Courses
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Rules, fundamentals, and the first tactics.
Start from zero. Learn the board, how every piece moves, check and checkmate, castling, and what each piece is worth.
The ideas that win games at the beginner level: opening principles, free pieces, forks, pins, skewers, back-rank mates, and how to finish a won game.
Forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks and the other tools that win pieces. Learn each pattern, then find it yourself in real game positions.
How to think at the board and away from it: calculating, checking for blunders, managing the clock, reviewing games, choosing openings and keeping the right mindset.
Patterns, strategy, and endgame technique.
The classic mating patterns every player should know by name. See the picture once, then find it in real positions until it becomes automatic.
Deflection, decoys, in-between moves, clearance, interference, x-rays, zugzwang and sacrifices. The ideas that turn simple tactics into combinations.
Tactics win material, but strategy tells you where to put your pieces when nothing is hanging. Learn to read pawn structures, find outposts, use open files and make good trades.
The endgame is where extra pawns become queens and where half points are saved. Learn opposition, key squares, the Lucena and Philidor positions, and the basic mates.