To start the game, the board is set up with a white square on the bottom-right corner. This is important, because it would otherwise disrupt the locations of some pieces. Let's say the white player is behind the chess board, so he would place two rooks at the bottom corners, one knight next to each rook, one bishop next to each knight. For the final 2 squares on the bottom rank, he would place the queen on the SAME COLOR as his color and the king on the OPPOSITE COLOR of his color. That means that the white queen goes on the white square while the white king goes on the remaining black square. Finally, place 8 pawns ahead of each piece. White moves first.
As mentioned before, the object of chess is to checkmate the opponent's king - when the king cannot find a way to move out of check. There are three ways to avoid check: move the king away from the check, block the check with another piece, or take the piece giving the check. If a player cannot do any of those things, it is checkmate, and the player loses.
Each player gets one move before its the other player's turn. Only one piece can be moved during one turn, except during castling. Casting is when the king and rook switch places, giving the king a temporary shelter behind his pawns, while the rook comes into play. In order to castle, the squares between the king and the rook must first be clear of pieces. Furthermore, the king and the rook cannot have moved, even if they moved back to the original position. Also, the king cannot be in check during castling, nor could any of the squares between the king and the rook be in check by an opponent's piece. The king could "switch" with either rook. To "switch", the king moves two pieces toward the rook, and the rook "jumps" over the king in the other direction.
En passent works when a pawn still on its initial square tries to slip pass the enemy from capturing it by advancing two squares forward instead of one. For example, if a white pawn on c5 has already advanced from its original position of c2, and a black pawn on d7 or b7 tries to advance two squares to d5 or b5, the white pawn could move diagonally to either b6 or d6 as a regular capture, except that it automatically captures the black pawn behind them. However, white have the choice not to take the black pawn, but en passent does not work if it isn't put into effect immediately after the pawn move. See next page to learn notation.
Stalemate happens if a player cannot do anythign else except move his/her king into check. The king cannot be in check before the move, because it would otherwise be checkmate. Stalemate is a draw.
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