All our game rules in one place, with diagrams and tables: the rules of draughts and chess, how to checkmate and chess notation. Pick a game, or jump straight to your question.
Every question below takes you straight to the answer in the guide.
Set-up, capturing, kings and draws
How many squares and pieces does a draughts board have? It differs between 8 by 8 and 10 by 10; the table puts them side by side.Set-up and how every piece moves
A chess board has 64 squares and you play with 32 pieces: 16 each, of 6 kinds.
Scholar's mate, fool's mate and rook mate
The fastest checkmate is fool's mate: Black mates White on the second move.
How to write down a game
Nf3 means knight to f3: the letter of the piece and the square it goes to.
Our draughts board is 8 by 8 and comes with 24 pieces, the chess board with 32 pieces. A complete board with matching pieces, so you can start playing as soon as you have read the rules.
