Chess

Chess is a board game and mental sport for 2 players. It is played on a square board of 8 rows (called ranks) and 8 columns (called files), giving 64 squares of alternating colour, light and dark, with each player having a light square at their bottom right when facing the board.

Each player begins the game with 16 pieces that each move and capture other pieces on the board in a unique way: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. One player (who is always first to move) controls the white pieces; the other player controls the black pieces.

In chess, when a king is directly attacked by one or more of the opponent's pieces, the player is said to be in 'check'. When in check, only moves that can escape from check are permitted. The object of the game is to checkmate your opponent - this is when their king is checked, and no move can be made that would escape from check.