The "Queens go on their own color" is always easy to remember... the "light square in the right-hand corner" however, is easier to get wrong.

"a light square in the lower right-hand corner" – aren't there two right-hand corners, one light and one dark?

@TannerSwett only if you are looking from the side of the board. "Lower", on the other hand, is relative. I think most people understand what I meant, especially since I purposely included a picture.

Well, a chessboard has four corners, and if I'm sitting in a chair looking at the chessboard in front of me, then two of those corners are to my left and two of them are to my right (assuming the chessboard is oriented in the usual way). It's not obvious to me that "the right-hand corner" means "the near right-hand corner" and not "the far right-hand corner." (My prior comment contains a copy-and-paste error; the word "lower" in the quotation should have been absent.)

How about: Right on your own side must be light?

I always remembered D-file for Dress.

In German it's easier: The "Dame" is on column "D".

My thoughts are that if, after learning the game and playing more than a couple of games, you have trouble remembering it, maybe chess just isn't for you. There is not exactly a lot to remember here. :)

@Michael: I always heard it as "light on the right" which is an easy mnemonic

I had the advantage of folding boards in my early days of chess.

@Joshua I am 58, so I certainly remember folding boards, but if there were a way to prove someone still set it up wrong, I would bet that someone still managed. :)

Actually, who cares if the king and queen are swapped, as long as at the start both players' kings face each other. People who cannot play with that are not good chess players... =P

The mnemotechnic aid I've always been taught for which square colour goes where is that blood is dark and the heart is in the left-hand side of the chest, so the dark square goes to your left-hand corner.

I don't know what there is to miss @TannerSwett only 2 sides carry letters - those go in front of the players - and they are intentionally made the way that the closest right hand corner is white - then along comes the color decision - whether you play white or black governs where the queen goes (always on an equal colored field .. white queen , white D-1 , black queen, on black D-8 - the Kings on the E and the other figures take their place next to those its about the first things you learn - and like bike-riding .. never forget

@eagle275 I already know all of that. I'm pointing out that since the board has two "right-hand corners," this answer is ambiguous and doesn't seem to be useful. Apparently 15 people think that the phrase "right-hand corner" unambiguously identifies a particular corner of the chessboard, but I don't know why they think that.

The picture is clear as day. The text is ambiguous.

@TannerSwett you either never played a boardgame or are overly nit picky ...a playing board has by all "normal" circumstances just 2 corners in front of your face .. one right, one left hand .. the other side is in front of your opponent - but again - if you switch positions .. you have a right hand corner (white) ... there is nothing ambiguous

I'll agree to disagree on this topic.

@eagle275 The boards I started out on had no numbers and no letters.

I was taught the rhyme "white on right" to remember the orientation of the chess board.