"Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise." – Michael Jordan

"Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals." – Jim Rohn

What you will learn

In the Fundamentals course, you will learn:

• How to capture your opponent’s pieces
• How to stop your opponent from capturing your pieces
• How to react when your king is in check
• How to checkmate with a queen, a rook, or two bishops
• The rule of the square in pawn endgames

Many beginners lose games not because of deep strategy, but because they miss simple things. They overlook that a piece is attacked, fail to notice that a piece is undefended, or respond to a check in a way that loses material. This course helps you train exactly those skills.

Fundamentals are the basis for everything else in chess, including tactics, defence, checkmates, and endgames. By practicing them, you improve your board vision. You start to see more quickly which pieces can be captured, which pieces are under attack, and which moves are safe.

This does more than help you against beginners. It also prepares you for the more advanced courses in Puzzle Academy. Once the fundamentals become automatic, it is much easier to notice tactical ideas and calculate more complex positions.

Examples

White has just played c5, attacking the bishop on d6. At first glance, the bishop seems to have many squares — but in fact almost all of them fail.

It cannot go to e5 because of 1...Be5? 2.dxe5. It cannot go to f4 because of 1...Bf4? 2.exf4. It cannot go to g3 because of 1...Bg3? 2.fxg3. And it cannot go to h2 because of 1...Bh2? 2.Nxh2. The only good move is 1...Be7.

This is a basic but important skill: before moving a piece, make sure you can see which squares are actually safe. In this course, you will get much better at spotting when a piece has room to escape — and when it does not.

Black can capture the rook on c4 with either the pawn on d5 or the queen on c7. But these two captures are not the same.

Capturing with the pawn would be a mistake: 1...dxc4? 2.Qxd4, and White wins the knight. After the correct move 1...Qxc4, however, the queen protects the knight on d4. Now if White plays 2.Qxd4?, Black replies 2...Qxd4 and wins the queen.

This is another fundamental skill: do not just ask whether you can capture something — ask what will be defended afterwards. The right capture is often the one that leaves your own position protected.

Black’s rook on e8 gives check to White’s king on e1. White has two safe squares for the king: d1 and f1.

But not all legal moves are equally good. After 1.Kf1?, Black wins the queen with 1...Qxd2. So the only good move is 1.Kd1, keeping the queen protected.

This is one of the most important habits in chess: when you respond to a check, do not stop at finding a legal move. Make sure your reply also keeps the rest of your position safe.

Intended audience

The puzzle ratings in Fundamentals are mostly between 800 and 1400. For beginners, these skills are extremely important to master. In fact, they are so important that you should aim to solve more than 90% of these puzzles correctly.

Even for stronger players, the higher levels can still be useful practice. Solving 90% of puzzles rated 1400 requires a rating of around 1800, so the advanced Fundamentals levels can remain relevant well beyond beginner level.