Stop guessing what to study next.
One curriculum, 52 units, from how the pieces move to queen versus rook. Every unit is lessons, a puzzle drill and a test you have to pass — against real puzzles for tactics, against Knighty for endgames — so each thing you learn builds on something you proved.
Rules
Passed
Basics
Due for review
- Up next
Improver
Your current unit
Intermediate
Unlocks when you pass the unit before it
Advanced
Unlocks when you pass the unit before it
Expert
Unlocks when you pass the unit before it
Your first unit is free · 52 units in all
How the Academy works
Answer one question
New to chess, know the rules, or played for years — one answer sets your first unit. Once you have 16 rated puzzle solves, your rating refines the spot.
Work through the unit
One to four lessons, then an 8-puzzle drill on the unit's topics, then a 5-puzzle test. Three clean solves pass it — no hint, no wrong move. Five out of five is three stars.
Earn stars, unlock the next
A pass opens the next unit and earns Pawns. Units before your starting point stay open for stars, never required — the Academy only ever moves forward.
Par (moves)
14
Three-star target
Within par + 4, no slips
Par is a Syzygy tablebase fact for this exact position
Endgames you play against Knighty, scored against the tablebase
The 13 endgame units don't quiz you — they make you play it out. Kings and a rook on the board, Knighty on the other side, and you have to deliver the mate, promote the pawn or hold the draw inside a move budget. That budget isn't a guess: every par comes from the Syzygy tablebase for that exact position — distance to mate for a mate, moves to promotion for a pawn ending, a survival budget for a hold — machine-checked before it was written into the unit. Three stars means you converted it about as cleanly as the tablebase would. Slip into a lost or drawn position and the play-out stops and offers a retry from the slip.
Mate or promote: three stars within par + 4 moves with no slips, two within par + 10. A hold is scored on slips alone — three stars for none, two for one.
That hangs the rook — the bishop on f6 takes it for free.
After the test: 2 misses to review before you leave
A wrong move gets a why
Play a wrong move anywhere in the Academy and Knighty doesn't buzz — he tells you what it costs, from engine facts only: a forced mate in N, a piece lost, an advantage that slips, or "honestly playable, just not the lesson's move". After a test, every miss gets its own "why did I miss this?" review before you leave the results screen, while the position is still fresh. This is authored text plus engine facts filled into four fixed verdicts — not a chat. The conversational coach is a different thing, and it lives on the analysis board.
Where should you start?
- I'm new to chess
- I know the rules and some tactics
- I've played for years
Refined by your puzzle rating after 16 rated solves
Review ring — this topic has faded
60-day half-life. Never re-locks.
Skip what you know. Come back to what faded.
One placement question sets your first unit; with 16 or more rated puzzle solves, your rating refines it. Units before your start stay open for stars, never required. And because the Academy reads your puzzle results over time, a passed unit's topic fades on a 60-day half-life — drop below the threshold and the unit shows a review ring. It never re-locks. It just tells you the honest state of what you learned in March by the time June comes round, instead of assuming it's still there. Understanding you can demonstrate, not a completion checkmark.
Fail the first test twice and Knighty offers the previous course — an offer, never an automatic step back. Nothing moves you without asking.
The Academy in numbers
52 units in 6 levels
Rules, Basics, Improver, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. Each level matches a puzzle-rating band, from under 900 up to 2000+.
83 lessons across the Academy
One to four per unit, from how the pieces move to queen versus rook — then the drill, then the test.
31 puzzle tests, 17 play-outs
Tactics units test against real puzzles; endgame units against Knighty, scored by the tablebase.
Drills that never come up empty
Every unit's band holds at least 40 real puzzles across its topics, and every topic at least 15 — re-derived from the corpus by the test suite.
Pawns for every unit
10 Pawns per unit passed and 5 per star. 17 units open with a 30-second coordinate warm-up. Web and mobile alike.
Twenty minutes, one right answer.
Sign in, answer one question, and the Academy carries the rest. Your first unit is free — and Knighty play-outs are free on every plan.
Start the Academy