To set up a chess board, put a light square at each player's lower-right corner. Place the rooks in the corners, then knights, then bishops. The queen goes on her own color, the king takes the remaining central square, and eight pawns fill the row in front. White moves first.
These instructions describe the standard starting position, not Chess960 or a puzzle arrangement. Each side starts with sixteen pieces on a board containing 64 small squares.
Orient the board before placing pieces
Sit on opposite sides of the board. From White's side, the bottom-right square is h1 and is light. From Black's side, the bottom-right square is a8 and is also light. “Light on the right” works from either player's seat.
Files are the columns a through h; ranks are the rows 1 through 8. If a physical board has coordinates printed on it, White's home row is rank one and Black's is rank eight. A decorative board without labels follows the same arrangement.
Rotating a wrongly oriented board after placing pieces can introduce new errors. Check orientation first, then build both armies.
Place the back rows in the same file order
Read this table by file, from a through h. Black sees that order reversed from their seat; the coordinates remain fixed.
| File | White on rank 1 | Black on rank 8 | | --- | --- | --- | | a | Rook on a1 | Rook on a8 | | b | Knight on b1 | Knight on b8 | | c | Bishop on c1 | Bishop on c8 | | d | Queen on d1 | Queen on d8 | | e | King on e1 | King on e8 | | f | Bishop on f1 | Bishop on f8 | | g | Knight on g1 | Knight on g8 | | h | Rook on h1 | Rook on h8 |
The useful memory aid is queen on her own color: White's queen starts on the light d1 square, and Black's on the dark d8 square. The kings face each other on the e-file.
Do not use piece height alone to identify the king and queen in an unfamiliar set. The king often has a cross and the queen a crown, but decorative sets vary. Check the set's markings if necessary.
Fill the pawn rows
Put White's eight pawns on a2 through h2. Put Black's eight pawns on a7 through h7. Every starting pawn has one piece directly behind it.
Ranks three through six should be empty. There are 32 occupied squares and 32 empty squares at the start. All sixteen pieces of each color must be present; counting only the back row can miss a pawn.
Run a final setup check
- A light square is on the right from both seats.
- The queens occupy d1 and d8, on their own colors.
- The kings occupy e1 and e8.
- Each corner holds a rook; the knights stand beside the rooks.
- The pawn rows are complete, and the four middle ranks are empty.
For the governing arrangement, see Article 2 of the FIDE Laws of Chess. Moving the king or rook before play is not a substitute for correcting an incorrectly set board.
Check a digital position too
Open the analysis board to compare your physical setup with the standard position. A flipped digital board changes the view, not the actual square names or the players' pieces.
Use the board editor for a custom study position. It is different from arranging a new game: side to move, castling rights, and other position details matter. Read FEN vs PGN before sharing a position, then follow the first-game lesson when you are ready to play.