Chaalচাল · चालGuide
How to play chess
Chess is played by two people on a board of 64 squares. Each side has 16 pieces; the aim is to checkmate the enemy king. Here are the rules in simple words. To learn them step by step, with practice on the board, open the lessons in Chaal.
Setting up
Put the board so that each player has a light square in the right-hand corner. Rooks go in the corners, then knights, then bishops. The queen stands on her own colour (the white queen on d1, the black queen on d8) and the king beside her. Eight pawns stand in front. White moves first.
How the pieces move
Only the knight can jump. You capture by moving onto an enemy piece's square; the captured piece leaves the board.
Check, checkmate and stalemate
Check: the king is attacked. You must get out of check at once: move the king, block the attack, or capture the attacker. Checkmate: the king is in check and there's no way out. That wins the game. Stalemate: the player to move is not in check but has no legal move. That's a draw.
Special moves
Castling: the king moves two squares towards a rook and the rook jumps to the king's other side. Allowed only if neither has moved, the squares between are empty, and the king isn't in check, doesn't pass through check and doesn't land in check.
Promotion: a pawn that reaches the last rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight (usually a queen).
En passant: if a pawn moves two squares and lands beside an enemy pawn, that pawn may capture it as if it had moved one square, but only on the very next move.
Draws
A game is drawn by stalemate, by agreement, when the same position happens three times, after 50 moves each without a capture or pawn move, or when neither side has enough pieces to checkmate (for example a king and a bishop against a king).
Piece names in Bangla and Hindi
| English | বাংলা | हिन्दी |
|---|---|---|
| King | রাজা | राजा |
| Queen | মন্ত্রী | रानी (वज़ीर) |
| Rook | নৌকা | हाथी |
| Bishop | হাতি | ऊँट |
| Knight | ঘোড়া | घोड़ा |
| Pawn | সৈন্য | प्यादा |
| Check / Checkmate | চেক (কিস্তি) / চেকমেট (কিস্তিমাত) | शह (चेक) / शह-मात |
Watch out: in Hindi the rook is हाथी (elephant), but in Bangla the elephant, হাতি, is the bishop.
Playing in Chaal
- Learn: 8 units of short lessons with Haathi Dada. Earn up to 3 stars in each.
- Puzzles: a daily puzzle for everyone, and a trainer by theme (mate in 1, forks, pins…) with a puzzle rating that grows with you.
- Bots: Ant, Cat, Horse, Tiger and Elephant, from beginner to club level. No clock, take-backs and hints allowed.
- Online: play a friend with a link or a 4-letter code, or Quick Match: rated (10 minutes) or casual (5 minutes + 3 seconds a move). If nobody's free within 20 seconds, a bot steps in (not rated).
- Pass & play: two players on one phone.
- Clocks: online clocks start after both sides' first moves. A side that doesn't make its first move in 30 seconds aborts the game; a player who leaves a game against a person and doesn't come back within 90 seconds loses it.