Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on an 8x8 grid known as a chessboard. The game is played with 16 pieces for each player, and the objective is to checkmate your opponent's king while protecting your own. Here are the basic rules of chess:

1. **The Chessboard**: The chessboard consists of 64 squares arranged in an 8x8 grid. It is placed with a white square on the right-hand corner closest to each player.

2. **Chess Pieces**: Each player has 16 pieces, which include:
- 1 King
- 1 Queen
- 2 Rooks
- 2 Knights
- 2 Bishops
- 8 Pawns

3. **Setup**: The pieces are arranged on the board at the beginning of the game as follows:
- The Rooks are placed in the corners.
- The Knights are placed next to the Rooks.
- The Bishops are placed next to the Knights.
- The Queen is placed on the remaining square of her color.
- The King is placed next to the Queen.

Both players set up their pieces in this manner.

4. **Objective**: The objective of chess is to checkmate your opponent's king. Checkmate occurs when the opponent's king is under attack (in check) and cannot make a legal move to escape capture.

5. **Movement of Pieces**:
- **King**: The king can move one square in any direction (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).
- **Queen**: The queen can move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally any number of squares.
- **Rook**: The rook can move horizontally or vertically any number of squares.
- **Bishop**: The bishop can move diagonally any number of squares.
- **Knight**: The knight moves in an "L" shape – two squares in one direction (either horizontally or vertically) and then one square perpendicular to that.
- **Pawn**: Pawns move forward one square but capture diagonally. On their first move, pawns have the option to move forward two squares. When a pawn reaches the opposite end of the board, it can be promoted to any other piece (except a king), usually a queen.

6. **Special Moves**:
- **Castling**: This is a move involving the king and one of the rooks. It is the only move that allows two pieces to move at once. The king moves two squares toward a rook, and the rook moves to the square the king skipped over. Castling can only be done under certain conditions: neither the king nor the chosen rook has moved before, there are no pieces between them, and the king is not in check.
- **En Passant**: If a pawn moves two squares forward from its starting position and lands beside an opponent's pawn, the opponent can capture it as if it had only moved one square forward.
- **Pawn Promotion**: When a pawn reaches the opponent's back rank (8th rank for White, 1st rank for Black), it must be promoted to any other piece (usually a queen).

7. **Check**: When a king is under direct attack from an opponent's piece, it is in check. The player must make a move to get the king out of check, either by moving the king, capturing the threatening piece, or blocking the attack.

8. **Checkmate**: Checkmate occurs when the king is in check, and there is no legal move that the player can make to remove the threat. The game ends, and the player whose king is checkmated loses.

9. **Stalemate**: Stalemate is a draw situation where one player has no legal moves left but is not in check. The game ends in a draw, and neither player wins.

10. **Draws**: Chess games can end in draws for various reasons, such as insufficient material to checkmate, the fifty-move rule (if 50 moves are made by both players without a capture or pawn move), or the threefold repetition rule (if the same position occurs three times with the same player to move).

These are the basic rules of chess. Chess is a complex and strategic game that requires careful planning, tactics, and foresight to win. It's a game that can be learned quickly but takes a lifetime to master.

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