Touch Move
The touch move is a basic rule of tournament chess and is part of the official rules issued by the International Chess Federation, better known as FIDE (the abbreviation of its name in French). Here is what you need to know about this rule:
- What Is The Touch-Move Rule?
- J'adoube: Can You Touch A Chess Piece Without Moving It?
- What Does The Touch-Move Not Mean?
- What Other Important Requirements Relate To The Touch-Move Rule?
- Does This Rule Apply To Online Games?
- Does The Touch Move Have A Symbol In Chess Annotation?
- How Important Is This Rule?
- How Does This Rule Affect Castling?
- Are Pawn Promotions Affected By The Touch-Move Rule?
- Wrapping Up
- Touch Move Video
The touch move is a basic rule of tournament chess.
What Is The Touch-Move Rule?
The touch-move rule, which is enforced in all formal over-the-board (OTB) games, has two primary components:
-
Player’s Own Piece
When a player intentionally touches one of their own pieces, they are required to make a move with it (if it can legally be moved). Even though the player may express initial doubts about moving the piece after touching it, sometimes a safe or logical move with it can still be made. (Do you know how pieces move legally? See “How the Chess Pieces Move” in this article.)
-
Opponent’s Piece
In addition, if a player intentionally touches an opponent’s piece, they are required to capture it if they can do so legally.
The rule does not apply if the touched piece cannot be moved or captured. Further, the player claiming a touch-move violation has to make a claim before they themselves touch a piece.
The white pawn has to capture the opponent's piece after touching it.
J'adoube: Can You Touch A Chess Piece Without Moving It?
The exception to the touch-move rule occurs when a player says, “J’adoube” (French for “I adjust”) or “Adjust” before touching a piece. Then the player may adjust how a piece is positioned on a square. Adjusting the position of a piece is a common occurrence when it is not in the center of a square, such as when it touches two squares and the precision of its location should be improved.
A player may adust the position of a piece during their turn.
What Does The Touch-Move Not Mean?
The touch-move rule is about a player’s intention. For example, if a player sneezes and accidentally bumps a piece, the rule is not applicable. In addition, sometimes a player may knock over a piece accidentally or a piece may be pushed away from the center of its square. In such a situation, the player may adjust the piece as explained above by saying, “J’adoube” or “Adjust.” Pieces should be adjusted by a player only on their turn — not on the opponent’s turn.
Say "J'adoube" if you want only to adjust a piece's position on the board.
What Other Important Requirements Relate To The Touch-Move Rule?
Related to the move about touching pieces, several other rules of chess are important to know. They include the following:
- Each move must be made with one hand only.
- A player may not touch pieces during an opponent’s turn.
- When a piece is released on a square, as a legal move or part of a legal move, it cannot be moved to another square as part of that move.
Every chess piece knows the touch-move rule. You should too!
Does The Rule Apply To Online Games?
The rule is relevant for only OTB games and does not apply to games online. In fact, during an online game, a player can begin to move a piece and then return it to its original square before selecting another piece.
On ChessKid, a move is considered played when the piece is released onto a new square. ChessKid also makes playing online easy because once a move is completed, it cannot be taken back (unless a player is playing against a robot and has selected take-backs as an option).
The touch move is not relevant for online games.
Does The Touch Move Have A Symbol In Chess Annotation?
No. A symbol for the touch move does not exist, although one would be useful to explain when a player is required to move a specific piece, particularly if the move is a poor choice. However, only the move itself is recorded in chess notation with any additional symbol that evaluates it such as a blunder (??) or mistake (?).
Although the knight is the only chess piece that can jump over others, it also is governed by the touch-move rule.
For example, consider the following game where GM Bobby Fischer, one of the best players in chess history, touched the king’s rook pawn to make his 12th move. He had planned to move it to h6 and then realized that White could capture it (Bxh6) safely because the g-7 pawn, which was pinned by White’s queen, could not move to capture the bishop.
Because Fischer had touched the king’s rook pawn, he had to move it. He decided to move it to h5 (the only other legal move), a poor choice but not as damaging as h6. However, the game annotation for Fischer’s move records only a blunder. The fact that he was required to move the pawn is not part of the game annotation but is a significant part of explaining Fischer’s loss.
How Important Is This Rule?
As illustrated above, sometimes games are won and lost by only the touch-rule rule. With games of many top-level tournaments being broadcast live or video-recorded, questions about whether a piece has been touched are easily answered. (The rule is sometimes disregarded in friendly, casual games; however, a better practice is to always adhere to the rule.)
An important rule for beginning players to know and read about is the touch-move rule.
How Does The Rule Affect Castling?
Because the king moves in castling before the rook, it’s important to touch the king first because it begins the process of castling. In fact, for games played on ChessKid, the only piece that a player needs to move is the king, and it is moved two squares in the direction where castling is planned. ChessKid does the rest — and moves the rook automatically to complete the move.
In OTB games, if the rook is touched first, the touch move requires that the player make a move with only the rook, and castling with that rook is no longer an option. In an online game, if the rook moves and is released, the move is over, and that rook cannot participate in any future castling attempt.
Although the king might look like it's in jail after castling, it is actually protected by a rook at its side and a row of pawns in front of it. Just remember to touch the king first to make this move.
Are Pawn Promotions Affected By The Touch-Move Rule?
Absolutely. When a pawn on the rank next to the final rank is touched, it has to be promoted if the move to the final rank is legal. After a pawn advances to the final rank, the move is still in progress until a piece touches the promotion square. A pawn is not automatically promoted to a queen. The player has to select the piece the pawn is being promoted to and then release that piece on the final rank before the move is complete.
_fba5a.gif)
When a player touches a pawn on the rank next to the final rank, it has to advance for promotion.
Wrapping Up
Fair warning: Be careful to plan a move before you touch any piece. Never touch the wrong piece at the wrong time! The consequences can be disastrous.