Learn chess
Interactive chess lessons
Each lesson puts you in a real position and asks you to find the correct move. No reading - just playing, with an explanation after every answer.
Featured course · Free
Stop blundering in 7 days
The biggest reason beginners lose games is not lack of opening knowledge - it is one-move blunders. This 7-day course fixes the root cause: bad pre-move habits and missed tactics. Work through one lesson per day and your blunder rate will drop noticeably.
- D1Don't hang pieces- Learn to spot free material - yours and theirs - every single move.
- D2Counting defenders- Count attackers vs defenders before every capture so you stop trading badly.
- D3What is a fork?- Learn the fork pattern so you can both deliver and avoid knight forks.
- D4What is a pin?- Use pins to restrict the opponent and pile pressure on pieces that cannot escape.
- D5What is a skewer?- Add skewers to your toolkit - often the most surprising and winning tactical motif.
- D6Back-rank checkmate- Back-rank mate is behind a huge percentage of beginner losses. Deliver it and defend it.
- D7Don't hang pieces- Repeat the blunder-check habit with fresh eyes. Apply everything you learned to your own games - paste your username on the home page and count how many blunders you avoid this week.
Tactics
Pattern recognition for the most common winning combinations: forks, pins, skewers, and back-rank mates.
Tactics
What is a fork?
A fork attacks two pieces at the same time with one move. Knights are the best forkers because their moves cannot be blocked. Find the fork in each position.
3 interactive positions
Tactics
What is a pin?
A pin stops a piece from moving because moving it would expose a more valuable piece behind it. An absolute pin involves the king - the pinned piece literally cannot move.
3 interactive positions
Tactics
What is a skewer?
A skewer is like a reverse pin: the more valuable piece is in front, and moving it away exposes the less valuable piece behind to be captured. Rooks and bishops are the best skewering pieces.
2 interactive positions
Tactics
Back-rank checkmate
When your king is stuck behind its own pawns with no escape squares, a rook or queen on the back rank delivers checkmate. This is one of the most common ways beginners lose.
3 interactive positions
Chess Thinking
The mental habits that prevent blunders: spotting hanging pieces and counting attackers vs defenders before you move.
Chess Thinking
Don't hang pieces
A 'hanging' piece is undefended and can be captured for free. Spotting your own hanging pieces before moving - and your opponent's - is the single fastest way to stop losing material.
3 interactive positions
Chess Thinking
Counting defenders
Before capturing a defended piece, count: how many pieces attack it vs how many defend it. If you have more attackers than defenders, the trade wins material. If equal or fewer, you may be losing the piece.
3 interactive positions
See these patterns in your own games
Free. Paste your username and Chess2EZ will find every fork, pin, and back-rank moment you missed.
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