Learn chess

You learn how the chessboard is put together and what each square is called, like e4. Then you get to know the pieces and where they stand.

The chessboard · Meet the pieces

You move every piece yourself: the pawn, the knight with its L-shaped jump, the bishop, the rook, the queen and the king.

The pawn · The knight · The bishop · The rook · The queen · The king

You give check, play your first checkmate and learn what stalemate is: you have no legal move left, yet nobody wins.

Giving check · Checkmate · Stalemate

You learn castling, promotion and capturing. You also discover the fork and the special pawn rule en passant.

Castling · Promotion · Capturing · The fork · En passant

You learn what each piece is worth, take pieces that nobody defends and capture the defender first.

How much is a piece worth? · Free pieces · Remove the defender

With one move you attack two pieces at once, first with a pawn and then with the queen.

The pawn fork · The queen fork

You learn the pin, where a piece cannot move without exposing something more important, and the skewer, where you win the piece behind the king.

The pin · The skewer

You move one piece aside so that a piece behind it suddenly attacks. That way you give a discovered check and even a double check.

Discovered attack

You practise the basic checkmates: the back-rank mate, the ladder mate with two rooks, mate with the queen and mate with the rook.

Back-rank mate · The ladder mate · Queen mate · Rook mate

You learn two well-known mating patterns: smothered mate with the knight and Arabian mate with knight and rook.

Smothered mate · The Arabian mate

You learn the opposition, escort a pawn to promotion with your king and use the square of the pawn to see whether the king can catch it.

The opposition · King and pawn · The square of the pawn

You learn how to start a game: take the centre, develop knights and bishops, castle early and not bring the queen out too soon.

Control the centre · Develop your pieces · Castle early · Golden opening rules

You play combinations: a queen sacrifice to lure away a guard, a double attack and trapping a piece that has no escape squares.

The queen sacrifice · The double attack · Trap a piece

You play checkmate in two moves: with a check that allows only one reply, and with a quiet move that is not a check.

Forcing mate in two · The quiet move

You learn to recognise and stop the scholar's mate. Then you break through a pawn chain with a pawn sacrifice.

Beat the Scholar's Mate · The pawn breakthrough

You train fast capture routes: with the knight you take three pawns in a row and with the queen you clear up three loose pieces.

Knight route · Queen sweep

You look for checkmate in one move as fast as you can, with a rook, the queen, a knight and even a pawn.

Rook & queen mates · Knight & pawn mates

On a board full of pieces you look for the one move that gives check.

Find the check

You get to know opening traps: the Légal trap, the knight jump to f7 and how to punish an early queen.

Légal's trap · The knight bite on f7 · Punish the early queen

You learn the in-between move, the overloaded piece and luring away a defender. Finally you play a double check that leads to smothered mate.

The in-between move · The overloaded piece · The decoy · Double check & smothered mate

You build up three new mating patterns: Anastasia's mate, Boden's mate with two bishops and the epaulette mate.

Anastasia's mate · Boden's mate · The epaulette mate

You cut off the enemy king with your rook, put your rook behind your passed pawn and stop a pawn with the rook.

The rook fence · Rook behind the pawn · Rook against pawn

You make a passed pawn, attack weak, isolated pawns and use an open file to bring your rook to the seventh rank.

Make a passed pawn · Attack weak pawns · The open file & the 7th rank

You attack a castled king: with the Greek gift sacrifice, a pawn storm and heavy pieces on an open file.

The Greek gift · The pawn storm · Break in on the open file

You learn to defend: make an escape square against back-rank mate, trade off dangerous attackers and save yourself with a counterattack.

The escape hatch · Trade the attackers · Save yourself with a counterattack

You put a knight on an outpost, learn the difference between a good and a bad bishop and use the bishop pair.

The outpost · Good bishop, bad bishop · The bishop pair

You learn endgame technique: the king in front of the pawn, winning the Lucena position, holding a draw in the Philidor position and using zugzwang.

The king leads the way · Lucena: the umbrella · Philidor: hold the draw · Zugzwang

You calculate moves ahead: a mate in three, comparing candidate moves before you choose, and two tricks one after the other in a single combination.

Mate in three · Candidate moves · The grand combination

You play deeper sacrifices: the exchange sacrifice, the clearance move that frees a line and interference, which cuts a defending line.

The exchange sacrifice · The clearing sacrifice · Interference

You learn positional play: gaining space with your pawns, prophylaxis against your opponent's plan and bringing a piece by a long route to a strong square.

Space advantage · Prophylaxis · The grand maneuver

You learn the wrong-coloured bishop that gives only a draw, use your king as a fighter and win a pawn race by promoting with check.

The wrong bishop · The fighting king · Win the pawn race

You build your own opening repertoire: the Italian Game with White, a plan with Black against 1.e4 and the transition from the opening to a middlegame plan.

Your plan as White: the Italian · Your plan as Black · From opening to plan

Your final exam: without hints you solve problems on tactics, mating patterns and endgames, and you play one long closing combination.

Exam: tactics · Exam: mate patterns · Exam: endgame · The final masterpiece