Starting a Game

At the beginning of the game the chessboard is laid out so that each player has the white (or light) color square in the bottom right hand side. The chess pieces are then arranged the same way each time. The second row (or rank) is filled with pawns. The rooks go in the corners, then the knights next to them, followed by the bishops, and finally the queen, who always goes on her own matching color (white queen on white, black queen on black), and the king on the remaining square. The player with the white pieces always moves first. Therefore, players generally decide who will get to be white by chance or luck such as flipping a coin or having one player guess the color of the hidden pawn in the other player s hand. White then makes a move, followed by black, then white again, then black and so on until the end of the game.