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Chess rules

How to Set Up a Chess Board

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Turn the board so each player has a light square in the near-right corner. Fill your second row with pawns. On the back row, place rooks in the corners, then knights, then bishops, then the queen on her own colour, with the king on the last square beside her.

On this page
  1. Step 1: orient the board
  2. Step 2: the back rank, corner to corner
  3. Step 3: queen on her own colour
  4. The finished position
  5. Keep learning

Step 1: orient the board

Before any pieces go down, check the corner nearest your right hand: it must be a light square. The old rhyme is “light on the right.” If that corner is dark, rotate the empty board by 90 degrees before setting out the pieces. Otherwise the square colours and coordinates will be wrong, and “queen on her own colour” will place the central pieces on the wrong files.

Step 2: the back rank, corner to corner

Working inward from each corner: rook, knight, bishop. That leaves the two central squares for the king and queen. The rooks (the castle-shaped pieces) guard the corners; the knights (horses) sit next to them; the bishops (the tall pieces with the slit) come next.

Step 3: queen on her own colour

The last two back-rank squares belong to the queen and king. Use “queen on her own colour”: the white queen starts on the light d1 square and the black queen on the dark d8 square. Each king takes the remaining e-file square beside its queen.

One-second check: white queen on white, black queen on black. If your queens are on the wrong colour, you have swapped the king and queen.

The finished position

♜♞♝♛♚♝♞♜♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♜♞♝♛♚♝♞♜
The correct starting position. Light square bottom-right; white queen on d1, black queen on d8.
Which side is the queen on?The queen goes on the central square that matches her colour: White’s queen on the light d1 square, Black’s queen on the dark d8 square. The king takes the other central square.
How do I know the board is the right way round?The square in your near-right corner must be light. h1 (White’s right-hand corner) is a light square; a1 (White’s left-hand corner) is dark.
Do both players set up the same way?Yes — each player mirrors the other. Pawns on the second row, pieces on the back row, and both players get a light square on their right.

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