How to Practice Chess Openings: Ten Minutes a Day

To practise an opening, play its moves yourself, from memory, against an opponent who answers the way your real opponents do. Then come back to the line just as it starts to fade.

Videos help too. But watching a video about the Italian is a bit like watching a video about push-ups. You know how it's done. Your arms are no stronger.

Here's what one training session in our courses looks like. It takes about ten minutes.

1. A course for your rating

Every course comes in five versions: for 1400, 1600, 1800, 2000 and 2200. The opponent's moves in each version come from games played at that level.

This matters more than it sounds. An engine answers with the best moves. An opponent at 1400 often plays something the books barely mention. We looked at one such move in the article on how to study chess openings.

If the course has a study plan, switch on Main lines. These are the replies you'll meet in about six games out of ten at your rating. The rest can wait.

2. Study: the move is named for you

Press Study under the board. The card names your move, and the opponent answers by itself. If their move has a comment, the course stops and shows it.

Played something else? The card will say "Wrong move, try again". That's fine in Study. You're only getting to know the line.

3. Training: on your own

When the line ends, the course offers a Train button. Press it straight away, while the line is fresh.

Same line, no prompts, and the move list is hidden. Play a wrong move and its square turns red. You can try again or take a hint.

If you have several chapters, pick the ones you want and switch on Shuffle order. Otherwise you'll remember the lines by their order, and your opponent doesn't play in order.

At the end the course sums it up:

No mistakes
Completed once
Next review in 4 hours

4. Review when it calls you back

That last line is the useful one.

The chapter comes back in 4 hours. Get through it with no mistakes and no hints, and the next time is a day later, then 3 days, a week, two weeks, a month, three months and six months. Take a hint and the interval stays the same. A mistake sends the chapter back to 4 hours.

You can, of course, play a chapter eight times in one evening. The course will count the runs but won't move the review date. A review only counts once the line has had a little time to fade.

You don't have to keep track of dates. The bell reminds you, and Review now builds the queue for you. Reviews work when you're signed in.

5. Play

The best part.

Add your Lichess or Chess.com username to your profile. When you visit the site, it pulls in your new games and checks them against the courses you study. If yesterday's games have something worth a look, the bell lights up with the move where each game left the course, who left it first, and what the course plays there. Games count from the day you started the course.

Left it first yourself? That chapter is asking to be reviewed. Your opponent left first? Look at what they played. It may well be one of those moves the books barely mention.

What the trainer can't do

It won't play the game out with you. When the course line ends, you only see a sample continuation, and that part isn't trained.

And it doesn't know every move there is. Rare replies are left out of the course, or it would run to thousands of lines. When your opponent leaves the course, you're on your own. But at least now you know which move it happened on.

You can also train courses in our Android app. The Google Play link and a QR code to download it are on the home page. Progress and reviews in the app are shared with the site.

Every opening on the courses page comes in all five ratings. One line of any course opens without an account. Sign up, and the rest is free while the open beta lasts.