ABOUT US
I’m Jake Fishman and my journey as a chess teacher began in Hong Kong, when I was working with Scholastic Chess. It was the city’s leading school for young players.
Returning to London, I teamed up with some of the UK’s finest coaches to develop lessons that adapt to each student’s strengths. Mindful Chess started with me providing chess lessons to one group of 12 students in South London. It has since grown into a team of teachers delivering chess clubs to over 500 students each week across 20 schools spread across Greater London. In recent years, a growing number of children and adults from 8 different countries have started taking lessons with us online.
SO WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF CHESS LESSONS 4 BEGINNERS
When I meet new players, I often hear the same questions: “What are all the rules?”, “How do I spot tactics?”, “Which checkmate patterns should I learn first?” I wanted a single place where beginners could find straightforward answers, without going through complex theory. Create a library with helpful and easy to understand chess tutorials, that anyone could use when they need. So we have prepared a side project that could fill this gap. That’s where Chess Lessons 4 Beginners came from.
All of our material is open and free to use. You won’t need to sign up or pay anything.
All chess lessons are organised into four key areas:
Basic Chess Rules
Learn how each piece moves, how to set up the board, castling, en passant and the rules of promotion.
Additional concepts
Understand ideas like centre control, pawn structure and piece activity, explained in simple terms.
Checkmate patterns
Study the most common mating patterns like the back‑rank mate, smothered mate, ladder mate., etc.
Chess tactics
Discover forks, pins, skewers and other tactical motifs with clear examples you can practise right away.
MY APPROACH
I believe everyone learns differently. Some prefer diagrams, others step‑by‑step guides or interactive puzzles. That’s why I’ve gathered a variety of explanations, illustrations and videos, so you can find what works best for you.
Our most popular chess lessons
But sometimes chess players also require guidance
As our online community grew, I started noticing a pattern in the messages I was receiving.
Students would get stuck on particular concepts despite working through all the available lessons
Some were finding certain tactical patterns difficult to learn
Others had hit a plateau and couldn’t seem to push their chess rating higher
Many felt their progress had stalled even though they were putting in the effort
That’s what led us to start offering online individual coaching sessions alongside our free lessons.
That’s when we added individual coaching sessions. We use the same methods as our lessons, but tailored to each person.
Meet our coaches
Iulia Poama-Covaci
Chess rating: 1700
Chris Weymouth
Chess rating in blitz 1600
Joel Newman
FIDE, chess rating: 2050
Andrew Buzzeo
Chess rating: 2103
Andrew Buzzeo
Chess rating: 2050
Alisdair McLeod
Chess rating: 1801 FIDE
Want some personal guidance with your chess? Book a one-to-one coaching session to work on exactly what you need.
Learn chess as a beginner — with free lessons, tutorials, or one-on-one coaching.