How to set up a chessboard for a game, square by square, and a free board editor for setting up any other position: place the pieces, then analyze it with Stockfish or play it out against a bot.
Set up a positionTurn the board so that each player has a light square in their bottom-right corner: "light on the right". White's pieces go on the first two ranks and Black's on the last two, facing each other. Along the back rank, from the corners in:
In the two corners.
Next to the rooks.
Next to the knights.
On one of the two middle squares: the one of her own color.
On the last square, beside the queen.
All eight along the rank in front.
Black's pieces go the same way on the eighth and seventh ranks, so each piece faces its opposite number: queen facing queen, king facing king.
The board editor starts from the starting position, an empty board, kings only, or any FEN you paste in. From there:
Choose a piece from the palette and click a square. Click it again to take it off, or use the eraser.
Right-click a piece on the board to pick up the same piece, and drag pieces from square to square. The mouse wheel steps through the palette.
Choose who is to move and which castling rights remain. Under Advanced, set the en passant square and the move counters.
Castling is only offered where the king and rook are still on their starting squares, and en passant only where a pawn could have just moved two squares. The FEN updates as you go, ready to copy. While the position is not legal yet, the editor says why: a missing king, a pawn on the first or eighth rank, or the side that is not to move in check.
Use it for a position from a book, a game played over the board, or an endgame you want to practice until you can win it every time.
Turn the board so each player has a light square in the bottom-right corner. Along the first rank go the rooks in the corners, then the knights, then the bishops, then the queen on her own color and the king on the last square. The pawns fill the second rank. Black mirrors White on the eighth and seventh ranks.
On the d- and e-files, in the middle of the back rank. The queen goes on her own color, the white queen on d1 (a light square) and the black queen on d8 (a dark square), and each king goes beside her, on e1 and e8.
Yes. Place the pieces, choose who is to move, and press Analyze to open it on the analysis board with Stockfish. It is free, with no account needed.
Yes. Paste it into the FEN box and the board shows the position. The FEN also updates as you edit the board, ready to copy.
Yes. Press Play to start a game against the chess bot from the position you set up, at the rating you choose.
The position has to be legal first: one king each, no pawns on the first or eighth rank, and the side that is not to move not in check. The editor says what is wrong until it is.