Free chess course
The free chess course for beginners from ajedrez.pro is an ordered path to learn from scratch: you start with the board and pieces, and work your way up to tactics, openings and endgames. All the content is open and free, with interactive boards to practice what you learn.
The best part? You don’t have to wait for anything: every lesson below links directly to its full guide.
📘 Download the course as a PDF — The 10 lessons summarized for reading and printing, with the piece-value cheat sheet. Download the course as a PDF (free). And if you want us to notify you about new videos and lessons, you can subscribe.
The course, step by step
Follow the lessons in order. Each one links to its guide with explanations and practice.
- How chess is played — the names of the pieces, how to set up the board, and the goal of the game.
- The pieces and their value — how much each piece is worth and why it matters for deciding favorable trades.
- How the pieces move — the movement of each piece, with an interactive board.
- Rules of chess — including the special moves: castling, pawn promotion and en passant capture.
- Check and checkmate — how to threaten the king and the patterns for delivering mate.
- Basic tactics — forks, pins and sacrifices: the moves that win games.
- The openings — how to start well, what to avoid and the most common traps.
- The middlegame — where to focus your attention when there’s no obvious move.
- The endgame — the technique for converting an advantage when few pieces remain.
- Algebraic notation — to read and record games like in tournaments.
Practice while you learn
Theory settles in when you play. When you want to try out what you’ve learned:
- Play against the computer and adjust the level to your strength.
- Solve tactics puzzles to train your calculation.
Go deeper on each topic
Once you finish the basic path, each topic has more complete guides to keep progressing:
Fundamentals
Tactics
Openings
Endgames and mates
- Pawn endgames · rook endgames · king and pawn vs king
- Typical checkmate patterns · the scholar’s mate
Subscribe to the course
You can already download the course as a PDF to read and print whenever you want. And if you subscribe, we’ll notify you about new videos and lessons: the more people sign up, the sooner we’ll expand the course with more advanced content.
Preguntas frecuentes
What does this free chess course include?
An ordered study path from start to finish: board and pieces, rules, checkmate, basic tactics, openings, middlegame and endgames. All with complete guides and interactive boards to practice.
Do I need to sign up to use it?
No. All the lessons are open and you can start right now, and even download the full course as a PDF without signing up. Subscribing is only so we can notify you about new videos and content.
Is this a course for absolute beginners?
Yes. It's designed for anyone starting from scratch or who wants to properly rebuild their fundamentals. If you already have some level, you can jump straight to tactics, openings or endgames.
How should I study chess with this course?
Follow the lessons in order, play games and solve puzzles between lessons. Practice is what really cements each concept.
Where can I learn chess for free?
At ajedrez.pro you have this completely free course for beginners, plus tools to play and analyze games at no cost.