Chapter I · Elementary Institutes.
Reading edition
The board on which this game is played, like that used at Draughts, is a square, divided into sixty-four lesser squares, and checquered black and white. At Chess these squares have the technical name of houses, and are all made use of in play.
In placing the board, care must be taken that one of the two white corner squares be at the right hand of each player. Note—That when the board is in this position, the several ranges of houses running in a strait line from left to right, are called ranks; those perpendicular to them, running from one player to the other, take the name of files, and the two ranges, sloping from one corner of the board to the opposite, (one of white, the other of black squares, touching at the corner), are diagonals; so are the lesser ranges which run in a parallel direction.