Chess Opening Lessons

Queen raids, Greek Gift sacrifices, kingside mate nets, queen traps, and bishop invasions.

Pawn grab trap, bishop hunt, Greek Gift mate, centre collapse, fork breakthrough, and more.

From lessons/colle system.txt: classic d4 setup, central play, queen-side expansion, and tactical strikes.

From lessons/Scotch Gambit.txt: queen lightning strikes, king hunts, Greek Gift, smothered mates, and more.

Advance, Tartakower, Panov, Two Knights, Exchange, Accelerated Panov, Maroczy, and sidelines.

The famous f7 sacrifice, engine-verified to its real endings: the Ke6 exchange-sac main line, Fischer's Lolli, the Fritz and Ulvestad dodges answered, and the mate that punishes Kg8??.

Everyone calls it dull. We measured 82 positions and found seventeen ways Black loses two pawns or more. Six of them are taught here.

The most played opening in chess, 179,586 games. Nineteen lessons on the Morphy and Closed main lines, including the Chigorin, Breyer and Zaitsev, and the one line where White can force a draw by repetition.

The most played opening in the app, 54,656 games. Two rules decide everything: where your e pawn goes, and when to trade on d4. Both are measured, and all six tactics are White breaking the second one.

Take the pawn, give it straight back, and free your position while White spends moves collecting it. Ten lessons and no theory trees.

Trade the queens on move eight, give up castling, and be completely fine. The defence Kramnik used to hold Kasparov to zero wins with White.

Develop the knight and commit nothing else. Your dark bishop has three squares and White must prepare for all of them, plus a bishop move that hangs a piece on move six.

One setup against everything. Seven pieces on the same seven squares every game, then push e4 to e5 and attack. Every Black reply above one percent is covered, from 1.Nf3 or from 1.e4.

One little pawn move that stops Nb5 and starts a queenside attack. Commit to nothing, make White choose first, and punish 5.Bf4 with a forced win of a piece.

The Nimzo's sister opening, and the answer to 3.Nf3. Own the light squares with a bishop instead of a pawn and never get a bad position.

Give up a pawn on move three and get every piece out first. One system, two open files, and the trap that catches White instead of Black.

Meet the Sicilian without learning the Open Sicilian. Trade the bishop for the c6 knight, wreck their pawn structure, and play on plans instead of memory.

A move order, not an opening. 19 lessons on where 1.Nf3 actually goes: the Slav, Catalan, King's Indian and English routes, plus the g3 and b3 systems that work against everything.

Open the centre on move three while everyone else drills the Ruy Lopez. Five piece-winning tactics, the most of any course here, because open positions punish careless development.

Concede the d5 square on purpose and take everything else. The most one-sided main line in the library at 90 percent, plus two piece-winning tactics in the branches that avoid it.

Opposite castling and a race to open lines first. The Yugoslav Attack is three games in five, so four lessons cover it. Not the Accelerated Dragon: this is the version that faces it.

Both supporting pawns instead of choosing one. Two co-equal main lines rather than a spine, and the Botvinnik: the most complicated position in the whole library.

Support d5 with the c pawn and keep your bishop free. Played by 11 of the first 13 world champions, and by Kramnik in six of eight Black games in the 2006 title match.

Take e4 with a pawn on move one. Three openings in one, so the course teaches shapes rather than move orders, and covers the seven ways White tries to punish you immediately.

Attack with the knight on move one and let them chase it. 15 lessons on the most provocative opening in the library, with two tactics that each win a whole piece, one of them in five moves.

Invite the biggest pawn centre in chess, then take it apart. The one opening here that needs no caveat: Smyslov, Fischer, Kasparov and Carlsen all play it. 14 lessons and one piece-winning tactic.

The Pirc with one move held back, and a course that refuses to teach you the Pirc twice. 15 lessons on what the Modern does that its cousin cannot, plus the one tactic that survived 20 candidates.

Let White build the centre, then take it apart. 15 lessons answering every White system because none of them is common enough to specialise against, and the queen sacrifice that draws by force from five points down.

Nimzowitsch's answer to 1.d4: give up the bishop to wreck White's pawns. 12 lessons carrying both halves of the problem, because White sidesteps into the Queen's Indian more often than allowing the Nimzo at all.

The most studied opening in chess, taught as ideas rather than memory. 12 theory lessons answering every serious White system after 5...a6, plus the two verified traps that survived 74 candidates.

The oldest opening in chess, taught as the Urusov Gambit: bishop to its best square, then strike the centre. 11 theory lessons and, honestly, no tactics: 224 candidates measured and none of Black's errors here is big enough to call a blunder.

The King's Gambit with the safety catch on. 14 theory lessons and 6 verified tactics measured across 126 positions: the Vienna Gambit, the Bc4 systems, and six different ways Black loses material on move five.

White's 1.d4 sidestep: 2.Bg5 and your opponent's preparation is gone. 14 theory lessons built on 189 database nodes, the b2 pawn offered as bait in three different systems, plus the one verified trap.

White's c3 system against the Sicilian: build the centre it tried to prevent. 10 theory lessons including the pawn avalanche played through three only-moves, plus 4 verified tactics, three of them queen strikes on the a4 diagonal.

White's attacking answer to the Sicilian: the f4 storm, the Qe1 to h4 lift, the f5 break, and a bishop that reads Black's pawns. 13 theory lessons plus the f7 strike that punishes the Bg4 pin.

Hedgehog, Rubinstein, Nd5 strikes, smothered mates, king hunts, and fianchetto systems.

Classical, Bb4+, Benoni, Slav, Open Catalan, Indian, and Tarrasch structures.

Coach study: the aggressive London with Nc3, the Nb5 jump, and a g4/h4 storm with the king castled long.

Coach study: seven ways Black gets greedy in the Queen's Gambit, and what it costs him.

The solid answer to 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3, built around the one move order you must never get wrong. Every third move White has, including the Cochrane knight sacrifice.

Let White take the centre, then race him at his own king. The sharpest answer to 1.d4 there is, with both breaks and an answer to every system White has.

Sacrifice a knight on f7 against the Caro-Kann. Objectively losing, and it scores about sixty percent in blitz because the defence is hard to find. The course says so, and teaches the sound traps around it too.

The other side of the Fried Liver. Decline the famous attack correctly, and learn the Traxler, where you ignore it and sacrifice a rook to win his queen.