Quick answer
Place the board so each player has a light square at their bottom-right corner. Put the eight pawns on the second row in front of each side. Then fill the back row from the corners inward: rooks, knights, bishops, then the queen on the square of her own color, and the king beside her. White moves first.
Orient the board first
A chess board is made of 64 squares in an 8 by 8 grid, and orientation matters before any piece is placed. Turn the board so that the square in the bottom-right corner, from your seat, is light. A common memory aid is “white on the right.” If the board is turned the wrong way, the queen and king end up on the wrong colors and the notation squares no longer match. For more on this, see which way the chess board goes.
Step-by-step setup
Each side has 16 pieces: eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen and one king. Set up White first, then match it for Black. If you need a reminder of what each piece does, see chess pieces: names and how each moves.
- Pawns. Fill the entire second row in front of you. For White this is rank 2, for Black it is rank 7.
- Rooks. Put one rook in each corner of your back row.
- Knights. Place a knight on the square next to each rook.
- Bishops. Place a bishop next to each knight.
- Queen. Put the queen on the remaining square that matches her color: the white queen on a light square, the black queen on a dark square.
- King. The king takes the last open square, next to the queen.
Where each piece starts
| Piece | White squares | Black squares |
|---|---|---|
| Rooks | a1, h1 | a8, h8 |
| Knights | b1, g1 | b8, g8 |
| Bishops | c1, f1 | c8, f8 |
| Queen | d1 | d8 |
| King | e1 | e8 |
| Pawns | a2 to h2 | a7 to h7 |
Each piece faces its opposite number across the board: queen faces queen and king faces king. Reading these coordinates is also the first step toward understanding algebraic chess notation.
Queen on her color
The most common mistake is swapping the king and queen. The reminder is simple: the white queen starts on a light square (d1) and the black queen on a dark square (d8). If a queen is on the wrong color, the board is probably rotated or the king and queen are swapped. From each player’s own seat, the king sits to the right of the queen for White and to the left of the queen for Black, because the players view the board from opposite sides.
Common setup mistakes
- Board turned the wrong way, leaving a dark square in the bottom-right corner.
- King and queen swapped on one or both sides.
- Bishops and knights reversed. Knights go next to the rooks, bishops next to the king and queen.
- Pawns on the wrong row, or a gap in the pawn line.
- Copying the layout left to right for Black instead of matching White’s pieces across the board, which puts the king and queen on mismatched files.
A quick final check
- Is the bottom-right square light for both players?
- Are there 16 pieces on each side, with all pawns in place?
- Is each queen on her own color?
- Does each king face the opposing king?
After setup
White always makes the first move. Later in the game you may be able to castle (the rules are in how the king moves). In general, castling requires that the king and the rook involved have not moved, that there are no pieces between them, and that the king is not in check or moving through or into an attacked square. Check the official laws if you are unsure of the details.
If you plan to play in a tournament, the physical equipment matters too; see tournament chess board size.
FAQ
How do you set up a chess board?
Light square in the bottom-right corner, pawns on the second row, rooks in the corners, then knights, bishops, the queen on her own color, and the king.
Is the queen supposed to be on her color?
Yes. The white queen starts on a light square and the black queen on a dark square.
Does the setup ever change?
In standard chess it does not. Some variants, such as Chess960, shuffle the back-row pieces, but this guide covers the standard starting position.