An interactive course

Chess: from the first move to mastery

Forty chapters: rules, tactics, openings, strategy, endgames and calculation. The positions on the board move, a chess engine checks the puzzles, and a wrong move gets an explanation, not just "incorrect".

Start with the first chapter Course map

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The course map

Six parts, from the first move to calculating many moves ahead. Read the chapters in order or jump to what interests you: each chapter says what to know beforehand.

First steps

The board, the pieces, the rules, writing games down and the first checkmates.

Chapter 1–10 · Novice

1 The board and the pieces There is a game that ends after two moves by White and two by Black. By the end of the chapter you will read its record and deliver that mate yourself, because you will know the board, the names of the squares and where the pieces stand. Novice 30 minutes

2 Rook, bishop, queen Three pieces that travel along the lines of the board as far as they like. We build the queen from a rook and a bishop, count the squares each one attacks, and see where the values 5, 3 and 9 come from. Novice 35 minutes

3 King and knight Two pieces that do not go far: the king steps to a neighbouring square, the knight jumps in the shape of an L. We count how many moves each needs to reach a target, and see why a neighbouring square can be so far away for a knight. Novice 35 minutes

4 The pawn The weakest piece, and the only one that never moves backwards. We follow one pawn all the way from the second rank to the eighth: the double step, the capture on the diagonal, en passant and promotion. At the end we count whether a king can catch it. Novice 35 minutes

5 Check, checkmate and stalemate A queen stands beside the king in the corner and the game is over. Move the queen one square and it is over too, but as a draw. We look at how to escape check, what happens when there is no escape, and how mate differs from stalemate. Novice 40 minutes

6 Castling and draws The only move that moves two pieces at once, and every way to end a game in a draw. We take FIDE's Laws as an arbiter applies them: in disputes at the board. Novice 40 minutes

7 Writing the game down A game from 1910 is still replayed move by move, though all that is left of it is a line of letters and numbers. We will fill in the scoresheet of that game ourselves and learn to read and write any record: on paper, in a book and in PGN. Novice 35 minutes

8 Piece values and trades Tartakower won a knight and resigned two moves later. We learn to count material, spot what is hanging and trade at a profit, then see when the count misleads. Novice 40 minutes

9 First checkmates King and rook against a lone king is a win, but only for the player who knows the plan. We mate with two rooks, with a queen and with a single rook against an engine that defends at full strength, and never once give stalemate. Novice 45 minutes

10 How to start a game The first twelve moves of a game, by the clock: the centre, the minor pieces, castling, connected rooks. Along the way you meet Scholar's Mate, Légal's Mate and the way Paul Morphy began a game. Novice 40 minutes

Tactics

The fork, the pin, the sacrifice and the combination: the tricks that win games.

Chapter 11–19 · Beginner → Amateur

11 Double attack and the fork Your opponent can meet one threat. Two at once, they cannot. We look at how the knight, the pawn, the queen, the king and the other pieces fork, when a fork fails, and how to set one up. Beginner 40 minutes

12 The pin White gave check with the queen, sure that it was defended. The defender stood right next to it, but it could not move. We look at what a pin is, why it is dangerous and how to get out of one. Beginner 40 minutes

13 The skewer and the x-ray A pin turned inside out: the valuable piece stands in front, steps out of the attack and exposes the one behind it. We look at skewers through the king and the queen, where they turn up most often, when they fail, and what an x-ray is. Beginner 35 minutes

14 Discovered attack and double check A piece steps off a line, and the long-range piece behind it suddenly strikes across the whole board. We look at the discovered attack, discovered check and double check: how to prepare them, how to find them and how not to fall for them yourself. Beginner 40 minutes

15 Deflection and decoy A defender stands in place, and the blow does not land. Then it is lured away with a sacrifice or a check. Or the other way round: an enemy piece is lured onto a square where a fork or mate awaits it. We look at both techniques and how to find them. Amateur 40 minutes

16 Overloading and removing the defender A piece is defended, and you cannot take it. But remove the defender and it hangs. And if the defender has two jobs at once, a single exchange is enough for it to fail at both. We look at both techniques and learn to see them on the board. Amateur 40 minutes

17 The in-between move and blunders Your opponent takes one of your pieces, and your hand reaches out to take back. But sometimes there is a stronger move first: a check or a threat, after which the capture is still there. We look at the in-between move and at a simple check that saves you from blunders. Beginner 35 minutes

18 Mating patterns Mates repeat themselves. The same arrangements of pieces turn up in thousands of games, and many of them have names: the Arabian mate, Anastasia's mate, Boden's mate. Once you know a pattern, you find the mate in seconds and spot it early, while it is still two or three moves away. Amateur 40 minutes

19 Sacrifice and combination A combination is a chain of forced moves with a sacrifice that ends in mate or a material win. All the tricks of the previous chapters come together in it. We will see how to tell a sacrifice that works from one that simply loses a piece, and how to calculate such chains to the end. Amateur 45 minutes

Openings

The principles of starting a game and the main openings, so the first moves hold no surprises.

Chapter 20–26 · Amateur

20 Opening principles and typical mistakes Almost everyone knows the opening principles: the centre, development, castling. And yet games are lost in the opening all the time: a principle gets broken for an extra pawn or a quick attack. We look at the most common violations and at how the opponent punishes them. Amateur 40 minutes

21 Open games Open games are the openings that begin 1. e4 e5. They are the oldest and most studied openings in chess: the Italian and the Spanish, the Scotch, the gambits. We look at their main ideas rather than long variations, and at the mistakes that turn up in them most often. Amateur 40 minutes

22 The Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence, 1. e4 c5, is the most popular reply to 1. e4 in master games. From the first move Black gives up symmetry and creates a position where the two sides have different plans and different trumps. We look at what the defence rests on, its main lines and its traps. Amateur 40 minutes

23 The French and the Caro-Kann The French Defence, 1. e4 e6, and the Caro-Kann Defence, 1. e4 c6, work in a similar way: Black first prepares …d5 and builds a solid pawn centre, and counterattacks later. We look at how the two defences differ, how to play against a pawn chain and which traps turn up in the first moves. Amateur 40 minutes

24 Closed games After 1. d4 d5 the game develops more slowly than in the open games: the queen defends the d4 pawn, and quick blows against the centre do not work. We look at the Queen's Gambit and its branches, the Slav, the minority attack and the systems in which White builds the same setup against any reply. Amateur 40 minutes

25 Indian defences and the English Opening The move 1… Nf6 against 1. d4 opens a whole family of defences: the King's Indian, the Queen's Indian, the Nimzo-Indian, the Grünfeld and the Benoni. In them Black first controls the centre with pieces and only later decides where to put the pawns. We look at the main ideas of these defences, the Budapest Gambit with its trap and the English Opening, 1. c4. Amateur 40 minutes

26 Building a repertoire Nobody can learn every opening, and nobody needs to. It is enough to choose one answer to each of the opponent's main moves, understand their ideas and know the traps. We look at how to build such a repertoire to suit your style, how a tree of variations works and how an opening book recognises a position even when the moves came in a different order. Amateur 35 minutes

Strategy

Judging a position, pawn structure, weak squares, plans and the attack on the king.

Chapter 27–34 · Amateur → Club player

27 How an engine judges a position An engine gives a number: +0.32, −1.50, +5.00. Behind that number is a sum of terms: material, the placement and mobility of the pieces, the pawn structure, king safety, threats and space. We look at what the evaluation is made of, how it changes towards the endgame, where it goes wrong and what a player at the board can take from it. Amateur 35 minutes

28 Pawn structure Pieces move from square to square, but pawns cannot go back. So the placement of the pawns changes slowly and sets both sides' plans many moves ahead. We look at the main kinds of pawns and structures: islands, the isolated pawn, doubled, backward and hanging pawns, and chains — where their weakness lies, where their strength lies and how to play with them. Amateur 35 minutes

29 The passed pawn A passed pawn is a pawn whose road to promotion is not blocked by enemy pawns. Only pieces can stop it, and the further it has gone, the more it costs to stop. We look at how to create a passed pawn, how to push and support it, how to stop the opponent's, and which passed pawns are stronger: protected, outside, connected. Amateur 35 minutes

30 Weak squares and outposts A pawn captures only forwards and never moves back. So every pawn move leaves behind squares it will never defend again. Such a square in the opponent's camp is a gift: a piece on it stands firm, and no pawn can drive it away. We look at how weak squares appear, how to turn them into outposts for your pieces and how not to give your own to the opponent. Club player 35 minutes

31 Open files and the seventh rank A rook needs room. While pawns stand in front of it, it hardly takes part in the game. An open file is the road by which the rook gets into the opponent's camp, and the seventh rank is where that road leads: the opponent's pawns stand there and their king is shut in next to it. We look at how to seize open files, how to fight for them and what a rook does once it reaches the seventh. Amateur 30 minutes

32 Bishop against knight A bishop and a knight are worth about the same, roughly three pawns. But they move in completely different ways, and in every position one of them is stronger than the other. We look at when the bishop is better and when the knight is, what a good and a bad bishop are, why the bishop pair is valued and what is special about opposite-coloured bishops. Club player 35 minutes

33 Attacking the king Mate ends the game at once, so an attack on the king is the shortest road to victory. But an attack without grounds breaks against the defence and leaves the attacker with a wrecked position. We look at when to attack, how to punish a king in the centre, how to conduct an attack with castling on opposite sides and on the same side, and how to defend against an attack. Club player 35 minutes

34 Plans and prophylaxis For most of a game no mate is in sight, yet you still have to decide what to do. We look at how to build a plan from the pawn structure and the weaknesses, why it pays to improve your worst piece, and how prophylaxis — the question “what does my opponent want?” — saves you from losses that begin with one careless move. Club player 35 minutes

Endgames

Pawn, rook and rare endings, where accuracy decides everything.

Chapter 35–37 · Club player

35 Pawn endings When only kings and pawns are left on the board, every tempo decides the result. We look at the main rules of the pawn endgame: the active king, the opposition, key squares, zugzwang and the breakthrough. We win with a pawn against a lone king and hold the draw when the pawn is the opponent's. Club player 40 minutes

36 Rook endings Rook endings occur in practice more often than any others. We look at their main rules: the active rook, the rook behind the passed pawn, the cut-off king. Then come two positions every chess player knows: the Lucena, where the pawn queens, and the Philidor, where the defence holds the draw. Club player 40 minutes

37 Bishop-and-knight mate, queen against pawn, fortresses Some endings occur rarely, but they are worth knowing in advance: working them out at the board is almost impossible. We look at the bishop-and-knight mate, the queen against a pawn on the seventh rank, and fortresses — positions where extra material does not win. Club player 40 minutes

Mastery

Calculating variations, reviewing your own games and tournament practice.

Chapter 38–40 · Strong player → Amateur

38 Calculation and judgement Seeing a combination is not enough; you have to calculate it to the end: list the candidates, follow each branch to a quiet position and judge what you get. We look at the tree of variations, blindfold calculation and the quiet move that hides among checks and captures. Strong player 45 minutes

39 Reviewing your own games You improve fastest from your own mistakes, once you find and understand them. We look at how to analyse a game first on your own and then with the engine, what accuracy and move classes mean, and how to turn the mistakes you find into training. Strong player 40 minutes

40 Kinds of chess and tournament practice Chess comes in many forms: slow and lightning-fast, over the board and by correspondence, from the usual starting position and from one of 960. We look at time controls, ratings, tournament rules, Fischer random chess, problems, and how to train after the course. Amateur 35 minutes

Besides the chapters

Practice Puzzles from games by theme and rating, and trainers: mate in one, what is hanging, the knight’s route, the rule of the square, coordinates. Play the bot A game against a bot of any strength, hints and a review afterwards. Analysis A board for your own positions and games: paste a FEN or a PGN. Glossary The terms of the course in alphabetical order. Each leads to the chapter that explains it on the board.