Skybound Chess
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Learn the game,
one idea at a time.

Guided courses built like the opening trainer — read the idea in a sentence, then prove it on the board before moving on.

15 courses148 lessonsself-paced
Beginner · 8 lessons

Basic Checkmates

The mating patterns every player needs by heart — the back rank, and driving a lone king to the edge with a queen, a rook, or two rooks.

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Intermediate · 8 lessons

Essential Tactics

The recurring combinations that decide most games — forks, pins, skewers, discovered and double attacks, and the quiet moves that set them up.

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Intermediate · 7 lessons

Endgame Basics

The handful of king-and-pawn and rook endings that come up again and again — the opposition, key squares, the square of the pawn, and the Lucena and Philidor rook positions.

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Beginner · 5 lessons

Opening Principles

Five habits that hand you a healthy position out of any opening — take the centre, develop with purpose, get the king safe, and don't waste moves.

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Intermediate · 10 lessons

Checkmate Patterns

Ten mating pictures worth knowing on sight — the epaulette and Boden's mates, Damiano's and the h7 mate, Réti's and the Opera mate, and the two great queen sacrifices, Légal's and Philidor's Legacy.

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Intermediate · 15 lessons

Pawn Structures

Pawns can't move backwards, so where you put them is where they stay — and that shape decides the game. Passed pawns, majorities, the isolani and hanging pawns, chains, storms, and the breakthrough sacrifice.

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Intermediate · 10 lessons

Piece Play

Where your pieces belong — knight outposts, good and bad bishops, the bishop pair, rooks on open files and the seventh, and how to fix your worst piece.

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Advanced · 10 lessons

Attacking the King

How kingside attacks actually work — the Greek gift and other sacrifices on h7, g7 and h6, opening lines with the h-pawn, the rook lift, and bailing out with a perpetual.

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Advanced · 10 lessons

Tactics II

The quieter tactical ideas — the in-between move, clearance and interference, overloading, X-rays, the desperado, trapping a piece, decoy sacrifices, and underpromotion.

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Beginner · 10 lessons

Openings — First Moves

The idea behind ten openings you'll meet constantly — the Italian, Ruy Lopez and Sicilian, the French and Caro-Kann, the Queen's Gambit, King's Indian, London, Scandinavian and English.

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Advanced · 10 lessons

Rook Endgames

The most common — and most drawn — endings there are. Cutting off the king, checking distance, keeping the rook active, defending from behind the passer, and making luft.

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Advanced · 10 lessons

Minor Piece Endgames

Bishop against knight, the bishop pair, opposite-coloured bishops, the wrong bishop, and why a knight ending is really a pawn ending in slow motion.

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Intermediate · 15 lessons

Middlegame Strategy

Planning without a forced win in sight — space, prophylaxis, the two weaknesses, provoking a concession, trading the right pieces, and letting the pawn structure choose your plan.

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Intermediate · 10 lessons

Calculation & Thinking

A practical thinking method — checks, captures and threats first; loose pieces drop off; count attackers and defenders; don't calculate what you can judge.

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Advanced · 10 lessons

Defense & Practical Play

Skills that win points on their own — finding the only move, sacrificing to survive, building a fortress, counterattacking, and knowing when to simplify and when to complicate.

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