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How should a chessboard be placed before a game begins?
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chess
Position of chess pieces at the beginning of a game. The pieces are placed on the two ranks closest to the player. In the closest rank, pieces are arranged from left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook. In front of that rank, each square has a pawn.
To set up a chessboard correctly before a game begins, you must position the board between the two opponents so that each player has a light-coloured square at their right-hand corner.1
Once the board is oriented, the 16 pieces for each player are arranged on the two ranks closest to them. Specifically, the queen must be placed on her own colour—the White queen starts on the d1 square, and the Black queen starts on the d8 square.23