Guides
Ten written guides for each game, from the first move to the habits that decide close positions.
Chess
Full rules, a thinking opponent, and a move list you can read back.
Chess opening principles that actually matterYou do not need to memorise opening theory to get a decent position. Three ideas — centre, development, king safety — will carry y…
8 minForks, pins and skewers: the tactics that decide most gamesNearly every game below master level is settled by a two-move tactic. These are the four patterns worth drilling until you see the…
9 minEight checkmate patterns worth recognising instantlyMate almost always arrives in one of a handful of shapes. Learn the shapes and you stop calculating from scratch every time.…
8 minChess endgames: the five positions every player should knowEndgames feel dry until you lose a won game. These five positions cover most of what actually comes up, and none of them takes lon…
9 minHow to stop hanging piecesMost lost games are not lost to brilliance. They are given away in one move. Here is a routine that removes the majority of those …
7 minCastling, en passant and promotion, explained properlyThree rules that confuse more new players than everything else combined — including the exact conditions people usually get wrong.…
7 minGetting the most out of playing a chess engineA computer opponent is a training tool, not just a rival. Used well it fixes weaknesses fast; used badly it teaches you to play sc…
7 minEvery way a chess game can be drawnHalf points come from five different rules, and knowing them turns lost positions into saves — and stops won positions slipping aw…
7 minPawn structure: the skeleton of the positionPawns are the slowest pieces and the ones that decide where every other piece belongs. Six structures explain most middlegame plan…
8 minA realistic study plan from beginner to club strengthWhat to work on, in what order, and how much of each — for players who have the rules down and want to stop losing to the same thi…
8 minHow to read chess notation and follow a gameAlgebraic notation takes ten minutes to learn and unlocks every chess book, video and database ever made.…
6 minSudoku
Every puzzle generated fresh, checked for a single solution, with hints that teach.
Scanning: the fastest way to start any sudokuBefore you write a single pencil mark, scanning will usually fill a third of the grid. Here is how to do it systematically instead…
6 minPencil marks: when to use them and how to keep them cleanCandidates turn a memory problem into a visible one. Used carelessly they turn a solvable puzzle into a mess.…
6 minNaked and hidden pairs, triples and quadsThe first real technique beyond singles, and the one that unlocks most hard puzzles. The idea is simpler than the names suggest.…
7 minX-wing, swordfish and the patterns beyond pairsWhen singles, pairs and locked candidates all run out, these are the next techniques — and the logic is more approachable than the…
7 minSeven mistakes that ruin sudoku gridsMost failed puzzles are not too hard. They are broken by a small error twenty moves earlier.…
6 minHow to solve sudoku faster without making errorsSpeed comes from cutting wasted looking, not from thinking quicker. Six changes that shorten solve times immediately.…
6 minWhat makes a sudoku hard?It is not the number of clues. Difficulty comes from which techniques are required and where the clues are placed.…
6 minA sudoku practice routine that actually improves youSolving more puzzles is not the same as getting better. Twenty focused minutes a day beats an hour of the same thing repeated.…
6 minSolving sudoku on paper, and what changesPaper is slower, harder and better for learning some things. Here is how to adapt, and how to print a grid from this site.…
5 minSudoku variants, and which ones are worth tryingKiller, jigsaw, diagonal, hyper — the popular variants change one rule each, and each change rewards a different kind of thinking.…
6 minGo
Captures, ko, passing and area scoring on 9×9, 13×13 or 19×19.
Liberties, atari and capture: the mechanics of a go fightEvery fight in go is a race to fill liberties. Counting them turns guesswork into arithmetic.…
6 minTwo eyes: how groups live and dieA group with two eyes cannot be captured, ever. Everything else in go is a negotiation about whether a group can get there.…
7 minHow to play 9×9 go wellThe small board is not a toy version. It is a complete game with its own strategy, and it is where every technique is easiest to l…
6 minThe ko rule, and how ko fights actually workOne short rule prevents infinite loops and creates the most tactical situation in go.…
6 minGood shape: why some stone formations just workShape is efficiency. Strong players do not calculate every move — they play formations that are hard to attack and move on.…
6 minGo opening principles: corners, sides, centreThe order is not arbitrary. It falls straight out of how many stones each area needs to enclose.…
6 minLadders and nets: capturing stones that try to runTwo techniques for catching escaping stones, and the whole-board check that decides which one to use.…
5 minThe go endgame: playing the biggest pointGames are lost in the endgame more often than anywhere else, usually by playing a five-point move when a twelve-point move was ava…
6 minHandicap stones and komi: how go stays fairGo has the best handicap system of any board game, and it turns mismatched games into genuinely competitive ones.…
5 minNine mistakes almost every new go player makesRecognising these early skips months of confusion — most of them come from applying instincts borrowed from other games.…
6 minMahjong Solitaire
The 144-tile turtle, dealt so it can always be cleared.
Mahjong solitaire strategy: choosing which pair to takeEvery board offers several legal moves and most of them are wrong. The difference between clearing and stalling is which pair you …
6 minThe free tile rule, in detailAlmost every mahjong solitaire question turns out to be a question about which tiles are free. Here is the rule with all its edge …
5 minHow to avoid running out of movesA solvable board can still be killed in twenty moves. These are the specific mistakes that do it.…
5 minThe mahjong tile set, explainedThree suits, two honour groups and eight bonus tiles. Knowing what you are looking at makes matching considerably faster.…
5 minClearing a mahjong board fasterSpeed comes from recognising tiles instantly and scanning the board in a fixed order, not from clicking quickly.…
5 minReading the turtle layoutThe classic shape is not arbitrary. Knowing where its pressure points are tells you what to clear and in what order.…
5 minMahjong solitaire is not mahjongThey share a tile set and nothing else. Here is what the real game is, and why the confusion exists.…
5 minWhen to shuffle and when to undoYou get three shuffles and unlimited undos. Choosing between them well is worth several cleared boards.…
4 minFive mahjong solitaire mistakes worth breakingEach of these feels efficient in the moment and costs you the board twenty moves later.…
4 minPlaying mahjong solitaire as a wind-downNot every game has to be optimised. Here is how to use the board when the point is the fifteen minutes, not the time on the clock.…
4 minGomoku
Five in a row on 15×15, against an opponent that answers threats.
Open threes and open fours: the grammar of gomokuEvery gomoku game is a conversation in threats. Learn to name them and the right move usually becomes obvious.…
6 minGomoku openings: the first five movesThe opening is short but it decides whether you spend the game attacking or defending.…
5 minDefending in gomoku without losing the initiativeBlocking is necessary, but pure blocking loses. The skill is choosing blocks that also build something.…
5 minForcing sequences: how gomoku games are actually wonAbove beginner level nobody wins by accident. Wins come from sequences of forcing moves that end in a threat that cannot be answer…
6 minBeating the gomoku computerThe opponent here blocks threats and searches ahead. Here is what each level actually does and how to play against it.…
5 minSix gomoku mistakes that lose gamesMost losses trace back to one of a handful of habits, and all of them are easy to break once named.…
5 minGomoku, Renju and the first-move problemFree-style gomoku is a proven win for Black. The rule variants that exist are all attempts to fix that.…
5 minHow to read a gomoku board quicklyStrong players are not calculating faster. They are scanning the board in a way that makes the important points obvious.…
5 minPlaying gomoku with another personTwo-player mode turns the board into a shared one. Here is how to make the games even, and how to teach someone in five minutes.…
4 minWhere gomoku comes fromA game played with go equipment for centuries, formalised in Japan, solved by computer, and still played competitively worldwide.…
5 minCheckers
Compulsory captures, jump chains and kings, played properly.
The compulsory capture rule and how to exploit itForcing your opponent's hand is the core of checkers tactics. Once you see it, the game changes completely.…
6 minKings, and how checkers endgames are wonA king is worth roughly two ordinary pieces. Getting the first one usually decides the game.…
6 minCheckers openings: what to do with the first ten movesYou do not need opening books. Four ideas cover the whole opening and they follow from how the pieces move.…
5 minTrapping: winning without taking piecesYou win checkers when your opponent cannot move, not only when they run out of pieces. That second condition is a whole strategy.…
5 minSix checkers mistakes that cost gamesAlmost all of them come from forgetting that captures are compulsory in both directions.…
5 minPlaying the checkers computerThe opponent here searches ahead with a minimax and never misses a compulsory capture. Here is how to make it a useful training pa…
5 minDraughts variants around the worldEnglish draughts is one of many. The differences in board size and capture rules change the game substantially.…
5 minPlaying checkers with another personTwo-player mode, teaching a beginner, and how to handle a skill gap without either player being bored.…
4 minWhere checkers comes fromA five-thousand-year lineage, a nineteenth-century tournament culture, and the game that broke a generation of computer scientists…
5 minGetting better at checkersThe skill ladder is short and well defined. Here is what to learn, in what order, and how to know when to move on.…
5 min2048
Slide, merge, and keep the big tile in the corner.
The corner strategy, explained properlyEveryone says keep the big tile in the corner. Here is why it works and what the rule actually requires you to do.…
6 minThe snake pattern: how high scores are builtCorner strategy gets you to 2048. The snake gets you to 4096 and beyond, by making every tile part of one long chain.…
6 minFive mistakes that end 2048 games earlyThe board usually dies for one of a small number of reasons, and four of them are entirely within your control.…
5 minGoing past 2048The first 2048 tile is a technique problem. The second one, and 4096, are management problems.…
5 minHow 2048 scoring worksYour score is determined entirely by which merges you make, which means it is almost completely predictable from your highest tile…
4 minThe maths behind 2048Powers of two, a fixed spawn probability, and a board that shrinks as you succeed. A short look at why the game is shaped the way …
5 minFast play versus careful play in 2048There is a real trade-off, and it changes as the board fills. Knowing when to switch modes is worth a whole tier of score.…
4 minPlaying 2048 on a phoneSwipe accuracy, one-handed play, and the settings that reduce mis-presses on a small screen.…
4 min2048 variants worth knowing aboutThe original spawned hundreds of imitations. A few of them change the game in genuinely interesting ways.…
4 minGetting consistently better at 2048Scores vary a lot game to game, which makes progress hard to see. Here is how to measure it and what to work on.…
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