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Learn Chess, Step by Step
Clear, practical guides that take you from setting up the board to winning endgames. Read a lesson, then practise it for free in the ChessAlive app.
Chess rewards understanding far more than memorisation. These guides focus on the ideas that actually move your rating: how the pieces cooperate, why opening principles exist, the handful of tactics and checkmate patterns that decide most games, and the endgame techniques that turn a small edge into a win. Each guide is self-contained, uses standard examples you can replay on any board, and links to the ones you should read next.
Start here
How to Play Chess
The board, every piece's move, check and checkmate, and the special rules new players miss.
FundamentalsRules & Chess Notation
Read and write moves in algebraic notation, plus castling, en passant, promotion, and the ways games end in a draw.
Fundamentals
Piece Values & Evaluation
What each piece is worth, when to break the rules, and how to judge who stands better.
StrategyStrategy for Beginners
Make a real plan: control the centre, improve your worst piece, and use pawn structure.
Openings
Openings for Beginners
The three opening principles and five sound openings you can play with either colour.
OpeningsThe Italian Game
The ideal first 1.e4 opening: the Giuoco Piano, the Two Knights, and the Fried Liver to avoid.
OpeningsThe Queen's Gambit
Why it isn't really a gambit — the Accepted, Declined and Slav lines, and the plans behind them.
Tactics & checkmates
Winning Tactics
Forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks and more — the patterns that decide most games.
Tactics10 Checkmate Patterns
Back-rank, smothered, Anastasia's, Boden's and the Greek gift — the mating shapes to know.
Endgames
Endgame Basics
Key checkmates, the opposition, and how to promote a pawn with confidence.
EndgamesKing & Pawn Endgames
The opposition, key squares, and the rule of the square — when a pawn queens and when it draws.
Improve faster
12 Common Mistakes
The leaks that cost beginners the most games — and a concrete fix for each one.
ImproveAnalyze Your Games
The highest-return study habit, done right: find the turning points before you touch an engine.
ImproveHow to Get Better
A realistic study plan: daily tactics, slower games, key endgames, and an opening you understand.
Reference
How to use these guides
If you are brand new, read How to Play Chess first, then Rules & Notation so you can follow any chess article or video. Next, piece values and strategy teach you what to aim for. The tactics and checkmate guides give the fastest rating gains — most games below intermediate level are decided by a single tactic. Reach for the openings when you want to stop falling into early traps, the endgame guides to convert games you are already winning, and the study plan to tie it all together.
Practise what you read
Solve puzzles, play the coach bots, and review your games move by move — free.
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