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First, we need to know the size and shape of the board and the names of the pieces. Chess is played on a 8 squares by 8 squares board. Always start the game with a white square on the right-hand side of the player on the White side. The names of the pieces are King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, and Pawn. There are one King, one Queen, two Bishops, two Knights, two Rooks, and eight Pawns to each player. One player is the White side, the other is the Black side. The tallest piece is the King. There is usually a picture of a king for its face. The next tallest is the Queen. It usually has a picture of a queen for its face. The Bishop is usually about the same size as the Knight. It usually has a circular top with a small slit in it. The Knights are often depicted as horses. This is because of their capability to jump. The pawns are the shortest pieces. They usually are similar to the bishop with a circular top, but no slit on it.

They also have a rounder top than the Bishop. The White pieces are usually white in color, while the Black pieces are black. Often the White pieces are a lighter shade of a color than the Black pieces.

The Pawns are setup on the second horizontal row from each player. The first horizontal row has the other pieces. The Rooks are at both farthest end squares. The Knights are next to them. The Bishops come next. After that, the King and Queen are situtated together with the queen on the square that is the color of the side it is on. For example, the black queen is on the black square.

Annotation is an important part of chess. You can use annotation to help setup the chessboard. The squares on the chessboard are labeled horizontally a through h. Most chessboards have the annotation printed on them to help. Then vertically it is labeled 1 through 8 starting from the White side. So the Pawns go on squares a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2 for the White side and a7, b7, c7, d7, e7, f7, g7, h7 for the Black side. The Rooks go on squares a1 and h1 for the White side and a8 and h8 for the Black side.
The Knights go on squares b1 and g1 for the White side and b8 and g8 for the Black side. The Bishops go on squares c1 and f1 for the White side and c8 and f8 for the Black side. The Queen goes on square
d1 for the White side and d8 for the Black side. The King goes on square e1 for the White side and e8 for the Black side.

There are many different types of chessboards and chess pieces. They can be very cheap or very expensive. Some are collectors items. I used the very popular Staunton design to describe the pieces above. Wooden chessboards are preferred over any of the other types, although the kind made of
cloth are less expensive by far. Chess pieces can be designed using many different themes. Included in the list are space, renaissance, science, etc. Some of them are made of glass.

Learn more about this author, Steven Mars.
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