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Learn Chess
Learn chess openings one move at a time: what to play, and why. Walk through each line, practise it from memory until you know it, then play on against Stockfish from where it ends.
- Four courses, easiest first: two openings for White, and an answer as Black to each of White’s main first moves.
- Every move explained, yours and your opponent’s, with an arrow showing what to play.
- Practise from memory: master a line by playing it with no mistakes.
- Play on against Stockfish from the end of a line, at the level you choose.
New to chess? Start here
- The board has 64 squares, and each has a name: a letter for its column (a to h) and a number for its row (1 to 8). So e4 is the square in column e, row 4. The letters and numbers are printed along the edges of the board.
- White moves first, then the players take turns, one move each.
- How the pieces move: a pawn moves straight ahead one square (or two, on its first move) and takes on the slant, one square forward; a knight jumps in an L shape, two squares one way and one to the side, and can hop over pieces; a bishop moves any distance along slanting lines; a rook any distance along rows and columns; the queen like a rook or a bishop; the king one square in any direction.
- Taking: a piece takes an enemy piece by moving onto its square. A king that’s attacked is in check, and must get out of it. If it can’t, that’s checkmate, and the game is over.
- An opening is the first few moves of a game. A good one puts pawns in the middle, brings out the knights and bishops, and castles the king to safety. Each course teaches one opening, a line (a set of moves) at a time.
Courses
Your progress is kept in this browser.
What next in the game
Play on against Stockfish
You play on from the end of the line. A pawn that reaches the far side becomes a queen.