What a learner can do afterwards
- Can explain First opening ideas
The lesson
The start of the game is called the opening. Three ideas guide you: take the center, wake up your pieces, and make your king safe.
The center is the four squares in the middle. Pushing a pawn there gives your pieces more room and more power.
Developing means bringing your knights and bishops off the back row toward the center so they can help. Try not to move the same piece twice early, and do not rush your queen out.
Castling tucks your king into safety. The king slides two squares toward a rook and the rook hops to the king's other side. You cannot castle while your king is in check, or across a square that is attacked.
A short checklist for the opening: a center pawn, then knights and bishops out, then castle.
In the opening, control the center, develop your knights and bishops, and castle to keep your king safe.
Watch it
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Nothing builds on it yet.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.