Chess Rules

PREFACE

The Laws of Chess cannot cover all possible situations that may arise during a game, nor can they regulate all administrative questions. Where cases are not precisely regulated by an Article of the Laws, it should be possible to reach a correct decision by studying analogous situations which are discussed in the Laws. The Laws assume that arbiters have the necessary competence, sound judgement and absolute objectivity. Too detailed a rule might deprive the arbiter of his freedom of judgement and thus prevent him from finding the solution to a problem dictated by fairness, logic and special factors.

FIDE appeals to all chess players and federations to accept this view.

A member federation is free to introduce more detailed rules provided they:

(a) do not conflict in any way with the official FIDE Laws of Chess
(b) are limited to the territory of the federation in question; and
(c) are not valid for any FIDE match, championship or qualifying event, or for a FIDE title or rating tournament.

RULES OF PLAY

Article 1: The nature and objectives of the game of chess

1.1. The game of chess is played between two opponents who move pieces alternately on a square board called a 'chessboard'. The player with the white pieces commences the game. A player is said to 'have the move', when his opponent's move has been completed.

1.2. The objective of each player is to place the opponent's king 'under attack' in such a way that the opponent has no legal move which would avoid the 'capture' of the king on the following move. The player who achieves this is said to have 'checkmated' the opponent and to have won the game. The opponent who has been checkmated has lost the game.

1.3. If the position is such that neither player can possibly checkmate, the game is drawn.