Chess is not about eating every piece. The real job is to trap the enemy king. We will build that calmly, one useful idea at a time.

The board has 64 squares, but you do not need to memorize them all today. Start with the simple rule: light square on your bottom right.

Files, ranks and diagonals are the roads of the board. Once you see those roads, the pieces make much more sense.

Every square has an address, from a1 to h8. It lets players talk about moves without pointing at the screen like detectives.

The starting setup has a rhythm: rooks in the corners, then knights, bishops, queen on her color, king on the last square.