Chess Guides | Game Dojo

Not sure where to start?

Read these in order and you will cover the game from the rules to the endgame, finishing with real analysis.

1 Rules and the pieces Start at the board: how each piece moves, and what is legal.
2 Opening principles Take the centre, develop, castle. How to think about the first ten moves.
3 Tactics Forks, pins and skewers — where games are actually won.
4 Middlegame Regroup, create weaknesses, and pick where to attack.
5 Endgame Technique for when few pieces remain, and how to convert.
6 Check it in the Analysis Lab Test what you learned against real engine analysis.

A fresh puzzle every day. Pick the best move from the board and sharpen your eye for forks, skewers, and mates.

How every piece moves, plus the special rules — castling, en passant, and promotion — explained clearly for beginners.

The 3 core principles of the opening, plus a look at popular lines: Italian Game, Queen's Gambit, and the Sicilian Defense.

Five centuries of chess in one opening. Every major line, the Fried Liver trap, and the middlegame plans that follow.

The patterns that flip positions in one move. Learn to spot forks, pins, skewers, and discovered attacks before they hit you.

Early queens, uncastled kings, missing opponent threats — the five habits that lose the most games and how to fix them.

The early queen, the free-looking pawn, the back-rank mate — why each is a mistake, verified by the engine and shown with diagrams.

Piece activity, pawn structure, key square control — the principles that matter most once the opening is over.

Activate your king, promote passed pawns, and learn the essential checkmates. Don't let won games slip to draws.

"Knights on the rim are dim." "When you see a good move, look for a better one." Timeless wisdom, explained.

What Best, Good, Inaccuracy, Mistake, and Blunder mean — and how to turn Game Dojo's feedback into real improvement.

The real learning happens on the board. Play free, get AI feedback, improve.