For the longest time, I thought chess was one of those games you had to learn as a child if you ever wanted to become decent at it. It always looked intimidating to me. Whenever I watched experienced players, it felt like they were seeing things on the board that were completely invisible to me. So I kept telling myself that maybe I was already too late to start.
But then I realized something.
In this present day, when AI has become accessible to everyone, learning something new—even something as technical and challenging as chess—is no longer as impossible as it once seemed. As long as you have the motivation and passion to learn, you can pick up almost any skill.
Knowledge is everywhere now. AI can explain concepts in simple language, answer questions instantly, and even help analyze your mistakes. That makes the learning process much less intimidating for beginners like me.
Learning the basic rules of chess wasn't actually that difficult. Understanding how each piece moves only took a short amount of time. The real challenge begins when you sit down and face an opponent. Suddenly, you realize that knowing the rules and actually playing good chess are two completely different things.
Fortunately, I discovered a platform that has been making my learning journey a lot more enjoyable.
It's called Lichess.org.
Have you heard of it?
If you're looking for a place to learn chess, I honestly think it's one of the best options available, especially for beginners. Here are a few reasons why I immediately liked it:
That last point reminded me so much of Hive.
Whenever I hear the words open source, I'm automatically interested. There is just something about community-driven projects that makes them more appealing to me. Much like Hive, Lichess is built around openness, collaboration, and accessibility rather than locking features behind expensive subscriptions.
That philosophy alone made me want to support the platform by simply using it.
It's only been two days since I started learning chess through Lichess, and I intentionally say learning instead of playing because I'm not quite ready to challenge real people yet.
Right now, I'm spending most of my time in Practice Mode, playing against the Stockfish computer. One feature I absolutely love is the option to receive feedback after every move.
Well... maybe "love" isn't always the right word.
Sometimes it's brutally honest.
As a complete beginner, I make mistakes almost every move, and Lichess doesn't hesitate to tell me exactly how bad they are. 😅
At first, seeing mistake after mistake felt a little discouraging. But then I reminded myself that this is exactly why I'm practicing against the computer instead of another human player. Every blunder is simply another lesson.
And yes...
I also enabled the option that lets me take back my moves. 😂
I know... it feels like cheating.
Or maybe it feels like being a child who's learning to ride a bicycle with training wheels.
But honestly, I don't mind.
Those training wheels exist for a reason.
Every time I undo a move, I get another chance to understand why it was wrong. Instead of repeating the same mistake over and over again, I can immediately see a better alternative and slowly train my brain to recognize stronger moves.
I've also started exploring some of Lichess' other features. The puzzle section looks incredibly fun, although many of the tactical positions still leave me scratching my head. There are study materials created by experienced players, coordinate training exercises, and plenty of other learning tools that I haven't even touched yet.
It feels like I've only opened the first page of a very thick book.
I'm fully aware that becoming a decent chess player won't happen overnight.
There are openings to memorize, tactics to recognize, endgames to study, positional ideas to understand, and countless games to analyze. It's a journey that could easily take years.
But that's exactly what makes it exciting.
I don't have any expectations of becoming a strong player anytime soon. My goal right now is simply to enjoy the process, make a little progress every day, and slowly build enough confidence to eventually play against real people.
For now, I'll keep practicing against Stockfish, solving beginner puzzles, and asking AI plenty of questions whenever I don't understand something.
This is only the beginning of my chess journey, but I'm already having a great time.
Hopefully, in the near future, I'll finally gather enough courage to click that Play button and face another human.
