The boardFiles are letters, ranks are numbers. Every square has a name, and every chess move is said that way.

The board has 64 squares. The files run left to right and are called a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h. The ranks run bottom to top and are called 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. The four marked squares are the corners: a1, h1, a8 and h8. White sits at the bottom and always moves first.

A square's name is the file letter plus the rank number. The marked square is e4: file e, rank 4. This is how chess is spoken all the time — when someone says “I played e4”, they mean they moved a piece to this square.

White moves first. Take the pawn on the e-file up to e4 — it will move two squares, which every pawn is allowed to do on its very first move.

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