The board and the pieces

A chessboard has 64 squares, light and dark in turn. The rows across the board are called ranks and are numbered 1 to 8; the columns are files, a to h. So every square has a name: e4, a1, h8.

• The board is placed so that each player has a light square at the bottom right.
• Each side has 16 pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.
• White stands on the 1st and 2nd ranks, Black on the 7th and 8th. Rooks in the corners, knights next to them, then bishops; the queen goes on her own colour ("the queen loves her colour"), the king next to her.
• White moves first, then the players take turns, one move at a time.