How to set up a chess board, piece by piece
Chess board setup takes about thirty seconds once you know the layout, and there are only two things people get wrong: which way round the board goes, and which way round the king and queen go. Here is the finished position, live. Tap a piece and its opening moves appear.
Which way does the chess board go?
Turn the board so the square in the bottom right corner, nearest your right hand, is a light one. That single check gets the whole board right. Chess players say white on the right, and because the board is symmetrical it comes out correct for both players at once: if you have a light square bottom right, so does the person sitting opposite.
If your board has letters along the bottom and numbers up the side, an easier check is that the a1 corner, on White's left, should be dark, and the h1 corner on White's right should be light.
Where does every chess piece go?
Each player fills the two rows closest to them. White takes the bottom two, Black the top two.
- Back row, corners — the two rooks, the pieces shaped like little towers. One in each corner.
- Back row, next in — the two knights, the horses, standing beside the rooks.
- Back row, next in again — the two bishops, inside the knights.
- The middle two squares — the queen and the king. The queen goes on the square matching her own colour: white queen on the light square, black queen on the dark one. The king takes whichever of the two middle squares is left.
- Front row — all eight pawns, in a straight line across the row in front of everything else.
Done properly, the kings end up facing each other down the same file, and so do the queens. If your two queens are not looking straight at each other, one of them is on the wrong square.
Two checks that catch nearly every setup mistake
White on the right. Light square in the near right corner, for both players.
Queen on her colour. White queen on a light square, black queen on a dark square. King next to her.
Run those two checks and the board is correct. Everything else about chess pieces placement is symmetrical and hard to get wrong: rooks in the corners and work inwards.
Does the board look the same from Black's side?
Yes, and that trips people up when they first see a board from the other chair. The layout mirrors, so Black's rooks are in Black's corners, Black's queen sits on a dark square, and Black also has a light square in their bottom right corner. Nothing is reversed apart from your point of view.
Common chess board setup mistakes
- Board a quarter turn out. A dark square in the bottom right means the board is rotated. Turn it ninety degrees and everything else falls into place.
- King and queen swapped. The most common one by far. Check the queen is on her own colour, and remember the two kings should be staring at each other.
- Knights and bishops swapped. Knights are always on the outside, next to the rooks. Bishops sit inside them, next to the royal pair.
- Pawns on the wrong row. Pawns go directly in front of your own pieces, not one row further forward.
Who plays white, and who moves first?
White moves first, every game. Between friends the usual way to decide who gets White is to hide a pawn of each colour in your hands and let the other person pick a hand. In a series of games the players simply swap colours each time, which keeps it even, since moving first is a small advantage. What to do with that first move is a separate question, and the best opening moves are a short list.
Once the board is set, the rest is the rules of chess: how each of the chess pieces names and moves work, and the one move that involves two pieces at once, castling in chess.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the queen go on a chess board?
On one of the two middle squares of the back row, on the square that matches her own colour. The white queen starts on a light square, the black queen on a dark square, and the king takes the square beside her.
Does the white square go on the right?
Yes. Each player should have a light square in the corner nearest their right hand. That is the whole of the white on the right rule, and it works for both players at the same time.
How many pieces does each player start with?
Sixteen: eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen and one king. Thirty-two pieces on the board in total, filling four of the eight rows.
What if the board has no letters and numbers?
It makes no difference to the setup. Use the colour checks instead: a light square in your bottom right corner, and your queen on a square of her own colour.
Can you set the board up the wrong way and still play?
You can, and casual games often do. A rotated board or a swapped king and queen still gives a playable game, it just changes which side castling happens on and makes the position look odd to anyone who knows chess.
Which colour goes at the bottom?
Your own colour. At a real board each player has their pieces on the row nearest them. On screen it is the same idea, and the pass-and-play game on this site has a flip button so the board can face whoever is about to move.
Now play it
Play 2 player chess offline on one device or play chess online with a friend.