A chess set in the array, or starting position

In a competitive game, a clock is used. Each player has an equal amount of time for the game.

A modern digital clock

Current world champion, Ding Liren

Libro de los juegos, Alfonso X of Castile, showing a Muslim playing a Christian

Chess is a board game for two players. It is played on a square board, made up of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares in each row and column. Each player starts with sixteen pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. The goal of the game is for each player to try and checkmate the king of the opponent. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the opposing king which no move can stop. It ends the game.

During the game, the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the board. One player ('White') has pieces of a light color; the other player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. There are rules about how pieces move, and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. The player with white pieces always makes the first move. Because of this, White has a small advantage, and wins more often than Black in tournament games.