Readiness Test
So, you consider yourself ready for rated games. Admirable confidence — let's see what's backing it up. Three tasks: castling-960, mate in one, and a position assessment; a couple of minutes for all of it, if you don't sit there staring at the ceiling. Pass — and I'll unlock the rating, and your wins will start meaning something. Fail — no tragedy, come back after the lessons, I'll wait. I always wait.
Task one — the signature dish of 960. King on b1, rooks on a1 and h1: one right beside him, the other across the whole board. Make either castling — kingside or queenside, I don't care, as long as the gesture is right. Anyone who starts shuffling the king one square at a time here still hasn't grasped the point.
Castling-960 — done. The gesture is in place; it gets harder from here.
Task two. Mate in one — the ABC of tactics, and without it I don't let anyone into rated play. The black king is on f8, your king on f6 has already cut off his seventh-rank squares — it remains to strike along the open line. Find the piece that puts the full stop. I won't hint twice.
Mate — done. You see the board, not just look at it.
This is a preview — the full interactive lesson is in the app.
Free, no ads · Android 8.0+ · coming soon to Google Play