Short, practical guides to getting better at chess: finding your real weakness, analyzing your own games, and making patterns stick. For the product behind them, see the About Mainline page.
- How to find your #1 chess weaknessReview several recent games with an engine, then look for mistakes that repeat. This guide shows you how to choose what to practice.
- How to analyze your own chess gamesTo analyze your own chess games effectively, review each game once on your own first, then check it with an engine, and focus on the moments where you had a decision.
- Spaced repetition for chess, explainedSpaced repetition means reviewing material over several days, with longer gaps as you remember it. In chess, you can use it to practice moves and recognize familiar patterns.
- The Danish Gambit: a complete beginner's guideThe Danish Gambit is an aggressive opening where White sacrifices one or two pawns early to open lines and attack Black's king fast. Here's the idea, in plain English.
- Chess.com and Lichess are where you play. Mainline is where you improve.Chess.com and Lichess are where you play. Here's what to use when you want to improve: weakness training from your real games, Duolingo-style courses, and 60-second Brain Games.
Brain Games guides
- Brain Games: sixty seconds, one chess skillBrain Games are one-minute drills that each isolate a single chess skill, the way a gym machine isolates a muscle.
- Coverage: the 1-minute board vision drillCoverage shows you a position and asks one question, over and over, against a sixty-second clock: which squares are attacked, and which are safe?
- Knight Taxi: the knight-route drillThe knight is the piece humans read worst. Its move is the only one with no straight line, which is why knight forks account for so many lost queens below 1400.
- Hanging?: the piece-safety reflex drillA piece appears in a position. Defended or hanging? You have a second to decide, and a minute to decide it as many times as you can.
- Escape Squares: the king-safety drillWhere can the king run? Escape Squares flashes positions and asks you to find the king's flight squares in seconds.
Opening & trap guides
- Fried Liver AttackThe Fried Liver Attack sacrifices a knight to drag Black's king into the open, then hunts it down. Here's how it works, line by line.
- Stafford GambitThe Stafford Gambit hands White a pawn and lays traps everywhere — one careless move and it's mate. Here are the traps, the punishments, and the refutation.
- Vienna GambitThe Vienna Gambit sacrifices the f-pawn to tear open Black's kingside — a sharper cousin of the Danish. Learn the plan and the lines.
- Scotch GameThe Scotch Game skips the slow Italian and breaks the centre open with the d-pawn for a sharp, tactical fight. Here's the plan and the main lines.
- Danish GambitHand Black a pawn or two on purpose, swing both bishops onto long diagonals aimed at the king, and attack. Here's the Danish Gambit, move by move.
- Traxler CounterattackThe Traxler answers the Fried Liver with a bishop sacrifice and a king hunt — many lines just end in mate. Here's how to play it, and how to meet it.
- Italian GameThe Italian Game aims a bishop at Black's weakest square and develops with pressure. Learn the plans and the lines on Mainline.
- Scholar's MateScholar's Mate is the four-move checkmate every beginner meets. Here's exactly how it works, and the simple way to defend it for good.
- Légal's MateLégal's Mate sacrifices the queen to mate with three minor pieces. Here's exactly how the trap works, and the one move that defuses it.
- Fool's MateFool's Mate is the two-move checkmate — the fastest possible. Here's exactly how it happens, and the simple reason it will almost never happen to you.