Chess course for beginners

An online chess course for beginners: from the names of the squares to forks, pins, endgames and full games. Each lesson is a series of tasks on a real board — tap squares, make moves, mate the engine — instead of pages to read. The chess lessons run from the rules to the level of players rated about 1500.

How the course works

3 steps

Start with the first stage

Lesson one teaches the board itself, so you can begin without knowing a single rule.

Solve on the board

Every lesson mixes short explanations with moves, puzzles and endgames you play out against Stockfish.

Pass the stage exam

Mistakes return in the Review section a day, three days and a week later; each stage ends with an exam.

Learn to play chess step by step — every lesson on a live board

Program: stages — 8, lessons — 43

Open lessons: 5 of 43. The other lessons, the exams and the certificate come with Premium.

Stage 1

The board and the pieces

Read the board like a map and move every piece correctly — the foundation for everything that follows.

From here on — with Premium

Stage 2

Check, mate and the special moves

Know how a game is won, drawn and how castling, en passant and promotion work.

Stage 3

Basic checkmates

Mate in one at a glance, and force mate with queen, two rooks and a single rook.

Stage 4

Tactics I: double attacks

Win material with forks, pins and skewers, and count attackers before you capture.

Stage 5

Tactics II: combinations

Use discovered attacks, double checks, deflection and decoys, and see whole combinations.

Stage 6

Endgames that every player must know

Catch a passed pawn, use the opposition, win and hold the key rook endings.

Stage 7

Opening principles

Start every game well without memorising lines: centre, development, king safety — and no traps.

Stage 8

Middlegame thinking and real games

Check threats before every move, make a plan, attack the king — and play full games against a human-like opponent.

What is inside

Eight stages, from rules to real games

The board and the pieces, check and mate, the basic mates, two stages of tactics, endgames, opening principles and middlegame thinking.

Every position checked by an engine

All composed positions and solutions were verified by Stockfish and by an exhaustive mate search, so a lesson never teaches a trick that does not work.

Endgames against Stockfish

You mate with king and queen, win the Lucena and hold the Philidor against an engine that defends as well as it can — not against a script.

Real puzzles from the Lichess database

Themed sets of forks, pins, skewers and mates are drawn from the open Lichess puzzle database near your level.

A sparring partner that plays like a person

The final stage pits you against Maia, a network trained on human games around 1100, which makes human moves and human mistakes.

Questions about the chess course

Can I start if I do not know how the pieces move?

Yes. The first stage begins with the names of the squares and the move of each piece, and every rule — castling, en passant, stalemate — gets its own lesson with tasks on the board.

What level does the course take me to?

The program covers what players usually learn on the way to a rating of about 1500 online: the basic mates, the main tactical motifs, king-and-pawn and rook endgames and sound opening principles. Your rating then depends on how much you play.

How is this different from just playing on the Chess page?

The Chess page is for casual games and analysis. Here each lesson teaches one idea, checks you on positions built for it, explains every mistake and brings it back for review — and uses the same board, Stockfish and Maia.

Why does a lesson ask me to make a quiet move instead of capturing?

Some tasks train the habit of checking your opponent's threats first. In those positions the tempting capture loses — usually to a back-rank mate — and the lesson accepts any move that keeps you safe.

I already know the rules. Do I have to start from the first lesson?

No. The map is not a strict sequence: open any lesson available to you, or go straight to a stage exam — if you pass it with 80 %, the stage is behind you and you move on to the next one.

What happens if the engine or the puzzles do not load?

Tasks that need Stockfish, Maia or the puzzle database tell you when they cannot start, and the lesson moves on without counting it as a mistake. Usually reloading the page on a stable connection fixes it.

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Published 04 Nov 2026 Author: The Supreme