You watched Queen’s Gambit and want to learn how to play chess: a beginner’s guide to chess.

I was late to the party, watching the Netflix show in February. Like a lot of other viewers, I became obsessed with chess from watching that show.

Even though chess has been around for 1,400 years, it seems intimidating from the outside. It’s got a steep initial learning curve. Like many people, I learned how to move the pieces when my dad tried to teach me as a kid, but never made it farther than that. But seeing Beth’s journey with chess, how it helped her, I couldn’t not be gripped by chess.

I jumped in with both feet of understanding chess for absolute beginners. I figured this was either going to fuel my love for the game or I would realize I didn’t like enough to wade through the information.

You’re in luck! Below is the beginner’s guide for other beginners — apps, books, other things I have found helpful as I learn. There’s tons of other resources out there, but I wanted to highlight some stuff that I’ve gotten good use out of. I went in with basically zero knowledge. I found that many starting guides sometimes seemed too complex, or written by long time chess players. The more I dug into chess, the more I realized that 1,400 year history is actually used to our advantage — we newbies stand on the shoulders of chess giants. So let’s get started.

Apps — these are just the apps I use. There’s a lot of other apps out there, I just haven’t gotten around to trying them yet.

- Magnus Trainer — This app was designed by chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, it walks you through from the very beginning — what each piece does, how to play, and reinforces it with mini-games and lessons. It’s really helpful that it’s hands-on, and I love that there’s equal focus on understanding the how to understand the board, thinking strategically. I found it really helpful that the app makes big concepts easier to understand and the gamification aspect of learning was helpful to get me over the initial hill of confusion. Magnus is there to cheer you on when you do well and encourage you to keep going when it gets difficult. The app is free and there’s a paid membership option too.

- Chess.com — You can play with people all over the world, they also have lessons. I have been using these lessons after I know the basics (but they do have their own introductory lessons). While some parts have been repetitive as I go, I’ve actually found it helpful to understand the same concepts from another perspective (gotta work that spaced repetition). It has bots you can play against, as well as something they call “solo chess”, which forces you to think about moves on a smaller scale. You can play against other people, challenge your friends, it’s really fun. This app is free and also has a paid subscription.

Books — this was a bit of a challenge initially. Chess can be academic, it’s so easy to spend a lot of time on theory and opening moves, etc. People write whole books about tactics and strategies alone, we are not there yet. So let’s stick to the basics. I’m keeping it simple because in the beginning, it’s more important to play, to build the fundamentals, than it is to read about too much theory.

- The Immortal Game: A History of Chess by David Shenk. This book was my first chess book, it actually ended up being exactly what I needed. I recommend it if you want to know what chess is all about, how did it come to be? Shenk follows the game from it’s Indian predecessors in the 7th century, to the Middle Ages where it became the game we know today, to modern day of playing against AI. The story is interwoven with a move by move story of one of the most famous chess games of all time. In the book, he also rediscovers chess but realizes he’s more fascinated by the story of chess. He brings a very readable tone across 1,400 years of history. I will be writing a review of this soon!

- Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess by Bobby Fischer, Stuart Margulies, and Don Mosenfelder. This book I had seen on other lists but only recently purchased. For anyone who might not know, Bobby Fischer is a legendary chess player, and this book is so great. It’s like a workbook — there’s questions to answer, it’s very hands on. I can already tell you this book is going to get well worn as I keep reading it and learning. This is great if you are a more tactical learner, but I’d recommend this to anyone.

- Simple Checkmates: More Than 400 Exercises for Novices of All Ages! By AJ Gilliam. From my perspective as a new person learning to play chess, checkmating — the position in chess where the player wins by threatening the king so it has nowhere to go — this is probably the hardest part to grasp. It’s also incredibly important because it’s how you win! I’ve been using the Magnus Trainer app for a few weeks and he throws you into checkmate plays initially, but I think it’s important to build more knowledge around this issue. If you don’t understand how to checkmate well, there’s going to be a lot of missed wins. This book is a great problem-solving book, so if you like puzzles (like me), you might find this book helpful.

Other online resources — here’s a list of other sites, youtubers, and tools I have found helpful. There’s so much online, I can’t even begin to cover it.

- Twitch. Chess is huge on twitch. There’s some really great streamers out there to watch. The channels I watch are Anna Rudolph, Andrea Botez, Chess.com and Eric Rosen. I still have no idea what’s going on when I watch, but it’s a great way to sit and listen, familiarize yourself with how the board works, the chess jargon.

- Youtube. There’s so many youtube channels out there. But one I really enjoy is John Bartholomew’s chess fundamentals video series. I wouldn’t watch this until after you already know how to move the pieces on the board.

- Lichess. This is another free chess playing server. Something I like about lichess is that I’ve been able to find local chess clubs near me on here. The one in my area has been active pre-covid so definitely do a search on there, that could be something you can join when things reopen around you.

Want to buy a chess board?

I know it’s going to be tempting to buy a really nice chessboard to practice on and try stuff out (I definitely do not have a fancy chess board/set in my amazon cart that has drawers..). Just get a cheap one to start. Once you get into the thick of learning about plays, and how moves work, you’re going to want to buy a board. Get a cheap one to start. I bought a travel sized magnetic set from amazon to start to keep at my desk so I can see how some of these plays work. Being able to play online with people around the world at any moment is amazing, but for tactical learners like myself, being able to move the pieces and view the board in front of me, off the computer is important too.

So there you have it! Hope some of these resources help you focus and figure out how to navigate the fun world of learning how to play chess. There’s a lot of other aspects I intentionally did not cover because the chess world is complex and deep, I don’t want it to be too overwhelming I’ll be blogging more about my chess journey in the weeks to come.