Chess
From first moves to confident full games. Each lesson is one idea, and its questions come back for review on later days.
Never played? Start with your first moves: five minutes against a gentle bot, each rule explained as it comes up.
Daily drills: find the square, and is this move safe? A few minutes a day.
Stage 0 The board
- Name the squares
Every square has a name, file letter first, then rank number. Learn them, then find squares without looking at the edges.
Done - Set up the board
Two memory tricks so the board is never the wrong way round, and your first move.
Done - Rook and bishop
The two line pieces. The rook goes straight, the bishop goes diagonally, and neither can jump.
Done - The queen and the king
The queen is a rook and a bishop in one. The king moves one square, and never into danger.
Done - The knight
The knight moves in an L and jumps over anything in its way.
Done - The pawn
Pawns move straight forward but capture diagonally, and never go back.
Done - Piece values and good trades
Pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9. A trade is good if you get more than you give.
Done - Check and getting out of it
When your king is attacked you must get out of check at once. There are three ways.
Done - Checkmate, stalemate and other draws
How games are won, and the draws that catch beginners out.
Done - Castling
Tuck the king away and bring a rook to the centre in one move, when the rules allow it.
Done - Promotion and en passant
The two special pawn moves, becoming a queen and the capture in passing.
Done - How moves are written
Read and write chess moves, so you can follow any book, video or game record.
Done
Stage 1 Don't hang pieces
- Take what is hanging
Spot pieces you can win for nothing, and the habit that stops you giving yours away.
Done - Checks, captures and threats
The blunder check, for both sides, before every move.
Done - Strategy · Think aheadThe blunder check
Before you act, ask what could go wrong, and look at what the other side can do first.
Done - Strategy · Think aheadTheir next move
Think through how the other side will respond, as they see it, not as you hope.
Done - Is this move safe?
Before you let go of a piece, check that they cannot win something or mate you straight after.
Done - Strategy · CalculateCount it through
Follow a chain of consequences to the end before you agree to the first step.
Done
Stage 2 Basic mates
- Back-rank mate
A king hemmed in by its own pawns, mated along the back rank, and how to stop it.
Done - Mate with king and queen
Box the lone king in, drive it to the edge, then mate. Without stalemating it.
Done - Strategy · Plan long-termSmall steps that stick
Each step should leave fewer ways for things to go wrong, and the last step needs as much care as the first.
Done - Mate with king and rook
Cut the king off with the rook, walk your king up, and mate on the edge.
Done - Strategy · CalculatePatterns save thinking
Learn the common shapes by heart, so the obvious answers come at once and your thinking goes where it is needed.
Done
Stage 3 Opening principles
- The three phases of a game
Opening, middlegame and endgame, what each is for, and how to tell which one you are in.
Done - Strategy · Plan long-termBasics before brilliance
Get the plain, sound steps right first. Clever ideas pay on top of them, not instead of them.
Done - A map of the openings
Openings fall into five families by their first moves, because the first moves decide what kind of game it will be.
Done - Strategy · Plan long-termLead or answer well
Move first when your move commits you or anchors the other side; answer when their move tells you something. When you answer, choose on purpose, to level things or to change their shape.
Done - Strategy · Plan long-termWhen the script runs out
Prepared plans run out. When they do, act on the reasons behind them.
Done - Play a real game
The rules and manners you need for a full game over the board or online.
Done
Stage 4 Tactics
- The fork
Attack two pieces with one move, so only one of them can be saved.
Done - Strategy · Think aheadTwo birds, one stone
Look for the one move that serves two aims, so the other side cannot answer both.
Done - The pin
Freeze a piece in front of a more valuable one, then attack it.
Done - Strategy · CalculateFind what everything depends on
Find the one part that holds everything else up. Strike it if it is theirs; back it up if it is yours.
Done - The skewer
Attack a valuable piece so that it must move and expose the piece behind it.
Done - The discovered attack
Move one piece out of the way, and the piece behind it attacks.
Done - Strategy · Think aheadNot so fast
Before you push on with your plan, ask what the other side wants, and stop it before it starts.
Done
Stage 5 Middlegame
- What the middlegame is about
Once the pieces are out, the question becomes "what is my plan?", and the pawns help answer it.
Done - Strategy · Plan long-termFix your weakest link
When nothing is urgent and the parts depend on each other, improve the part doing least.
Done - Strategy · Size the riskSimplify when ahead
When you are ahead and a sure win is what you need, remove the moving parts that could still go wrong.
Done - Strategy · Size the riskGive a little, get more
Give up one thing only for more of another, and count both in the same units.
Done - Strategy · Plan long-termA plan, step by step
Turn a goal into a route of small steps, each worth having on its own, and look again after each one.
Done
Stage 6 Endgames
- What changes in the endgame
With few pieces left, the king becomes a fighter and passed pawns decide.
Done - Strategy · Plan long-termResources change value
What a thing is worth depends on the situation. When the situation changes, value what you hold again.
Done - Strategy · Think aheadPass the problem back
Some positions are bad for whoever must move next. When you can, make the move that leaves the hard choice with the other side.
Done
Stage 7 Full game
- Strategy · CalculateLook at three before choosing
Before you choose, name at least three options, including one you had not first thought of, and compare them.
Done - Strategy · Keep a cool headSpend effort where it matters
Time and attention are limited. Decide small choices you can undo quickly, and spend your effort on the few that are large and final.
Done - Strategy · Plan long-termFinish the job
A winning position is not a win until it is finished. The last steps need as much care as the first.
Done - Strategy · Keep a cool headMake it hard
When you are behind, do not give in early. Find the defence that leaves the other side the most to get right.
Done - Strategy · Keep a cool headReview calmly: decisions, not results
Judge a choice by what you knew, and could have found out, when you made it, not only by how it turned out.
Done