Skip to content
ChessPlayX

How to play King of the Hill: rules and setup

King of the Hill is played by 2 players on a board with 8 × 8 squares. White moves first. Bring your king safely to one of the four central squares, or win by checkmate.

Written by Last updated
Play King of the Hill

Quick answer

King of the Hill is a chess variant played with the normal 8×8 setup and rules. Besides checkmate, a king in the centre wins. You win at once by legally moving your king onto d4, e4, d5 or e5. The king still may not enter an attacked square, so the game becomes a race to control the centre safely. This guide covers King of the Hill. Check the movement, capture and game-ending rules below before applying rules from another variant.

Players
2
Board
8 × 8 squares
First move
White moves first.

Ruleset and sources: King of the Hill

Setup

Game illustration
Game illustration. Follow the setup instructions to prepare a new game.

Base rules: chess, except where this guide says otherwise. Use the ordinary 8×8 chess setup. The hill consists of d4, e4, d5 and e5.

Board
8 × 8 squares
Players
2
First move
White moves first.
Rules used here
King of the Hill

Moves and captures

  • Legal moves

    Normal chess movement, check, castling and promotion apply. A king may never move into check.

  • Using the board

    Select a piece to see its legal destinations, then select a highlighted square. When several promotions are available, choose from the promotion panel.

Special rules

  • The highlighted center is a winning destination, not a safe zone: attacked center squares remain illegal for a king.

Winning and draws

  • The game ends immediately when a king legally reaches the hill.

  • Checkmate also wins.

  • Stalemate is a draw.

  • King against king is not a draw, because either king can still reach the hill.

  • A player may claim a draw after the same position occurs three times, or after 50 moves by each side without a capture or pawn move.

  • Neither rule ends the game automatically.

Example

Sources and rule verification

Ruleset covered
King of the Hill
  1. Lichess — King of the Hill rules
  2. Fairy-Stockfish variants (implementation reference)
  3. Fairy-Stockfish — variant definitions (43b66c8, implementation reference)

This guide describes play on ChessPlayX. Platform-specific conventions are stated in the relevant sections; tournament administration may differ.

A separate rule-review date is not recorded for this guide. The update date is not a verification date.