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Chess for total beginners
Rating: 4.4 out of 5(88 ratings)
2,954 students

Chess for total beginners

From learning the moves, to checkmating, to tactics and strategy
Created byKatie Kormanik
Last updated 11/2025
English

What you'll learn

  • Make legal moves
  • Annotate entire games
  • Recognize check and checkmate
  • Recognize tactics such as forking, skewering, and pinning
  • Checkmate in winning endgames
  • Employ good opening, midgame, and endgame strategies
  • Advance a pawn to the back rank with king and pawn against king
  • Gain the know-how and resources to continue advancing your chess skills
  • Hear perspectives on chess from GMs and IMs
  • Calculate several moves ahead
  • Play and enjoy the game of chess!

Explore related topics

Course content

6 sections • 51 lectures • 1h 29m total length

  • Welcome!2:41

    PLACEHOLDER

  • Interview with WIM Karina Vazirova: Why learn chess?2:34
  • Squares on the chess board1:25
  • Write the name of the square
  • Chess pieces0:35

    PLACEHOLDERS

  • Which piece is it?
  • Notating moves3:36

    PLACEHOLDER


    a. This is important to learn at the beginning so that you can follow games, and understand what I mean when I say, for example, Nd4

  • Notate the move (white side)
  • Notate the move (black side)
  • Notating a game1:53
  • Download notation sheets0:03

Requirements

  • A willingness to sit and think!

Description

Hi there! I'm Katie, and I've been playing chess since I was 4. I started competing in tournaments when I was 7, and at one point I was one of the top 100 women in the US. I haven't actively played since 2011, at which point my rating was 1850, but my love of chess still lingers and I think everyone should at least know how to play. This course goes beyond simply teaching how the pieces move. You'll build the foundation for continuing your chess career, if you so choose.

This course breaks down the game step-by-step, from teaching you the rules (how pieces move) to basic strategy (where to move your pieces) to how to improve (with practice positions and resources for learning more). If you watch all the videos and complete all the exercises, you’ll not only be able to play a game (the short-term goal); you’ll be able to continue learning and playing chess on your own. In a few weeks, you’ll probably be able to beat just about anyone off the street!

Besides instructional videos and exercises, this course also has interviews with the following amazing professional women chess players:
• WGM Jennifer Shahade
• WIM Karina Vazirova
...with more coming soon!

A one-time purchase will give you lifetime access to all the new content in the course. Hope you enjoy!

Who this course is for:

  • Anyone who wants to learn how to play chess
  • Anyone who wants to finally beat their grandpa
  • Anyone who travels and wants to find a community wherever they go

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