The University

202 lessons that teach you real chess, starting from which square is which.

It will teach you chess.

Every town has a Chess University with a professor in it. They do not teach you how to play this game — they teach you chess itself, starting from which end of the board is yours and going all the way up to the endgames grandmasters study.

202lessons
23subjects
887steps you click through
253questions to answer
9professors

Eight Chess University halls captured from the game, one per town: Openfield in the fields, Frostford on the ice, Gearhaven in brass, Lanternwick at dusk, Tidemoor on the water, Rookwood among the leaves, Dunemarch in the sand, and Stormspire on the rock. — Eight of the nine halls. The ninth is Verdant Vale’s, three floors up the inside of the Great Tree.

What a lesson is actually like

Not a wall of text. The professor sets up a position, the board lights up the squares being talked about, the idea is explained in plain words, and then you are asked a question with three answers.

You cannot fail. Get it wrong and nothing happens to you — the step just waits. The first miss gets a nudge that gives nothing away, because you are still thinking. Miss again and it works the whole answer through with you, and then you move on. The questions are not a test. They are the teaching.

Every town teaches something different

No professor covers the same ground twice — you learn openings in one town, endgames in another, and so on across all nine.

Openfield33 lessonsthe basics, and how to read chessProfessor Alderwood
Frostford27 lessonsendgamesProfessor Wintermere
Gearhaven33 lessonsopenings, traps and gambitsProfessor Ratchet
Lanternwick24 lessonschess history and famous gamesProfessor Moth
Tidemoor18 lessonstacticsProfessor Undertow
Verdant Vale16 lessonspositional strategyProfessor Bramble
Rookwood7 lessonstournament rules and annotationProfessor Quill
Dunemarch18 lessonsadvanced play and calculationProfessor Sirocco
Stormspire26 lessonscheckmates and attackingProfessor Vane

Finishing a class pays you. Experience for your team, 2,000 Pawn Bucks for your pocket — and 124 of the 589 boards can be won no other way. Take the lesson, or never own them.

A lesson captured from the game: the full starting position on a guided board, with the question 'White's Queen starts on which square?' and three answers. — Professor Alderwood's hall — the question is the teaching.

You can walk out of this game a better chess player than you walked in. That is not a side effect. It is the point.

The free demo is the first part of the game — two towns, Openfield and Frostford, and the road between them. Everything you catch there carries straight into the full game.

Demo coming soonFollow for updates