Sections
Guide sections
The guide is divided into four sections. The first two are about the games themselves — chess and go. The third explains how to learn without rushing and without unnecessary expense. The fourth is about playing with real people: over the board at a club, at home, at a tournament or online.
You can learn the rules of both games in an evening. Everything else is experience, and that only builds up at the board, one game at a time.
The sections cover questions every beginner runs into: how the pieces move, why you need to count a group's liberties, how to prepare for your first competition. We explain general rules and ideas; we do not go through opening lines move by move or name particular players, schools or services.
Chess
A board of sixty-four squares, sixteen pieces per side, and White moves first. The goal is to checkmate the opponent's king. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded on 20 July 1924 in Paris, and since 2019, by decision of the UN General Assembly, that day has been celebrated as World Chess Day.
- Collection: "Your first month of chess"
A reading path for those who have just learned how the pieces move and want to know what to do next.
- Answers about chess
How stalemate differs from checkmate, why castling matters and what to do if your opponent makes an illegal move.
- Check, checkmate, stalemate and notation
The key chess terms in the guide's glossary.
Go
Stones are placed on the intersections of the lines, and Black moves first. Players surround territory and capture their opponent's stones.
- Collection: "Your first month of go"
How to start on a small board and when to move up to a full-size one.
- Answers about go
Why beginners learn on a smaller board, what capturing means and how to tell that a game is over.
- Liberty, ko and komi
Go terms you need to follow any explanation of the game.
Learning and practice
Puzzles, reviewing your own games, playing opponents of your level and slow time controls.
- How to review your own game and find the key mistake
A step-by-step article with illustrative examples, common pitfalls and a checklist.
- Getting started in chess and go (in Russian)
A primer for your first week and a short comparison of the two games.
- Answers about learning and fair play
How many puzzles to solve, whether you need a coach and how to use an analysis program.
Playing with people
Board etiquette, clocks, recording your games, first competitions and playing online without outside help.
- Your first game in five steps
A primer on the home page: how to get ready for a game with a new opponent.
- Tournaments and time
Time controls and the Swiss system in the guide's glossary.
- Chess and go with a child
A collection for parents who want to play together with their kids.
Read next
- Guides
How to review your own game and find the key mistake: steps, pitfalls, checklist. Plus the article catalogue.
- Questions
Short answers about chess, go, learning and fair play over the board and online.
- Collections
Reading paths: your first month of chess, your first month of go, strategy board games with a child.
Sources
- FIDE — Laws of Chess
- Encyclopedic sources on the history of chess and go
Information is current as of the date the material was prepared. Official competition rules are revised from time to time, so before a tournament check the current edition of the rules and the regulations of that particular event.