Free chess courses for every level: 52 courses with 280 interactive lessons, from how the pieces move to basic tactics, checkmates, endgames and strategy. Every lesson is played on a board with feedback after each move, and each course ends with a course rating that shows how well you did.
Basics
The chessboard (3 lessons, around 100) – Start from zero: the 64 squares, files and ranks, how every square gets its name, and where each piece stands at the start of a game.
How the pieces move (6 lessons, around 150) – Meet the six pieces one by one: rook, bishop, queen, king, knight and pawn. Move each of them around the board and collect all the stars.
Capturing pieces (3 lessons, around 200) – How to take enemy pieces with each of yours, how to spot a free piece, and why you should not grab a protected one with your queen.
Check, checkmate and stalemate (4 lessons, around 300) – What check means, the three ways out of it, how a game is won by checkmate, and the stalemate trap that turns a win into a draw.
Safe pieces: protect, escape and check (3 lessons, around 320) – Short drills for your first games. What to do when a piece is attacked, and how to spot a piece left hanging. The three ways out of check. And how to give a check without losing the checking piece.
Castling, promotion and en passant (3 lessons, around 350) – The three special moves every player must know: castling to keep your king safe, promoting a pawn into a new queen, and the en passant pawn capture.
Castling and en passant drills (2 lessons, around 400) – The fine print of the two special moves, practised on the board. When you may castle and when you may not, which side to castle on, and what to do in check. And the one moment when en passant is allowed.
Piece values and good trades (2 lessons, around 450) – Pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9: use the points to decide which captures and trades are good for you.
Stalemate and other draws (3 lessons, around 600) – Stalemate turns a won game into a draw, and it can also save a lost one. Learn to spot it, to avoid it when you are winning, to use it when you are losing, and the other ways a game is drawn.
The blunder check (2 lessons, around 720) – A one-minute habit for every move. Before you play, ask two questions: is anything hanging, and what does my move allow? This simple check saves more games than any opening trick.
Tactics
Real-game tactics 1: Free pieces and first tactics (7 lessons, around 600) – Take what is undefended, mate in one and two, back-rank mates and your first forks: positions from real games, each ending with a clear gain.
Scholar's mate and quick traps (2 lessons, around 680) – The fast checkmates and traps that beginners meet in their first games: Fool's mate, Scholar's mate, the early queen, the knight jump to g5 and the Fried Liver. Learn to stop each one, and how to punish it.
Quick practice: forks, pins and skewers (3 lessons, around 750) – The three tactics that win most games below 1200: attack two things at once, freeze a piece in front of a bigger one, and force a big piece to step aside.
Discovered attacks (6 lessons, around 1100) – Unmask a bishop, rook or queen while the moving piece makes a threat of its own: discovered attacks, discovered checks and the double check.
Sacrifices on the king (7 lessons, around 1200) – Sacrifices on the h-file and other blows against the king's shelter, each ending in mate or a winning attack.
Forks (8 lessons, around 1300) – One move, two targets: knight, pawn and queen forks, and double attacks by bishops and rooks.
Pins and skewers (8 lessons, around 1400) – Pin a piece to its king or to something bigger and win it; skewer the king or the queen and take what stands behind.
Deflection and decoy (9 lessons, around 1400) – Drag defenders away from their duties, lure pieces onto fatal squares, remove the defender and exploit overloaded pieces.
Defensive moves (8 lessons, around 1400) – Tactics for the side under pressure: the only move that meets a threat, counterattacks, saving draws and perpetual check.
Quiet moves (8 lessons, around 1400) – Winning moves that are not checks or captures, and in-between moves instead of automatic recaptures.
Quick practice: discovered attacks and mates (2 lessons, around 1400) – Combinations for improving players: discovered checks, Legal's Mate from the opening, and the smothered mate with a queen sacrifice.
Real-game tactics 8: Deep combinations (9 lessons, around 2000) – Expert positions: four-move combinations, quiet moves in the middle of a line and precise defence.
Basic checkmates (3 lessons, around 550) – Win the won games: the two-rook ladder, mate with king and queen, and mate with king and rook, played out against a defending king.
Checkmate patterns practice (2 lessons, around 700) – A graded practice set of five mating patterns you will meet again and again. The back rank, the supported queen and the smothered king. Two mates with a rook and a knight. First in one move, then in two.
Mating patterns I (9 lessons, around 700) – Smothered, Arabian, Anastasia's and Boden's mates: recognise the picture and the mate follows.
Back-rank mates (6 lessons, around 900) – The king shut in behind its own pawns: drive off or exchange its guards with checks and sacrifices, then mate it on the back rank.
Mating patterns II (9 lessons, around 1100) – Lolli's, Damiano's and hook mates, and mates in two and three.
Endgames
Endgame 1: Basic mates and running pawns (7 lessons, around 600) – Mate with queen, rook and two rooks without stalemate, and the rule of the square for pawn races.
Endgame 2: King and pawn (6 lessons, around 800) – The opposition, key squares and how the defender holds: the foundation of every endgame.
Endgame 3: Pawn races and breakthroughs (6 lessons, around 1000) – Count the race, break through with a pawn sacrifice, and win king-and-pawn duels with one exact move.
Rook endgames essentials (3 lessons, around 1000) – Rook endings are the most common endings in real games. Practise the key ideas. The king must help against a pawn, and checks drive the enemy king away. The bridge wins with an extra pawn, and the third rank defence draws.
Quick practice: king and pawn (3 lessons, around 1050) – The rule of the square, the king in front of its pawn, key squares and the opposition: everything you need to turn one extra pawn into a queen.
Endgame 5: Queen endings (6 lessons, around 1400) – Queen against a pawn on the 7th, the stalemate defence, fast queen mates and queen-against-queen tricks.
Endgame 6: Bishops and knights (6 lessons, around 1600) – The wrong bishop, bishop and pawn wins, knight against pawn and the two-bishop mate.
Endgame 7: The Philidor defence and rook endings (6 lessons, around 1800) – Save rook endings with checks from behind, win the close races between rook and pawn, and play rook endings from real games.
Endgame 8: Pawn endings for experts (6 lessons, around 2000) – Only moves in king-and-pawn duels, the defender's saving resources and the hardest king-and-pawn wins.
Endgame 10: Bishop and knight mate (6 lessons, around 2400) – The hardest basic mate, long two-bishop mates and the toughest endgame defences.
Strategy
Opening principles (2 lessons, around 650) – How to start any game well: take the centre, develop your knights and bishops, castle early, and don't bring the queen out too soon. Includes the Scholar's Mate and how to stop it.
Your first repertoire (2 lessons, around 760) – One small, complete set of openings for a new player. With White you play e4 and the Italian Game. With Black you answer e4 with e5, and d4 with d5 and e6. Each step names the full course to take next.
How to choose a move (2 lessons, around 800) – A simple thinking routine for every move. Ask what your opponent's last move changed. Look at every check, capture and threat. Then pick two or three candidate moves and compare them before you play.
Pawn structure and plans (2 lessons, around 1100) – Pawns cannot move back, so every pawn move shapes the rest of the game. Learn the isolated, doubled and passed pawn, open files for your rooks, and how to choose a plan that fits the pawns.
Converting an advantage (2 lessons, around 1300) – How to win a won position: trade pieces, not pawns, take away your opponent's tricks, and simplify into an ending you can win. Then the other side: how to defend a worse position and set problems, right down to a stalemate save.
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