Wizard's Chess Fact file

Over View
Wizard's Chess is the enchanted variant of the classic board game in which the pieces move of their own accord when commanded by the player. When a piece is taken, it is removed by the attacking piece, often in a barbaric manner where the losing piece is smashed violently by the winning piece.

History
1991:-
During the Christmas feast, in a number of Wizard Crackers, Harry obtained, among other things, his very own Wizard's Chess set. He later broke it in by losing, once again, to Ron. (Although Harry saw this more as the fault of Ron's brother, Percy Weasley, who stood over his shoulder and gave him advice).
1992:-
During 1992 an enormous Wizard's Chessboard was the third-to-last layer of security for
the Philosopher's Stone. Harry played as one of the black bishops, Hermione as a rook, and Ron as a Knight. Using his extensive knowledge of chess, Ronald Weasley managed to get himself, Harry, and Hermione Granger across, ultimately sacrificing himself to the White Queen so that Harry could checkmate the King. Fortunately, Ron recovered.

Chess sets 
The chessboard is a type of checkerboard that consists of 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns) arranged in two alternating colours (light and dark). The coulors are called "black" and "white" (or "light" and "dark"). The Chess pieces, or chessmen consist of one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. The chessboard and chessmen are exactly like Muggle chess except they are animated.

How to play
Players move their pieces by speaking the name of the piece and the square it is to move to by algebraic notation. For example, "Knight to E5". Aside from the self-moving pieces, the rules of Wizard's Chess are exactly the same as muggle chess. The moving pieces seem to be reasonably sentient, as seen when Harry Potter began learning how to play the game, he used Seamus Finnigan's pieces, which offered him conflicting advice because they knew that he was not a good player.