Files and Ranks

To talk about chess, we need a way to point at squares. The board has a built-in grid, and learning it takes two words.

The columns are called files. There are eight of them, lettered a to h, left to right from White's side of the board. Here is the e-file:

The e-file: every square in the e column, from e1 at the bottom to e8 at the top.

The rows are called ranks. They are numbered 1 to 8, starting from White's edge. Here is the fourth rank:

The fourth rank runs across the board, from a4 to h4.

Remember it this way: files stand up like files in a cabinet, ranks lie down like soldiers standing in rank. White's army starts on ranks 1 and 2. Black's army starts on ranks 7 and 8, and the letters do not flip: the a-file is the a-file for both players.