This is the sixth in my series of articles for the absolute chess beginner. In this article, we’ll see how the chess pawns move and capture.

The Pawn in Chess

The pawn is the foot-soldier of chess. Each side has 8 pawns, and they start the game lined up in front of the more powerful “officers” of the chessboard. Although the pawn is the “weakest” of the chess pieces, each pawn is very important; the loss of even a single pawn without compensation may mean the loss of the game! And by advancing to the other side of the chessboard, the pawn may become the most powerful piece on the board! (See my article on pawn promotion.)

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This is the fifth article in my series for the absolute chess beginner. This article (and the video) is about how the pieces move.

Again, I’m assuming no prior chess knowledge. If you don’t know how to set up the board or pieces, look at my previous blog post entitled “How to set up the chessboard.” In this article, we will review how the pieces move and capture. In future posts, we will see how the pawns move and capture, and review the concepts of check, checkmate, castling, and some of the special rules.

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The Correct Chess Set Up

In order to start playing a game of chess, you must first set up the pieces properly.

The simplest way to show you how to set up the pieces properly is to show you a diagram that has the proper setup. Here it is:

You can also check out this video I made to show you how to set up the chess board.

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UPDATED

I’m continuing my series of articles and videos for the absolute chess beginner. This post will be about chess equipment in general, focusing on chess clocks. I’ll have a little advice about how to use the chess clock and some advice on what kind of clock you should buy.

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What do the chess pieces look like?

I suppose one of the first questions the absolute beginner would ask is, “which piece is the castle?” (Actually, the beginner would probably say, “I know this piece; it’s the castle!”) And “which is the King and which the Queen?”

I’ll answer those questions in this article.

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I’m going to put together a series of videos to teach the absolute beginner about how to play chess. I’m not going to assume any chess knowledge, so I’ll be covering all the basics, with some tips and advice I’ve gathered from 50 years of playing chess.

I hope to answer two questions in this article: what chessboad should I buy? How do I orient the board for a game?

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