SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 14 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following numbers best describes the number of white pieces used in chess?

(a)18
(b)16
(c)19
(d)17

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Each side starts a game of chess with 16 men, so White has 16.

Count the back rank: 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen, 1 king — that is 8.
Add the 8 pawns on the second rank.
8 + 8 = 16, which is option (b).

Black has the identical 16 facing them, so the board carries 32 men at the start.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
18 — 18 overshoots by two. No colour gets a third rook or a third knight at the start — the counts are fixed at 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen and 1 king.
(c)
19 — 19 cannot be built from the starting array at all. Every unit type comes in a set number, and 8 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 reaches 16, not 19.
(d)
17 — 17 comes from adding the king to a total that already includes him. The king is one of the eight back-rank men, so counting him twice is the error.

Concept

This item is settled by the starting array, so learn the board as a picture rather than as a list.

Each colour begins on two ranks. The first rank runs rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. The second rank holds eight pawns. That is 16 white men and 16 black, on a board of 64 squares of which 32 begin occupied.

That same picture answers the how-does-this-unit-move questions as well, so it is worth holding on to.

The wording is loose, and it is worth knowing why. Chess writers often use piece for the non-pawn units only, which would make the count 8.

No option offers 8, so the intended reading is the everyday one — all 16 white units — and that is what the key marks.

Key facts

White and Black each begin with 16 men: 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen and 1 king.
A chessboard has 64 squares in an 8x8 grid, and 32 of them are occupied when the game starts.
Each queen begins on a square of her own colour, so the white queen stands on d1, a light square.

Study next

How each chess unit moves, including the bishop's diagonal and the pawn's single forward stepChess terms and the sport they point to, such as castling, checkmate and stalemateIndian chess players and their firsts, including the first Indian woman Grandmaster

Common traps

Adding the king separately after already counting all 16 white men, which gives 17.
Reading 'pieces' in the strict sense that excludes pawns, a reading no option supports here.

SSC keeps a steady chess line in General Awareness. It asks how a unit moves — the bishop at 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.4 and the pawn at 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.12.

It also asks the sport behind a term, as with castling at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.10, and the players themselves, as at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.10 on the first Indian woman Grandmaster.

Related PYQs

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