How to Set Up My Chess Board & Pieces

The FIDE is the body tasked with regulating and defining the official FIDE Laws of Chess.

Here we will teach you how to set up your chess board and pieces.

Although most computer games start with the pieces already set up, you may want to know the exact set up when you play with a physical chess set.

As you may have guessed, each chess piece has a dedicated place. The easiest way to setup a board for play is to place the pawns first, followed by the major pieces. This avoids reaching over the pawns and perhaps knocking or moving them.

Pawns

All eight pawns are placed in a single row, one rank up from the row nearest to each player.

Queen

The queen is always placed on her own colour – white queen on the white square nearest the middle.

The black queen faces the white queen from the opposite side of the board. Like the white queen, place the black queen on a square of her own colour.

King

The king is placed on the middle square next to the queen. Kings always start on a square of opposite colour.

Bishops

Bishops are placed next to the king and queen, one bishop each side.

Knights

Knights belong next to the bishops. Place one knight next to each bishop on the back rank.

Chess novices sometimes become confused over knight and bishop placement.

Here is a helpful way to remember correct placement. Bishops are likely to be members of the court and so are near the king and queen, but a knight is often depicted by a horse. No horses in the court!

Rooks

Rooks occupy the corners of the board, one on each corner, next to the knights.