ChessPuzzlePrint
Printable Chess Cheat Sheet
Everything a new player needs on one or two printed pages: how the pieces move, the special moves, how a game ends, and how moves are written.
What is on the chess cheat sheet?
The chess cheat sheet is a printable guide to the rules of chess, laid out so you can keep it next to the board. It covers how each piece moves, the special moves, the ways a game can end, piece values, notation symbols and board set-up. You choose which sections to include, then print the sheet or save it as a PDF from this page. Each piece has a small diagram with a dot on every square it can reach, so you can check a move at a glance. The rules follow the FIDE Laws of Chess, the rules used in rated tournaments. Where something is a convention rather than a rule, such as piece values, the sheet says so.
How to use the chess cheat sheet
- Tick the sections you want: piece moves, piece values, special moves, check and draws, notation symbols and board set-up.
- Choose the paper size, A4 or US Letter.
- Choose colour or the ink-saving black and grey style.
- Change the title if you like, for example to the name of your club or class.
- Press "Print / save as PDF".
With every section ticked, the sheet takes two pages. "How the pieces move" and "Setting up the board" together fit on one. Copy the link to keep your choice of sections for the next time you print.
For complete beginners, print only "How the pieces move" and "Setting up the board" first, and add the other sections later. A shorter sheet is easier to follow while you learn the moves. Add special moves and the ways a game can end once you start playing full games, since those rules come up later.
Print two-sided to get the whole sheet on a single piece of paper, and laminate it for a club or classroom. The ink-saving style prints the boards in white and grey with black marks, which also photocopies well. Choose colour for a single copy for yourself, and the ink-saving style when you need many copies. The sheet you print here is free to use in class or in products you sell, such as Etsy printables or KDP books.
Chess rules cheat sheet: how do the pieces move?
The king moves one square in any direction. The queen moves any distance along ranks, files and diagonals. The rook moves any distance along ranks and files, and the bishop moves any distance diagonally. The knight moves in an L-shape, two squares one way and then one square at a right angle, and it can jump over other pieces.
Pawns move one square forward, or two squares from their starting square. They capture one square diagonally forward. A pawn that reaches the last rank promotes to a queen, rook, bishop or knight, and is written e8=Q in books and PGN files, or e8Q on FIDE scoresheets.
Two special moves follow different rules. In en passant, when 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. Castling moves the king two squares towards a rook, and the rook goes to the square the king crossed. It is never allowed if the king or that rook has already moved, if the king is in check, if the king passes through or lands on an attacked square, or if any piece stands between the king and the rook. A rook that is under attack does not stop castling.
In the diagrams, a dot marks a square the piece can move to, a ring marks a capture, and an outlined square marks the square the caption talks about.
How do you set up a chess board?
Place the board so that a light square is in the bottom-right corner for each player. Put the queen on the square of her own colour, and the king on the other colour beside her. White moves first.
The rooks go in the corners, the knights next to them, and the bishops next to the knights. The pawns fill the row in front of the pieces. The sheet shows the complete layout in its board set-up section.
Examples
Questions and answers
Is there a printable chess rules sheet for beginners?
Yes. The sheet states the rules in plain words and gives each piece its own diagram, so a beginner can check a move without reading a rulebook.
Can I print it?
Yes. Choose A4 or US Letter and press "Print / save as PDF", then print in colour or in the ink-saving style.
Does the sheet follow the official chess rules?
Yes. The rules follow the FIDE Laws of Chess, the rules of the International Chess Federation used in rated over-the-board events. Where something is a convention and not part of the Laws, the sheet marks it.
What ways can a game end?
The sheet lists them in plain words, from checkmate and stalemate to threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule. Under FIDE rules, a threefold repetition lets the player to move claim a draw, but the draw is not automatic.
Do online chess sites use the same moves?
Yes. Online sites and casual games use the same moves as the FIDE rules. Details such as how a draw is claimed are set out as FIDE describes them.
Why does the sheet list piece values?
Pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5 and queen 9 is a long-standing rule of thumb for comparing material. The Laws of Chess do not give pieces a value, so the sheet marks these numbers as a convention.
Can I use this chess cheat sheet commercially, for example in a course or an Etsy printable?
Yes. The sheet you generate is royalty-free for personal, classroom and commercial use, including Etsy printables, Teachers Pay Teachers, KDP books and print-on-demand. No credit is required, and the only thing you may not do is copy this generator itself to run a competing service.
Related chess tools
Open-source components used by this tool: Noto Sans Symbols 2 chess glyphs (ChessPieces font) (OFL-1.1).
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