The Study

Articles to read beside the trainer: the rules and the pieces, each opening's ideas, and the history of the game.

Foundations

The board, the pieces, and how a game is written down.

  1. Setting up the board

    Which way round the board goes, where each piece starts, and the two mistakes almost everyone makes once.

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  2. How the pieces move

    All six pieces, how each one moves and captures, and the three special moves that trip up new players.

    Read

  3. Reading and writing chess notation

    How players write a game down, from naming squares to captures, checks and castling. Every line on this site is written this way.

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Openings

What each opening is after, where it came from, and its main lines.

  1. The London System

    One setup for White against almost anything: d4, Bf4, e3, c3. What it's after, where it came from, who it suits, and how to meet each of Black's tries.

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