Introduction 

Video 1 

Study 1: The Starting Position 

Study 2: The Pawns - Basic 

Study 3: Pawns - Special Moves 

Study 4: The Knights 

Study 5: The Bishops 

Study 6: The Rooks 

Study 7: The Queen 

Study 8: The King 

Study 9: Castling 

Study 10: Ranks, Files and Notation

Drill 1 

Drill 2 

Drill 3 

Drill 4 

Drill 5 

Quiz 1 

Quiz 2 

Quiz 3 

Quiz 4 

Quiz 5 

Chapter 1: The Basics

Study 1: Check 

Study 2: Checkmate (Back-Rank)

Study 3: Dual Piece Checkmate 

Video 2 

Study 4: Stalemate

Drill 1

Chapter 2: Checks, Checkmate and Stalemate

Study 1: The 10 Golden Moves (Diagram)

Study 2: The 10 Golden Moves in Practice 

Study 3: King's Pawn Openings

Drill 1: The Italian Opening 

Drill 2: 1. e4 vs The Sicilian Defense

Video 3 

Study 4: Queen's Pawn Openings

Drill 3: The London 

Drill 4: The Queen's Gambit 

Video 4 

Study 5: Black vs 1. e4 - The Italian And Sicilian Defense

Drill 5: Black vs The Italian Opening 

Drill 6: The Sicilian Defense

Study 6: The Caro-Kann Defense

Drill 7: The Caro-Kann Advanced Variation 

Drill 8: The Caro-Kann Exchange Variation 

Drill 9: The Caro-Kann, Classical Variation 

Video 5 

Study 7: Openings Against 1. d4 

Drill 10: The Queen's Gambit Declined 

Drill 11: The King's Indian Setup 

Video 6 

Study 8: The Scholar's Mate

Drill 12: Scholar's Mate - White's Mate in 4 

Drill 13: Scholar's Mate - Black's Best Defense

Chapter 3: Opening Basics

Study 1: The Fork 

Study 2: The Absolute Pin 

Study 3: The Skewer

Chapter 4: Tactics

GothamChess Chessboard

There's a special type of move in chess which is the only move that involves the movement of two pieces at the same time. 

It is called castling. Castling takes place when a king moves two squares either left or right, and the rook in the corner jumps one square over the king. 

Let me show you both types of castling: long and short.

Since there are no pieces in the way, White could also castle queenside (also called long-castling). 

The king walks the same distance, however. The king walks two squares to the left. The rook is also put next to the king.

So imagine if the game continues and the king goes back.

If you move a rook, you cannot castle to the side of the rook you moved. Castling privileges are lost on that side.

The players have repeated moves. Nevertheless, White cannot castle anymore because they have moved their king already!

If there were a piece in between the king and rook, castling cannot happen.

If the king or rook have moved in the game, castling privilege is lost.

Look at that! 

Black's king moved two squares and the rook ended up on f8! Yes, Black castled short. 

Each side can only castle once per game. It's a way of getting the king out of the center quickly. 

There are some conditions that must be met for it to occur. The king cannot be in check, the king cannot go through danger, and neither the rook nor the king can have moved.

It appears that this is the same position.

Nonetheless, you can still castle on the side of the rook you haven't moved.

White can also castle kingside or short. 

The king on e1 walks to f1 and then to g1. The rook on h1 jumps one square over the king and ends up on f1. This is the mechanism of kingside castling.

It's called kingside because of the starting position of the pieces. 

Since the king starts the game on the e-file, files from the e- to h-files comprise the kingside.

White can still castle short, but queenside castling isn't available because there's a knight on b1, blocking the king and a1-rook.

Chapter 1, Lesson 11

Chapter 1, Lesson 11

GothamChess Chessboard