How do you set up a chess board?
Place the board so a light square is in each player's near-right corner. Put eight pawns across your second row, the queen and king side by side in the middle of the back row, then bishop, knight and rook mirrored outward on both sides.
Don't start in a corner
The usual advice — corner to corner, left to right — asks you to remember eight separate positions. The back row is symmetrical, so working from the middle outward means remembering three, twice.
The order that works
- Pawns first. All eight, straight across the second row. It's the easiest row and it fills half the job immediately.
- The royal couple next. Queen and king side by side in the middle. The queen goes on her own colour — a white queen on a light square, a black queen on a dark square.
- Then mirror outward. Bishop, knight, rook on one side; bishop, knight, rook on the other. Same order both ways.
How do you know the board is the right way round?
Light square on your near right. If you have a lettered and numbered board, a1 is a dark square in White's near-left corner.
Common mistakes
- Queen and king swapped — check the queen is standing on her own colour.
- Knights and bishops swapped — the bishop is the taller one with the pointy hat and sits closer to the middle.
- Board rotated — light square, near right.
Two Castles is a picture book for ages 2–5 that teaches the pieces and the setup, not the moves. See the book →