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

Another very popular opening is 1. d4.

The d-pawn is the queen's pawn. White could play this to have a slower game with positional ideas, as opposed to a big tactical battle.

In this study, we'll learn the London System and the Queen's Gambit.

This opening is the famous Queen's Gambit.

The London system is characterized by bringing this bishop out to f4.

And White castles kingside as well. 

We'll connect rooks and enjoy a solid middlegame. It's hard for Black to attack you, that's why many players like the safety the London system provides.

We play c3 to defend our d4-pawn even more.

But now you can use your pieces to start supporting those pawns on the center.

Black could of course not capture the pawn. 

We'll study this when we're learning what to play against 1. d4.

Black usually responds with 1...d5. 

Now, we can play the London System, which we can employ against nearly everything Black does.

Or, we can offer a pawn gambit. 

Let's explore both options.

We play e3 once the bishop is out on f4. 

That way, our pawns defend each other. The idea of the London is to put a pawn on d4, e3 and c3 to have these pawns work together.

The point of giving up a pawn on c4 is to get two pawns in the center. 

This is starting to look like the 10 golden moves!

We can capture and get a classical position quickly. 

White is better because of the control of the center, better pieces and space.

That's the entire idea behind offering the c-pawn early on.

We bring the knight out to f3 in the London.

Chapter 3, Lesson 9

Chapter 3, Lesson 9

GothamChess Chessboard