Meet the Board
Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Chess journey. Lesson 1 of 41.
Welcome to chess. Everything in this journey happens on one small battlefield: a board of 64 squares, 32 light and 32 dark, in a pattern where the colors always alternate.
A game ready to begin. White sits at the bottom, Black at the top.
Two players share it. White sits at the bottom of our diagrams and always moves first. Black sits at the top and answers. The players take turns, one move each, and nobody may skip a turn.
There is one rule about the board itself, and generations of players have set it up wrong at the kitchen table: the square in each player's bottom-right corner must be a light one.
Light on the right. If this corner square is dark, the whole board is turned wrong.
That is the entire equipment list. No dice, no luck, nothing hidden. Both players see everything, which is exactly what makes chess fair, and exactly what makes it deep.
Try it yourself
Click White's bottom-right corner square, the one that must be light on a correctly placed board.
Test yourselfThis lesson includes a short quiz. Start the lesson to answer it and track your progress.