FIDE Laws of Chess
PREFACE
RULES OF PLAY
- Article 1: The nature and objectives of the game of chess
- Article 2: The initial position of the pieces on the chessboard
- Article 3: The moves of the pieces
- Article 4: The act of moving the pieces
- Article 5: The completed game
TOURNAMENT RULES
- Article 6: The chess clock
- Article 7: Illegal positions
- Article 8: The recording of the moves
- Article 9: The drawn game
- Article 10: Quickplay Finish
- Article 11: Scoring
- Article 12: The conduct of the players
- Article 13: The role of the arbiter
- Article 14: FIDE
APPENDIX
The text of the English version is from the homepage of the world chess organization FIDE www.fide.org
In these Laws the words 'he', 'him' and 'his' include 'she' and 'her'.
Preface
The Laws of Chess cannot cover all possible situations that may arise during a game, nor can they regulate all administrative questions. Where cases are not precisely regulated by an Article of the Laws, it should be possible to reach a correct decision by studying analogous situations which are discussed in the Laws. The Laws assume that arbiters have the necessary competence, sound judgement and absolute objectivity.
Too detailed a rule might deprive the arbiter of his freedom of judgement and thus prevent him from finding the solution to a problem dictated by fairness, logic and special factors.
FIDE appeals to all chess players and federations to accept this view. A member federation is free to introduce more detailed rules provided they:
- do not conflict in any way with the official FIDE Laws of Chess
- are limited to the territory of the federation in question; and
- are not valid for any FIDE match, championship or qualifying event, or for a FIDE title or rating tournament.