NM Dane Mattson's Starting Out Study Guide (0-600 Elo)

Editor's Note: We are proud to present this study guide from NM Dane Mattson as part of our 2025 Chess Improvement Challenge. We encourage interested improvers to sign up for the challenge, set their goals, and join the official Improvers club!

• NM Robert Ramirez's Beginner Study Guide (600-1000 Elo)
• WGM Dina Belenkaya's Beginner Intermediate Study Guide (1000-1400 Elo)
• CM Can Kabadayi's Intermediate Advanced Study Guide (1400-1800 Elo)
• GM Arturs Neiksans' Advanced Study Guide (1800+ Elo)

Welcome to Coach Dane's 0-600 rating beginner study plan! I'm National Master Dane Mattson, and I'm excited to support you on your chess journey. My own chess journey spans over three decades and I have served as a chess coach for over 20 years. I obtained the USCF National Master title at the age of 26, so I have quite a bit of experience walking the road to chess improvement as an adult. 

I know how difficult chess improvement can be, and how overwhelming it can feel as you're taking your first steps on your chess adventure. Don't worry, you're not walking the road to chess improvement alone. The Chess.com Team and community will be with you every step of the way! This study plan is designed to give you everything you need to hit the 64 squares running. 

As we jump into our study plan, remember that these are my personal recommendations, but I also know the best study plan is the one you are willing to consistently follow! Please use this plan as a great "starter kit" gameplan to learn and practice the game, but I encourage you to experiment and see what works best for you! Now, let's get into the chess! 

If I had to summarize our study plan in two words, it would be active learning. We'll discuss several ways to study and play chess, but I always want you to think about how you are an active learner in the process. We learn by doing, so we're going to focus on playing, learning, and solving. 

• Beginner Basics
• Play
• Learning
• Strategy
• Openings
• How to Structure Your Training Program
• Coach Dane's Improvement Summary
• Chess.com Improvers Club

Beginner Basics

Beginner Basics Goal #1: Complete the lesson and solve the challenge exercises in the "How to Move the Pieces" course. 

If you're completely brand new to chess (welcome!), or you haven't played in quite some time, I strongly recommend starting with this interactive course that covers the basic moves of the pieces and some basic rules you need to know. Once you complete that course, or you already feel comfortable with this topic, then I recommend answering my three essential chess improvement questions:

Coach Dane's Three Essential Improvement Questions for Beginners

1. In an emergency, do you know how to apply "King CPR?" 
2. Do you know enough French to improve your chess game?
3. When can you move two of your own pieces with a single move? 

On the surface, at least two of these questions look rather silly, but incredibly, understanding the answers to these questions will improve your chess game! 

We will fully address these questions by completing the "Playing the Game" course. I want you to go into this course thinking about the following concepts to really boost your learning experience, both in the lessons as well as during your own games! 

1. "King CPR" When our king is under attack (in check), we should apply "King CPR," a concept I first heard from FIDE Master Mike Klein. When in check...

A) Can we Capture the checking piece?

B) Can we Protect our king by blocking the check with a piece or a pawn?

C) Can we Run away with our king?

In my experience, we often do the opposite, immediately thinking about where to run with our king. Adding "C" and "P" to your "King CPR" checklist will help you consider potentially stronger moves every time you are in check!

2. A single French phrase can improve your chess! Enpawhaaaat?!

"En Passant" is an absolute game changer. Be sure to pay special attention to the "En Passant" lesson and practice the challenges at least a few times to really understand how this works. 

3. “Castle early and castle often”

This is a phrase we share with beginners, emphasizing the importance of castling. This is the only time we can legally move two of our own pieces at the same time! Castling is a great way to move your king to safety while activating one of your rooks - an important opening guideline to follow. As we prepare to enter the 64-squared chess jungle and start playing games, this castling lesson really helps us understand the ins and outs of this essential maneuver! 

Beginner Basics Goal #2: Complete the "Playing the Game" interactive course. 

Completing the video lessons and solving the challenge exercises will help you fill in any foundational gaps you may have regarding the rules and basic ways a chess game can end. Once you complete this course, you can show off your French and gain a competitive edge with a special pawn trick that many beginners think is a bug—but I assure you, it's very much an awesome feature!

Play

Once you learn or review the essential beginner basics, the most active, important (and fun) way to improve your chess is to play games. If you only wanted to focus on three things, I'd strongly recommend playing games, playing games, and...playing games! Well, analyzing your games, solving puzzles, and completing interactive lessons should definitely be considered, but I think it's really important to play as often as you are comfortable. 

As a beginner, you have so many different options to play on Chess.com. I'll share multiple pathways for you to consider, but ultimately, you can decide what feels fun and comfortable to you. Here are the three main options I recommend: 

Path One: Play against a Beginner bot

The road to 600 and beyond is filled with many gifts, especially free, or hanging, pieces that can simply be captured. We're going to focus on taking more "free stuff" than we offer to our opponent. It sounds simple, but this takes quite a bit of patience and practice! 

A great way to start playing immediately is to challenge one of our Beginner bots. These games are unrated and untimed, so you can take as much time as you feel comfortable thinking about your moves. These bots are often in the giving mood, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to win material for free! Of course, they don't mind accepting a gift or two as well, so we need to stay focused. 

Coach Dane's Beginner Playbook Tip: Playing your first game can feel overwhelming, even against a bot, so I wrote an article "How to Beat Your First Chess Bot," guiding you through this adventure. This article will cover advice I give to beginners in general regarding opening fundamentals, how to win "free stuff," and how to actually win the game. Not only will this help you crush your first bot, it will also prepare you for human opponents as well. Get the competitive edge against your opponent by practicing the ideas I share in this article!  

Play Goal #1: Select "Play Bot" in the Play menu, choose "Beginner," and then challenge Martin, playing your first game against a Beginner bot! 

Coach Dane's Bot Tip #1: Your first game against a bot is set to "Friendly Mode" by default, which means you can ask for hints if you're stuck, or take a move back and play another move. I recommend not relying on this too heavily, but it's nice to know you can use it if needed. 

Play Goal #2: Defeat Martin three times and then move on to the next Beginner bot! 

Coach Dane's Beginner Bot Stretch Goal: Defeat all of the Beginner bots at least three times per bot. You'll gain tremendous experience and learn quite a bit - skills you can then use against other opponents! If you get stuck against a certain bot, let us know in the Improvers Club! I will help cook up a winning recipe for your next bot battle! 

Path Two: Play a Daily Game

A Daily Game is another great way to build positive playing habits. I recommend starting out with a "3 day per move" Daily Game, which means both sides have 72 hours to make a move in the game. This way, you don't feel the time crunch to make a move within seconds. Most players often make a move more quickly than the 72 hour limit, but it's nice to have this window of time if life gets busy or you take a "chess vacation" for the weekend. 

Play Goal #3: Start a "3 day per move" Daily Game, and try to make at least one move per day when possible. 

Check out this article explaining the basics of Daily Chess and how to play your first Daily Game.

Coach Dane's Daily Game Tip - "Don't Rush": When your opponent makes a move in a Daily Game, we can always feel the pressure to quickly decide what we're going to play next and make a quick move. A good way to deal with this is to first check what your opponent would play on their next turn. See if your opponent can deliver a check against your king or favorably capture a piece on the next move so you know what they might be planning to do next. You can then compare these moves with your own attacking possibilities and see what might prove most important in any given position.

Path Three: Play a live, rated, rapid game

Playing against a Beginner bot (Path One) and playing a Daily Game (Path Two) are both great ways to play in a more relaxed setting with plenty of time to think about your moves. I strongly recommend you spend as much time as you feel comfortable exploring these two paths before your jump into live, rated games. As you increase your comfort level in playing these types of games, you may then want to explore playing a live, rated, timed game. These games are more fast paced but can also be a fun, exhilarating experience. Unlike a Daily Game, live rated games will often finish within 10 to 20 minutes, and you will also be able to comfortably play and review more games each day. It's also a great long-term way to measure your rating progress.

Play Goal #4: Play a 15 minute + 10 second increment, or 10 minute rapid game.

Coach Dane's Rapid Play Tip: Some players absolutely love playing live games, and others need some time to get used to it. This is a great moment to give yourself room to grow and see what you feel comfortable doing. Don't feel pressured to play timed games immediately, but eventually this is an important step forward for most people on the road to chess improvement. 

To help better understand rapid chess, you can check out how to start a game here, and this article explains how time controls work on Chess.com. 

Play Goal #5: As you gain more experience with all of the different playing options, I suggest building a weekly routine. This will be different from person to person, but one example might be playing against one bot every day you devote to chess, making one Daily Game move per chess day, or playing at least four rapid games per week. 

Learning

Playing games is the most important ingredient to our chess improvement routine. In order to maximize our learning potential with these games, before we use Game Review and solve puzzles to boost our improvement routine (discussed later in this section), we can pump up our chess fundamentals with some fun, interactive lessons. 

How to Gain a Winning Advantage in Chess

My top two fundamental learning goals for you are to learn how to secure victory in completely winning positions, coupled with how to create a winning advantage. The following two courses will give you a big head start on your path to chess improvement. 

Learning Goal #1: Complete the "Winning the Game" lessons and solve the interactive challenges.

This interactive course will help you learn the essential endgame checkmate patterns, as well as how to refute a dangerous, but ultimately dubious four move checkmate attempt that overly enthusiastic beginners try to unleash on unsuspecting opponents. 

Coach Dane's Learning Tip #1: Two rooks vs. king, queen vs. king, and rook vs king are the three most important endgame checkmate skills we need to learn and practice. You can practice mastering these endgame skills by selecting the first three exercises in this interactive endgame workout. 

Learning Goal #2: Complete the "Capturing the Pieces" lessons and solve the interactive challenges. 

Don't let the title fool you—capturing the pieces is only one of the essential lessons in this course to help boost your chess fundamentals. We're going to learn the value of the pieces, find out what makes a good or a bad trade, and discover some awesome tactical tricks that will bewilder your opponents and help you gain a winning advantage! 

Coach Dane's Learning Tip #2: Take your time and really absorb these lessons and exercises. Feel free to go through this course a few times. Once you really feel comfortable with the value of the pieces as well as the essential tactical ideas, you'll be able to use these new skills in your games, better understand Game Review analysis, and sharpen your puzzle solving skills!

Puzzles: 

Pattern recognition is one of the most important skills to develop as a chess player. Solving puzzles is a great daily routine, and you have no shortage of puzzles to solve right here on Chess.com! Visit www.chess.com/puzzles to begin your solving journey. 

Puzzles Goal #1: Attempt at least one puzzle each day you're working on chess. 

This is a great habit to build and a wonderful way to sharpen your mind before playing a game. 

If you want to learn more about puzzles, check out this article.

Coach Dane's Puzzles Tip #1: I am the Chess.com Daily Puzzle curator, creating a new puzzle for you to solve everyday! The Monday Daily Puzzle is designed to be the most beginner friendly puzzle of the week, and the puzzles progress in difficulty through Sunday, when we reach master-level strength puzzles. I encourage you to build a daily habit of attempting to solve the Daily Puzzle. Even the more difficult puzzles have interactive explanations to help guide you through the puzzle solving process so you can gain a tactical insight or two with each puzzle. 

Coach Dane's Puzzles stretch goal: Sharpen your tactical skills by completing the "Winning with Tactics" lessons and solving the challenges. 

This is a more advanced compliment to the "Capturing the Pieces" course, introducing more amazing tactical ideas to add to your puzzle-solving toolbox, not to mention arming you with new tricks to unleash against your unsuspecting opponents! 

Coach Dane's Puzzles Tip #2: Forks, pins, and skewers, oh my! As you learn more tactical themes, you can create your own customized puzzles to practice specific themes. Check out this introductory puzzles article and scroll down to "Custom Puzzles" to learn more about how you can create your own customized tactical chess workout! 

Strategy

As we continue our chess improvement journey, it’s important to have a general strategy of how to play and win the game. At the 0-600 level, our strategy will involve making the most of our pieces, learning how to overwhelm the king’s defenses, and also how to refute the dangerous, but unsound strategy of trying to win the game in just four moves. We’ll also keep our eyes out for “free stuff” along the way - hanging pieces and pawns happen all the time! 

Strategy Goal #1: Complete the “Opening Principles” course and solve the interactive challenges. This will help us focus on sound opening strategy, how to prioritize active pieces, as well as how to keep our king safe beyond the opening.

Strategy Goal #2: Complete the “Finding Checkmate” course and solve the interactive challenges. Don’t let the title fool you - we’re not just going to find checkmate, we’re going to boost our strategic understanding. After completing this course, I’d like you to remember the phrases “Don’t just check,” “Watch your back rank,” and target the “f2” and “f7” bullseye targets!

Strategy Goal #3: Refute the unsound strategy many beginners hope to unleash, the dangerous but dubious “Four Move Checkmate.” Complete “The Four Move Checkmate” course and practice the challenges to make sure you are never checkmated in four moves. 

Strategy Goal #4: We need a general game plan for our pieces. A great way to do that is to complete the course “Make the Most of Your Pieces” and interactive challenges to learn how to help your pieces live their best lives on the 64-squares. 

Game Review: 

If you turn on a chess engine, you may find yourself overwhelmed by the world of numerical evaluations with seemingly endless chess moves and variations flooding your screen. Thankfully, Chess.com's Game Review makes reviewing your games fun, accessible, and easy! 

Game Review will share an overall summary of the game, as well as walk you through move-by-move insights. You'll learn and have the chance to practice game changing opportunities, as well as see a list of recommended lessons to elevate your game. 

Coach Dane's Game Review Tip: There are so many awesome features to try out with Game Review, you might initially wonder where to start or how to make the most out of Game Review. Check out this article that will walk you through the Game Review process.

Game Review Stretch Goal: Make a Game Review Positive Sandwich

As you become more familiar using game review, a good stretch goal is to start building "Game Review" positive sandwiches. When you review a game, write down two positive things you did in the game and also write down one thing you learned from the game and can try to improve next time. 

I recommend writing one positive thing, put the learning opportunity in the middle, and sandwich it with a second positive comment. I know all too well how easy it is to be really negative about your chess, so it’s important to also emphasize the positive. Chess improvement is a marathon, and you need to give yourself positive support on this incredible journey.

Openings

One of the most popular topics is how to open a chess game. As you take your first steps on your improvement journey, I strongly recommend that you don't stress about particular opening names or theory. You are going to win or lose games by tactics, and even if you blunder early, you will almost always have second, third, or fourth chances to turn the game around and even win! 

Instead of specific openings, we want to focus on sound opening moves and follow a healthy developmental plan. If you control the center, develop your pieces to safe and active squares, and castle your king, this opening strategy will help you march toward 600 and beyond!

Openings Goal #1: Don't stress about memorizing openings—you don't need to do that! Review the first two lessons in the "Opening Principles" course we mentioned in our "Strategy" section. This general understanding will give you a solid opening foundation. 

Openings Goal #2: Check out my article, "How to Beat Your First Bot." There you will find a great beginner's opening strategy and some examples how to punish careless opening play. Be prepared to plant a flag or two in the chess mountain.  

Openings Goal #3: If the first two goals haven't quenched your opening thirst, complete the "Intro to Book Openings" course and the accompanying challenge exercises.

Coach Dane's Openings Treat: I know learning the names and studying the basic ideas of the openings can be really fun! As long as you're motivated by fun and curiosity, and do not feel like you need to memorize openings, you might really enjoy exploring our "Learn the Openings" series. 

How to Structure Your Training Program

A common question that chess coaches receive is: "I only have some amount of minutes per day to study chess, what should I prioritize with my available time?"

There are many paths to the same improvement summit, so I do not want to prescribe a "you must do ‘x, y, and z' or you won't improve" mandate. We all have our own goals, abilities, motivations, and constraints. Do not force yourself to follow my advice, or anyone else's, word for word or move by move. This is your chess adventure to enjoy and discover.

Whatever you choose to do, I suggest devoting the vast majority of your chess time to the active learning process. Play a game, solve puzzles, or review your games and actively work through the "Key Moments" in Game Review, retrying critical moments in the game. 

If you have 40 minutes you can devote to chess, for example, experiment and see what feels right for you. You might have a "Game Day" and play one game against a Beginner bot or play a live rapid game, make a move in your Daily Game, etc. You can then actively review your game(s) and call it a day. 

During your next chess day, you might rotate "Game Day" with "Learn and Solve" day, for example, or possibly combine the two. "Learn and solve" might mean completing one or two lessons in a particular course, and solving the associated challenge exercises. "Understanding Endgames" or "Make the Most of Your Pieces" are really instructive courses that you can work on by completing one lesson and set of challenges at a time. You might follow that up with solving some puzzles to round out your chess session. 

Ultimately, mix and match these ideas and see what works best for you. The most effective training program is the one you are willing to consistently follow and enjoy. We are going to support your chess journey every step of the way, but always remember that this is your journey - give yourself room to grow and experiment. 

Coach Dane's improvement tip: Active learning is a key ingredient to your chess success. We focus on a lot of important and serious topics for chess improvement, but you always want to have fun! Make sure you're enjoying your chess adventure. One way to do this is to find some "chess entertainment" that might also prove instructive! Here are some fun and instructive examples for you to consider:

GothamChess "Chess Steps": International Master Levy Rozman, aka "GothamChess." His "Chess Steps" 0-800 video is a great example of what you might encounter at beginner level and what steps you can take to help improve your game. Levy presents his content in a fun, light-hearted way that many users find enjoyable and instructive - a winning combination!

ChessBrah "Building Habits": Grandmaster Aman Hambleton, one of the "ChessBrahs," shares a vision for the game from the perspective of a beginner in his entertaining "Building Habits" video. He identifies key elements that will help you improve your game as he shares his "beginner" thought process in real time while playing with Chess.com beginners. 

Coach Dane's Improvement Summary

The road to 600 is paved by improving one’s awareness and consistent ability to keep your pieces safe, accepting your opponent’s free or favorable gifts, and then bringing home the full point by checkmating with a queen, rook, or combination of the two. It sounds simple, but simple in this case is far from easy. It takes patience and persistence. 

We’ve highlighted essential chess skills that you can learn through our interactive lessons and practice with any number of the playing paths we discussed. Please avoid worrying about the rating number next to your username. Embrace active learning and enjoy discovering the amazing beauty of chess. Like a shadow, over time, your rating will follow your passion and dedication to your noble chess improvement pursuit.

Chess.com Improvers Club

As we conclude our 0-600 Study Plan, there will understandably be questions you'd like to have answered that you didn't see explained in this study guide. Thankfully, the 2025 Chess.com Improvement Challenge offers incredible community support! 

As a member of our 2025 Chess.com Improvement Challenge, please use the Improvers Club to your advantage. You'll find me there, as well as a host of other experienced titled players that are eager to support you on your chess journey. The club has interactive forum topics including resources for improvers, "Ask the Coach/Community", and of course, you can introduce yourself and share your chess goals!

Coach Dane's Improvement Tip: Check out my Coach Dane YouTube channel. I'm going to create content catered to our Chess.com Improvers. Questions you ask in our club may be covered in a future video - stay tuned!

We're all in this together and I look forward to walking the road to chess improvement together in 2025! 

Onward!

-Coach Dane