Stop losing the games you should win
Chess lessons and puzzles at your level
The Chess Goat course is 30 short chess lessons in 3 levels for chess.com players rated about 400–1400, each followed by puzzles at your level; the first 3 lessons and 5 daily puzzles are free.
How does the Chess Goat course work?
Each Chess Goat lesson teaches one idea in about 10 minutes, with steps on the board and guided examples, then gives you one rule to take into your games. Puzzles at your level follow, and the ones you miss come back until they stick. Your free Goat Card reads your chess.com games and puts the lessons that fix your biggest mistakes first.
What is free, and what does Goat Pass cost?
Free: the first 3 lessons and 5 puzzles a day. Goat Pass costs $5 a month or $39 a year and opens all 30 lessons and 15 puzzles a day. Want to know which lessons you need most? The Goat Report runs Stockfish on up to 2,000 of your games for a one-time $5.
Level 1: Stop giving things away 400–800
Level 1 of the Chess Goat course is for players rated 400–800: 10 lessons, about 1 h 38 min in total, 3 of them free.
- The blunder check (free): A ten-second habit that stops you hanging pieces: checks, captures, threats.
- Is it really safe? Counting attackers and defenders (free): Count who attacks and who defends a square before you take or leave a piece there.
- Forks: one piece, two targets (free): Attack two things at once so your opponent can only save one.
- Pins and skewers: Line up two enemy pieces on one line and win the one behind or in front.
- See every mate in one: List every check, then ask if the king can run, block or capture.
- The back-rank mate and the luft rule: A castled king behind three pawns can be mated by one rook. Give it air.
- Opening rules that win games: Center, develop, castle. And how to punish players who skip them.
- Mate with the queen and the rook: Box the king in, shrink the box, bring your king, finish. Never stalemate.
- When a free pawn is a trap: Before you grab, look at their best reply. Before they grab, look for yours.
- Converting a won game: trade pieces, not pawns: When you are ahead, simplify: swap pieces, keep pawns, and take away their counterplay.
Level 2: Win material on purpose 800–1100
Level 2 of the Chess Goat course is for players rated 800–1100: 10 lessons, about 1 h 47 min in total.
- Discovered attacks: Move one piece out of the way so the piece behind it attacks too.
- Double attacks: queen forks and pawn forks: Use the queen and the humble pawn to hit two things at once.
- Removing the defender: If one piece holds everything together, take it or chase it away.
- Deflection and decoy: Drag a defender away from its job, or lure a piece onto a bad square.
- Mate in two: forcing moves first: Search checks first, then captures, then threats, and follow each to the end.
- Classic mating patterns: Five mates worth knowing by sight: smothered, Anastasia, Arabian, Boden and hook.
- A simple White repertoire: 1.e4 with a calm Italian, 2.c3 against the Sicilian, and a quick exchange against the French and Caro-Kann.
- A simple Black repertoire: 1...e5 against 1.e4, 1...d5 against 1.d4 and the London, with one plan for each.
- King and pawn basics: opposition and the square: Two tools that decide most king and pawn endings: the square of the pawn and the opposition.
- Time management: a clock budget for blitz and rapid: Spend fast on the moves that do not matter and slow on the ones that do.
Level 3: Plan, don't just react 1100–1400
Level 3 of the Chess Goat course is for players rated 1100–1400: 10 lessons, about 1 h 43 min in total.
- Read the position before you pick a plan: A ten-second scan of material, kings, pieces, pawns and space tells you what to play for.
- Improve your worst piece: Find the piece doing the least, and give it a square where it works.
- Open files and the seventh rank: Rooks need open files. Take the file, double on it, then break into the seventh rank.
- Pawn structure: isolated, doubled and passed pawns: Weak pawns are targets, passed pawns are weapons. Learn to spot each one and what to do.
- Attacking the castled king: Count attackers against defenders. When you have more, open lines, even at a price.
- Defending well: trade attackers, give back material: Under attack, trade the attacking pieces, defend with tempo, and return material when it ends the attack.
- The in-between move: Before the expected recapture or retreat, look for a check or capture that comes first.
- Rook endgames: Lucena and Philidor: Active king, active rook, rook behind the passer, and the two positions every player must know.
- Opening traps: the ones you fall into and the ones you can set: The club-level traps in 1.e4 e5 and 1.d4 d5, and the one question that keeps you out of them.
- Tilt and stop rules: Stop after two losses in a row, cap your sessions, and win won games calmly instead of greedily.