How to play Chess

The classic game of checkmate, and the anchor game of Ariplex.

Setup

An 8×8 board with a light square at each player's bottom-right. Each side has a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. White moves first; each queen starts on her own colour.

On your turn

• King: one square in any direction.
• Queen: any distance in a straight or diagonal line.
• Rook: any distance along ranks and files.
• Bishop: any distance diagonally.
• Knight: an L shape — two then one — and may jump over pieces.
• Pawn: one square forward (two from its start square), capturing one square diagonally forward.

Special rules

• Castling: the king moves two squares toward a rook and the rook jumps over. Neither may have moved, nothing may stand between them, and the king may not be in, pass through or land in check.
• En passant: a pawn that has just moved two squares can be captured as if it had moved one, by an enemy pawn beside it, on the very next move only.
• Promotion: a pawn reaching the far rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight. Auto-queen is an option.

Winning, draws and losing

• Checkmate wins: the king is attacked and cannot escape.
• Draws — stalemate, threefold repetition, the 50-move rule, insufficient material or agreement — refund both stakes.
• Resigning loses. Running out of time loses, unless the opponent cannot possibly checkmate; then it is a draw.

Online rules and fair play

• 10 minutes each by default; repeated draw offers are limited.
• Every move is recorded for disputes and engine checks.
• Move timing, focus signals and post-game engine comparison on flagged games guard against engine use.
• Every game runs on a server clock: running out of time loses.
• A disconnected player has 60 seconds to return before forfeiting.