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Prep ·

First Moves: learn to play, free

A four-week beginners' course in Prep, from how the knight moves to your first club night. Short lessons, a board you play on from the first minute, drills that deal a fresh position every time, and practice games whenever you want a whole one.

A wooden board mid-game in a café, an analogue chess clock behind it and a speckled mug beside a player’s sleeve, more boards on the next table.

The short version

  • Twenty lessons over four weeks: the pieces, the rules that decide games, playing well, and getting ready for the board
  • Every lesson has you moving pieces in its first minute, and every drill deals a fresh board
  • Practice games against our own bot, at three levels, with takebacks and no rating
  • Already know the moves? Eight quick positions tell you where to start
  • Finish and you graduate, with a card to share and three ways on
  • Free, no account needed; signed in, your progress follows you to any device
  • Organizers get a link and a printable sheet to send newcomers' way

At every club night there’s someone who sits down, looks at the knight, and quietly hopes nobody asks them to move it. First Moves is for them, and for anyone who’d like to walk into a club already knowing which way the pieces go. It’s free, it’s in Prep, and it doesn’t ask for an account.

Fifteen minutes, hands on the board

Each lesson is one idea. A few short lines, then you’re moving pieces: tap the light square in the corner, slide the rook to the star, take the pawn. Then the drills: collect the stars in as few moves as you can, walk the king past squares the other side is watching, get out of check three ways, find the mate in one, spot the fork, and mate a lone king with a queen and then with a rook. Every drill deals you a fresh board each time, so you can go again as often as you like, and each lesson has its own Practice that keeps going for as long as you do.

Four weeks, a lesson a weekday: the pieces, then the rules that decide games (check, mate, castling, draws, what pieces are worth), then playing well (opening principles, the fork, pins and skewers), then getting ready for the board (notation, the clock, the etiquette, and what happens on your first club night). There’s no timer and no streak: miss a day and nothing’s lost.

A whole game, whenever you want one

Play a practice game against our own practice bot: Learner, Club newcomer or Steady. Take a move back whenever you like. Nothing’s rated and nobody’s watching.

Already know the moves?

Take the placement check on the course page: eight quick positions from across the four weeks. It tells you which week to start in, or that you know the basics and should go and play.

Then take it to the board

Each lesson ends with one thing to try at a real board this week, because that’s where chess is best. Finish lesson 20 and you graduate: a card to share, and three ways on (a club near you, the Climb, and a first opening). Organizers, there’s a “Send newcomers to First Moves” card on your poster page, with the link, a QR code, words to paste, and a printable “How the pieces move” sheet for the newcomers’ table.