a check, the game is stalemated and ends in a draw.
6. If a position is repeated three times, the game ends in a draw.
7. If no player has enough pieces to checkmate the opponent, the game ends in a draw.
8. If each player makes 50 moves without a pawn being moved or without capturing opponent's piece the game is a draw.
9. 'En passant' is available
10. If a player does not complete the prescribed number of moves in the allotted time, the player will lose the game.
11. The increment time is added to the initial time after every move.
12. During a series the time isn't saved from the last game, each game have the same initial time.
13. While playing under the "Enable undo" game, each player has to stop the clock after every move by clicking on the "done" button.

• The game is won by the player, who had checkmated his opponent's king.


• The game is won by the player, whose opponent had declared resignation.

• The game is lost by the player, whose timer had run out.


• The game is lost by the player, whose king has been checkmated.

• When the player whose turn to move, has no legal option and his or her king is not in check, the game immediately ends in "stalemate" (draw).


• In a position where neither player can checkmate the opponent's king, the game ends in a "dead position":


• king versus king
• king and bishop versus king
• king and knight versus king
• king and bishop versus king and bishop with the bishops on the same color
• In a position where a checkmate cannot occur by any possible series of moves.


• When both players agree on ending the game as a draw.


• When an identical position is about to appear or had appeared on the chessboard at least three times. Identical position is considered the same, if the same player has the move, pieces of the same kind and color occupy the same squares, and the possible moves of both players' pieces are the same.


• If a game drags out such that both players make 50 moves without a capture or without a move of any pawn, the game ends automatically in a draw.


• Player that wishes to offer a draw shall do so after his move has been made. Such offer cannot be canceled and remains valid until either the opponent accepts it or the turn is over.

Draw in Tournaments