Playing chess is not all that hard. It involves strategy and knowledge of the game. After you know the key aspects it is a simple matter of honing your skills to become a master chess player and wow your friends with your new skill.

Step 1: Know the Different Pieces and How They Move

In chess, there are 6 different pieces that each move in a different way. They are the King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, and Pawn. These piece are basically your army to take the other side's King. Taking the other player's King without losing your own is the whole objective of chess.

Step 2: Know What the King Is and Does

On the board, there are two Kings. One is white, and the other is black. The whole point of the game is to capture the other person's King without losing your own king in the process. The King can only move one space at a time even if it is any direction. This is the piece that you are protecting throughout the game. If he gets captured, then you lose the game. Check is a term used for when he is in the line of another piece's capture. Checkmate is when the King has no way of getting out of check, and the game is over.

Step 3: Know What the Queen Is and Does

Like the King, there are two Queens on the board, and one is white while the other is black. Unlike the King, the Queen can move as many spaces as she please as long as it it is in a straight line either forwards, backwards, or diagonally. The Queen is consisted by many as one of the most powerful pieces on the board, and is very hard to capture. In setup, the queen is always supposed to be on her color. i.e. black queen on a black square. This is in case the pawn in front of your king and the pawn in front of your opponent's queen are both taken, you are not instantly in check.

Step 4: Know What the Bishop Is and Does

There are four bishops on the board. Two are white while two are black. They can only move diagonally which means that the color square they start on is the only color they can move on to during the game. Each of your two Bishops start on different colors naturally.

Step 5: Know What the Knight Is and Does

The Knights take the oddest movement of the game. You move a knight in an L. There are two ways to do this: up one and over two or either up two and over one. They can move in any direction since it would be difficult to move them only forward with such a complicated moving pattern.

Step 6: Know What the Rook Is and Does

There are four Rooks, also known as Castles, on the board. Two of them are white, and two of them are black. These pieces move only in a straight line. They, though, can move forward and backwards.

Step 7: Know What the Pawn Is and Does

There are total of 16 pawns on the board when you first start the game. They also tend to be the first few pieces to get captured while playing chess. These pieces can only move forward on the board. Other than the first move where you are allowed to move two spaces instead of one if you want to, pawns only move one space at a time like the king. Pawns also can't capture anything directly in front of them. To capture something with a pawn, you must capture it diagonally. If you make it to the other side of the board with a pawn though, you can exchange it for any piece you want (house rules may dictate whether or not you are allowed to have two queens on the board at once).

Step 8: Know the Board

Chess is played on a square 8x8 board. It has a total of 64 squares. A chess board can come in different colors, but the checkered pattern always remains the same. There are always two separate colors even though it might just be frosted and non-frosted glass, if it is a glass set, or wood and black, if it is a wood set.

Step 9: Know the Board Set-up

When setting up the board all the pawns go out in front in a row. They are your first defense in this game. In your second row, your rooks are on the outside, then your knights, the Bishops, and lastly your queen on her color, and the King in the last empty space. Always double check to make sure that the board is set up correctly. Many people often accidentally switch around two pieces without thinking when they set the board up.

Step 10: Know the Other Rules to Actually Play

Now that you know how to move the pieces, and how to set up the board, you can go about playing the game! To play the player with the white pieces takes a turn to move a piece of his choice to a different space. Then the player with the black pieces makes a move. To capture another player's piece, you just have to move your piece to the space it is on. There is only one piece per space. The game goes back and forth until someone runs out of moves or pieces, a king is captured, or Checkmate happens and the game is over. The person who lost their king is the loser, and you can easily set the board up to play again.