Chess guides you can put into practice
Start a computer game, investigate a mistake, or finish an endgame. Each guide gives you something to try on the board.
New here? Start with the computer chess practice guide, then keep one lesson with our game review routine.
How to Review Your Chess Games and Keep One Useful Lesson
Review a finished chess game without drowning in engine lines. Find a turning point, test your idea, and save one position for a later attempt.
How to Stop Hanging Pieces: Check What Your Move Leaves Behind
Learn a practical check for loose pieces, defenders, and unsafe captures, with a legal queen-capture example you can replay on a chessboard.
How to Stop Blundering in Chess: A Practical Move Check
Reduce avoidable chess mistakes with a repeatable checks, captures, and threats routine. Learn when to slow down and how to review a missed threat.
What Chess Engine Evaluations Mean, and What They Leave Out
Understand positive scores, mate signals, changing engine lines, and rejected practice moves without mistaking an evaluation for a personal rating.
How to Import a Chess Game With PGN When Sync Fails
Bring a finished chess game into review using PGN. Understand PGN versus FEN, check a small example, and troubleshoot missing or invalid moves.
Turn Your Chess Mistakes Into Practice You Can Revisit
Build a small practice notebook from your own games. Choose useful positions, test the reason behind a move, and separate recall from new-position skill.
How to Measure Chess Progress Without Rating Changes
Track chess improvement with review habits, mistake patterns, endgame checks, and practice evidence when rating data is noisy.
How to Review a Chess Game With a Friend
Play a 10+5 friendly game, keep the replay, and compare what each player saw. Use a shared review routine to turn one decision into a useful lesson.
From Online Chess to a Physical Board: A Practice Routine
Adapt to a physical chessboard with orientation checks, position reconstruction, move notation, and a practical way to bring a recorded game into review.
Play Chess Against a Computer: A Beginner's Practice Guide
Start a free computer game without signing in. Choose Maia or Stockfish, find a useful difficulty, and turn one decision into a lesson after the game.
Best Chess Openings for Beginners: 3 Ways to Start
Compare the Italian Game, Scotch Game, and Queen’s Gambit. Learn why the moves work, understand Black’s replies, and try a guided opening lesson.
Italian Game for Beginners: What If Black Plays ...d5?
Black’s ...d5 attacks your bishop and central pawn. Follow a legal Italian Game example, learn why exd5 works, and try the position on a guided board.
Scotch Game for Beginners: Recapture With the Knight
Learn the Scotch Game's central pawn exchange, why 4.Nxd4 works, and how 4.Qxd4 loses the queen. Practice the opening in a guided lesson.
King and Rook Checkmate: A Beginner's Guide
Learn how to checkmate with a king and rook: cut off the enemy king, bring your king closer, finish at the edge, and check for stalemate.
Play Chess Against Computer: Check One Mistake Before Restarting
Lost a queen and ready to restart? Look at the move before the capture, find what it left undefended, and give your next game one specific purpose.
4 Player Chess Rules: The Cross Board and Verney's Game
Learn how the 160-square four-player chess board works, what makes Verney's team rules different, and what to agree on before your first game.
Queen and King Checkmate: Avoid the Stalemate Trap
Learn the difference between a queen ending that wins and a stalemate, using two legal positions, a mate-in-one example, and a board practice routine.
Practice Chess as Black Against a Computer: A Beginner Session
Practice the Black pieces with a focused computer session: respond to White's center, develop safely, and review one decision without memorizing a long line.
Chess Endgame Training: A Short Practice Routine
Build a focused chess endgame training routine: choose one finish, explain the defending king's options, replay a mistake, and keep a useful practice note.
French Defense for Beginners: Understand the First Moves
Learn the French Defense opening moves, why Black plays ...e6 and ...d5, and how the Advance and Exchange variations change your beginner practice.
How to Analyze a Chess Game with PGN
Learn how to analyze a chess game with PGN by checking critical decisions, candidate moves, and engine ideas in a repeatable review.
New to the rules?
The chess rules and study guide covers legal moves, checkmate, and a simple way to look for threats.