Chess Board Setup

How to set up a chess board

Learning how to set up a chess board comes down to four simple steps. Follow them from the outside corners inward to set it up in under a minute, and you will have the standard chess board layout ready for any casual or tournament game. Before you begin, sort the pieces into two piles of 16 – eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen and one king for each colour.

1. Turn the board the right way. Sit facing your opponent and check the corner square nearest your right hand. Both players must see a light square there – “light on the right”. For White that corner is h1; for Black it is a8. If your board has printed coordinates, ranks 1 and 2 belong to White and ranks 7 and 8 belong to Black.
2. Build the back rank from the corners inward. Working from outside in prevents swaps: place the two rooks on the corner squares (a1 and h1 for White; a8 and h8 for Black), the knights right next to them (b1/g1 and b8/g8), and the bishops beside the knights (c1/f1 and c8/f8). Only the two central squares, files d and e, remain open.
3. Put the queen on her own colour, then place the king. Look at the two open centre squares: the white queen goes on the light square d1, and the black queen goes on the dark square d8. Drop each king onto the final empty square beside her (e1 for White, e8 for Black) so every piece on rank 1 stands directly across from its twin on rank 8.
4. Line up the eight pawns in front. Fill rank 2 (a2 through h2) with the eight white pawns and rank 7 (a7 through h7) with the eight black pawns. Ranks 3, 4, 5 and 6 stay completely empty, completing the standard chess board setup of 32 pieces.

Quick reference: White’s view (a1 to h1)

Sitting behind the white pieces, files run from a on your left to h on your right. Notice how rank 1 and rank 8 have opposite square colours on every file, which is why both queens share the d-file while standing on their own colour.

Pawns: a2–h2 for White, a7–h7 for Black. Ranks 3 to 6 start empty.

Setting up from Black’s side (diagram & left-to-right table)

Checking a chess board setup from Black's side trips up many beginners because almost every textbook diagram is drawn from White's seat. From Black's chair, file h is on your far left and file a is on your far right. Because of that 180° view, your king on e8 sits to the left of your queen on d8, even though neither piece has changed squares: e8 still faces White's king on e1, d8 is still a dark square for the black queen, and a8 is still the light square in your right-hand corner.

What to play after setting up: White’s first move

Once your chess board setup is complete with all 32 pieces in the starting position, White always moves first (to choose colours fairly, one player hides a white pawn in one fist and a black pawn in the other, lets the opponent pick a hand, and then the two players alternate colours in the next game). On turn one, only pawns and knights can legally move – pawns one or two squares straight ahead, and knights jumping to a3, c3, f3 or h3 – giving White 20 legal options, though nearly every game begins with one of these four openings:

• 1. e4 (King’s Pawn Opening): Advances the pawn in front of the king two squares to claim central space immediately and open diagonals for both the white queen and the light-squared bishop.
• 1. d4 (Queen’s Pawn Opening): Pushes the queen’s pawn two squares into the centre where it is already defended by the queen on d1, freeing the dark-squared bishop and steering play into solid strategic lines.
• 1. Nf3 (Réti Opening): Develops the kingside knight toward the centre to control d4 and e5 without committing a central pawn on turn one, leaving kingside castling only two moves away.
• 1. c4 (English Opening): Fights for the central d5 square from the flank rather than head-on, keeping the e- and d-pawns flexible while inviting asymmetrical positions.

Black then answers on move one – classically mirroring the centre with 1...e5 or 1...d5, or contesting it asymmetrically with 1...c5 (the Sicilian Defence) or 1...Nf6.

Chess board setup with names

The diagram below shows the full chess board setup with names for every piece in the starting position. Each player begins with one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.

Not sure which physical piece is which? The king is the tallest piece on the board and carries a cross on top; the queen is second tallest and wears a multi-pointed coronet; the bishop has a rounded mitre with a diagonal slit; the knight is carved as a horse’s head; the rook looks like a castle tower; and the eight pawns are the shortest pieces with smooth round tops.

Common mistakes

Four errors cause almost every wrong chess board setup when players set it up from memory. Check the board before the first move.

More chess basics

• Chess pieces namesComing soon
  Chess pieces names, symbols and how each piece moves
• Chess piece valuesComing soon
  How many points a pawn, knight, bishop, rook and queen are worth
• RulesComing soon
  Chess rules for beginners: check, checkmate, castling and en passant
• NotationComing soon
  How to read and write chess notation like e4, Nf3 and O-O
• Printable boardComing soon
  Free printable chess board and starting position diagram
• EditorComing soon
  Chess board editor to build any position and export FEN