Learn Chess – 300+ Free Resources & Tools

Learn Chess – Free Resources & Tools

300+ free chess resources across 20+ categories. Play on Lichess or Chess.com, train with puzzles and tactics, study the Sicilian Dragon, analyze with Stockfish, build chess apps with APIs, and connect with communities. Everything from beginner to master level.

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Lichess and Chess.com are the two giants—both offer free play, puzzles, and lessons.
Start with tactics training (puzzles) before diving deep into openings.
For the Sicilian Dragon, combine database study (Lichess/365Chess) with book/course work.
Use Stockfish or Leela for analysis; both are free and world-class.
Join r/chess or Lichess forums to get feedback on your games.
The Week in Chess (TWIC) provides free weekly PGN downloads of pro games since 1994.

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Play & Major Websites

Lichess — Free, open‑source platform: play, puzzles, studies, analysis.
Chess.com — Largest chess site: play, lessons, puzzles, news.
Chess24 — Play, videos, events coverage (now part of chess.com media).
Internet Chess Club (ICC) — Long‑running server with shows and tournaments.
PlayStrategy (multi‑variant) — Open‑source server for chess variants and strategy games.
365Chess Database — Large opening explorer and game database.
ChessGames.com — Historic games, commentary, kibitzing.
Study Chess at Lichess — Community studies, repertoires, and shared analysis.
MultiplayerChess — Simple online chess rooms with friends.
FIDE — World Chess Federation – ratings, events, regulations.
US Chess — United States Chess Federation – news and events.
Chess Variant Pages — Rules and resources for many variants.
Chess Programming Wiki — Definitive resource on chess engines and algorithms.

Training Platforms & Tools

Aimchess — Data‑driven personalized training from your games.
DecodeChess — AI explanations of engine moves.
ChessMood — Structured opening systems and community.
Lucas Chess — Free training program with many drills.
ChessReps — Make and drill your repertoire.

Books & Publishers

Quality Chess — Advanced repertoire series and classics.
Everyman Chess — Accessible guides; Starting Out series.
Russell Enterprises — Monographs, historical works, Informant.
Thinkers Publishing — Modern training books and repertoires.
Dover Chess Classics — Affordable reprints of classics (Nimzowitsch, etc.).
Yusupov's Training Series — Structured course from beginner to master.
100 Endgames You Must Know — De la Villa's essential endgame manual.
My System (Nimzowitsch) — Positional play classic.
Silman's Endgame Course — Endgames by rating ladder.
Books on Sicilian Dragon — Selection of Dragon/Dragadorf titles.

Strategy & Endgame

Probe Syzygy (syzygy-tables) — Info and probing for 3‑7 piece tablebases.
IM John Bartholomew Playlists — Instructive games and strategy themes.
Hanging Pawns (YouTube) — Clear opening & strategy explanations.

Sicilian Dragon Resources

365Chess – Dragon Lines — ECO references B70‑B79.
ChessPublishing – Sicilian Dragon — Expert surveys and monthly updates.
TWIC PGNs – Sicilian — Download recent games and filter for Dragon.
Quality Chess – Dragadorf — Hybrid Dragon‑Najdorf resources.
Wikipedia – Sicilian Dragon — Overview, history, notable lines.

Puzzles & Chess Problems

ChessTempo Tactics — Huge high‑quality tactics set.
Daily Puzzle Archive (Lichess) — Archive of daily puzzles.
Studies Search (Lichess) — Curated endgame study collections.

Engines, GUIs & Analysis Tools

Stockfish — World‑class open‑source engine.
Leela Chess Zero — Neural‑network engine inspired by AlphaZero.
Komodo Dragon — Commercial NN/hybrid engine.
Ethereal — Strong open‑source engine.
Arasan — Open‑source engine and utilities.
Cute Chess — Match and tournament manager GUI.
Arena Chess GUI — Free Windows chess GUI.
BanksiaGUI — Modern multi‑platform GUI.
ChessX — Cross‑platform database GUI.
Nibbler (LC0 GUI) — Leela‑centric analysis GUI.
CuteChess‑CLI — Command‑line tournament tool.

Notation, FEN/PGN Tools & Parsers

python-chess — Python chess library: FEN/PGN, engines, TBs.
Chess.js — JS move legality & PGN/FEN utilities.
chessops (JS) — Modern JS chess rules & parsing.
PGN Mentor (TWIC PGNs) — Bulk weekly PGN downloads.
CQL – Chess Query Language — Search PGNs for patterns.

Boards & UI Components

chessboard.js — Popular embeddable JS board.
Chessground — Lichess' powerful board component.
chessboard-element (Web Component) — Modern board as a custom element.
Chessboard.jsx — React chessboard component.
react-chessboard — NPM package for React boards.
chess-board (npm) — Simple board component.
Chessboard Live Demo — Examples and integrations.
Chessground Docs — Usage and API.
Chessboard Vue — Vue 3 chessboard component.

Move Validators & Rules Engines

Chess.js — De‑facto JS rules engine & PGN utilities.
npm: chess — JavaScript chess library (rules & utils).
python-chess — Full‑featured rules/PGN/engine/TB.
chessops (TS) — Typed rules with variants support.
Sunfish (Python) — Tiny engine useful for rules logic.
Fairy-Stockfish (variants) — Rules/engine for many variants.
ChessRulez (Java) — Java chess library with PGN/FEN.

Bots & Engine Opponents

Lichess Bots — Community and official engine accounts.
Chess.com Bots — Theme and celebrity bots of varying strength.
PyChess (online GUI) — Play engines, variants, and analyze.
Arena vs Engine — Set up engine matches offline.
Lucas Chess Bots — Many adjustable training bots.

Talks, Podcasts & Video Series

Perpetual Chess Podcast — Interviews with titled players and authors.
Chicken Chess Club — GMs Svidler, Bartholomew, Gustafsson banter and insights.
GothamChess (Levy Rozman) — Popular lessons and recaps.
agadmator — Historic games and storytelling.
Daniel King – Power Play Chess — Instructive analysis and interviews.
Hanging Pawns — Opening guides and model games.
ChessDojo — Structured training talks from GMs/IMs.
St. Louis Chess Club — Lectures from top coaches and GMs.
Chess.com YouTube — Events, lessons, and fun formats.
FIDE YouTube — Official broadcasts and docs.

News, Events & Tournaments

FIDE News — Official updates and regulations.
European Chess Union — European championships and news.
US Chess News — National events and announcements.
World Championship Archive — History and results.
FIDE Rating List — Top players and rating lists.
Tornelo — Online tournament platform and pairings.

Communities & Forums

r/chess — Largest chess subreddit.
Chess StackExchange — Expert Q&A.
Chess Dojo Training — Structured plans & community.
FIDE Arbiters — Regulations and discussions for arbiters.
Reddit – r/chessbeginners — Help and resources for new players.
StackOverflow – chess tag — Coding questions for chess tools.

Chess Websites & Developer Docs

Lichess API — Powerful free API: games, studies, real‑time board.
Openings ECO Codes — Reference for opening codes.
Syzygy TB Format — Details of WDL/DTZ tables.

Piece Art, Icons & Fonts

Chess Symbols in Unicode — Code points for chess glyphs.
Wikipedia Piece Images — Wikimedia SVG sets (free).
Flaticon – Chess Icons — Icon packs for UI.
Spiral Pieces in 3‑D — 3D printable experimental designs.
Game-icons.net – Chess — Free CC‑BY icons suitable for UI.

Desktop & Mobile Apps

SCID vs PC — Open‑source desktop database.
ChessX — Cross‑platform database browser.
Lucas Chess — Feature‑rich training suite.
BanksiaGUI — Modern GUI for UCI engines.
Chessvision.ai — Scan positions from images/videos.

Additional Websites & Learning Hubs

Mastering the Endgame (series) — GM Marin's deep endgame texts.
Modern Chess Magazine — Downloadable opening prep PDFs.

Open Data & Game Archives

Lichess Database — Monthly dumps of millions of games (PGN/CSV).
TWIC Archives — PGN zips since 1994.
Historical Matches (chessgames) — Historic match collections with ECO.

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