Rules for Setting Up a Chess Board

Chess is one of the oldest board games in the world. Games with objectives and rules similar to chess were invented in different parts of the world, but had their local differences. The early predecessor to chess (known as Shatranj) was invented in Persia over a 1000 years ago and the knowledge and popularity of the game spread across the Persian Kingdom. Chess as we know it today is said to have born out of Shatranj. The way we play chess today emerged in the 15th century in Southern Europe. Today, chess has become popular with man and machine. Deep Blue - an IBM make, became the first computer to defeat a reigning chess champion when it beat Garry Kasparov in 1997.

How to Make a Regulation Chess Board

The Basics
Chess is played on an 8X8 checkered board. There are two sets of 'armies' in chess; one black colored and the other is white colored. Each army comprises 16 pieces; 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 1 king and 1 queen. The moves of each of these pieces is different. Each of the 64 squares is labeled with a letter and a number. The two sides on which the armies are placed denoted by letters (a-h) and the other two sides are denoted by numbers (1-8).

Setting Up a Chess Board

• The first step while setting up a chess board is to place it properly. Remember the phrase: White is right. The chess board must be placed in such a way that the rightmost square on each opposing players' side is white.
• The second step is to place the pawns. A pawn is easy to make out as there are so many of them. There are 8 pawns to a side. Remember the square markings discussed earlier? Place the pawns in the second row from each side. The pawns will therefore occupy the squares labeled 2a-2h and 7a-7h.
• The third step is to place the rooks. Now how to tell which one is the rook? The pieces that look like castle towers with a balcony-like space on the top are called rooks. These rooks are placed at the two ends of the bottom row on each side. They therefore occupy the squares labeled 1a and 1h for one army and 8a and 8h for the other army.
• The fourth placement is that of the knights. Simply put, knights look like horses. There will be 2 pairs of knights, one black pair and one white pair. These knights will be placed in the empty spaces adjacent to the rooks that we placed in the previous step. Which means knights will go in the squares labeled 1b and 1g on one side and 8b and 8g on the other side.
• Next come the bishops. The bishops basically look like minarets. Thin and tall with a thin dome-like shape at the top. Bishops are again placed in the chess board layout in the vacant space next to the knights. So based on the square labels, bishops go one squares 1c and 1f on one side and 8c and 8f one the other side.
• The last two positions belong to the king and the queen. Now this one had me in knots for a while till I learned this simple rule: the color of the queen is same as the color of the square. As there are only 2 vacant spots left in row 1 and row 8, the squares are either black or white. So if you're setting up the white team, the queen will sit in the white square while the king will occupy the last and only spot vacant in row 1 and row 8. Distinguishing between queens and kings is easy as queens are just marginally shorter than kings and the kings have a cross on the top. Make sure that the queens and kings are sitting exactly opposite each other in your chess board layout. Queens go on 1d and 8d and kings go on 1e and 8e.

So that is all about setting up a chess board. Enjoy the war!