The board and its squares
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A chessboard has 64 squares: 32 light and 32 dark. Always place the board so that the bottom-right square is light. The marked square is h1, the light square in the bottom-right corner.
The files go up and down, and each has a letter: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h from left to right. The ranks go across, and each has a number: 1 to 8 from the bottom up. A square's name is its file letter and its rank number. The marked lines are the e-file and the 4th rank; they meet on e4.
Tap the square e4. Find where the e-file meets the 4th rank.
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Now tap a8. It is one of the corners.
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Now tap h1. Look at its colour: is it light?
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This is how the pieces stand at the start. White fills the two bottom ranks, Black the two top ranks. Eight pawns stand in front. Behind them, from the corners in: rook, knight, bishop, then the queen and the king in the middle. The queen goes on her own colour: the white queen on the light square d1, the black queen on the dark square d8.
The queens have left the board. On which square does the white queen start?
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The four squares in the middle of the board are called the centre. The centre matters, because pieces there can reach every direction easily. Tap all four centre squares.
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