BeyondChess™ Complete Curriculum
A 50-week journey from first-time player to tournament ready. Printable worksheets for every week live on the Worksheets page.
Foundations → Principles → Openings → Middlegame → Endgame → Championship
2% Complete
Files, ranks, squares. Meet the 64-cell playing field and the 4-cell still center.
Starting position as default firmware. Why controlling the center wins games.
Rook as skeleton (linear). Knight as wild card (jumps). Two totally different primes.
Why d4, e4, d5, e5 are the most valuable squares on the board. Step-by-step experiments.
Knights before bishops, bishops before queen. Get your whole army off the back row by move 8.
The only move where two pieces move at once. Build the fortress by move 10.
Tempo is the hidden currency of chess. Every opening move should develop a NEW piece.
500-year-old opening every grandmaster knows. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 — aim at f7.
The slow-squeeze opening played by world champions. Attack the defender, not the target.
The aggressive cousin of the Italian — White cracks the center open on move 3 with d4.
Trade a pawn for a big center. Learn accepted vs declined — and why most champions decline.
Pawns tell you where to play. Doubled, isolated, chains, islands, passed pawns.
A trapped bishop is worth zero. A knight on an outpost beats a rook. Judge by what pieces DO.
Rooks are tanks. Tanks need roads. Open files, half-open files, doubling rooks, and the 7th rank.
Three conditions to launch an attack: attacker math, open lines, and your own king safe.
Opposition, the square rule, and the basics of promoting a pawn.
The cleanest finishing technique when you're ahead.
The fundamental mate every strong player knows by heart.
How to turn one pawn into a queen and win the game.
Putting openings, middlegame, and endgame together for real competition.
Master complex fork patterns and set up double attacks several moves in advance.
Absolute pins, relative pins, and the X-ray attack. Learn when to exploit pinned pieces.
Force enemy pieces off key squares using deflection and decoy sacrifices.
Disrupt coordination by placing pieces between defenders, and exploit overloaded pieces.
Insert unexpected moves that flip the evaluation. A grandmaster-level tactical weapon.
Combine every tactic you've learned into multi-move sequences under pressure.
Identify weak squares in your opponent's position. Plant a knight on an outpost and never leave.
When two bishops dominate, and how pawn structure creates 'good' vs 'bad' bishops.
Control open files with your rooks and invade the 7th rank — the devastating power of a rook on the 7th.
Create and advance passed pawns. How pawn majorities on one side of the board create winning chances.
Control more of the board to restrict your opponent's options. Turn space into tactical opportunities.
Deep dive into one of the oldest openings. The ideas behind 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4.
The most popular response to 1.e4. Key ideas behind the Sicilian and why grandmasters love it.
Strategic pawn play from move one. Accepted, declined, and the mainstream Slav variations.
A reliable system for White that works against almost anything. The London and the King's Indian Attack.
The foundation of all endgames. Opposition, key squares, the square rule, and triangulation.
The most common endgame. Lucena position, Philidor position, and active rook principles.
Bishop vs Knight, same-colored bishops, opposite-colored bishops — the unique character of each.
Analyze complete grandmaster games from opening to endgame. Learn how champions think through every phase.
Time management, dealing with pressure, pre-game routines, and mental toughness for real competition.