Chess — Tutorial

How to Begin

Use the two selectors in the side panel to choose who controls White and Black: a human player or an AI at Easy, Medium, Hard, or Expert level. Then click New Game. White always moves first. Setting both sides to AI starts a spectator game you can pause and resume.

Controls

• Select a piece: click (or tap) one of your pieces. Legal destinations are marked with dots; capturable pieces are ringed.
• Move: click a marked destination square.
• Cancel: click anywhere else.
• Undo takes back your last move (against an AI it takes back the AI reply too).
• Flip Board rotates the view. Pause/Resume controls AI vs AI games.

Turn Order

White and Black alternate, one move per turn. The status panel always shows whose turn it is and warns when a king is in check.

Movement

• Pawn: forward one square (two from its start), captures diagonally. Reaching the last rank promotes it to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of your choice. En passant captures are supported.
• Knight: L-shape (2+1); jumps over pieces.
• Bishop: any distance diagonally.
• Rook: any distance horizontally or vertically.
• Queen: any distance in any straight line.
• King: one square in any direction. Castling with a rook is available when neither piece has moved, the path is clear, and the king does not pass through check.

Check and Winning

You win by checkmate: the enemy king is attacked and has no legal escape. You may never make a move that leaves your own king in check.

Losing and Draws

You lose when your king is checkmated. The game is drawn by stalemate (no legal moves while not in check), the 50-move rule, threefold repetition, or insufficient material.

Saving and Restarting

Games are not saved between sessions. Click New Game at any time to restart; use Undo to take back moves within the current game.