Chess, perennially popular game of skill between two players, involving intense intellectual competition, with almost no element of chance. Each player has 16 chess pieces, one set being called White, the other Black. Each set consists of a king, queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks (or castles), and eight pawns. The game is played on a square chessboard, divided into 64 alternate light (or white) and dark (or black) squares, that is always placed between the players so that the corner square to the right of each player is white. The eight vertical rows of squares running from the front edge of the chessboard nearest one player to that nearest the other are called files; the eight horizontal rows that are at right angles are called ranks; and the rows of squares extending diagonally across the board are called diagonals.