the moves are as follows
pawns move forward by one space except for there first move, when you have the option of moving them forward by two. they kill by moving one square diagonally. if the reach the otner end of the board, they become queens
the board layout is
rook, knight, bishop,king queen, bishop,knight, rook.
the queen is always on her own colour. so black queen o n black square.
rooks move in straight lines, any number of squares
kinghts move two forwards and one to the side, or one forward and two to the side. a sort of l shape. knights are also the only ones that can jump over other pieces. if a knight starts a move on a black square, he finishes on a white, and vice versa.
biships move diagonally any number of squares. so the one originally on black only ever stays on black. white stays on teh white.
king moves in any direction, but only one square at a time.
queen moves any direction, any number of squares.
at the beginning of the game, provided the king and the kings rook, ie the one on his side hasnt moved, you can do sometig called castiling. if the biship and the kight have moved out of there spaces, you can move the king to the knights space, and the rook to the bishops. thus building a 'castle' to protect the king.
beyond that, the white side starts first, though i may be wrong on that. and you just play using those moves.
check is when the other sides king is in danger ofbeing killed. and check mate is when the other sides king is in danger of being killed, and there is nothing the player can do to prevent that happeing.
oh, and the aim of the game is of course to kill the other sides king.
hth