Chess Lab
The chessboard is a classroom.
Nineteen games and twelve short stories that teach maths, logic, coding and history on the 64 squares. Free to play, with no sign-in.
- 19games
- 12stories
- 7school subjects
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MoneyNew here? Start with these three.
Each takes about five minutes and needs no chess knowledge at all.
Square hunt
Coordinates
Every square has a name. Find it before the clock does.
Ages 6 to 10 · about 5 minutes
Grain of rice
Doubling and powers
One grain on the first square. Double it on the next. Keep going.
Ages 8 to 14 · about 7 minutes
Move machine
First steps in coding
The rook will not move until you write its program.
Ages 7 to 12 · about 8 minutes
Five rooms, 19 games
Every game opens with the story behind it, has its own levels, and keeps your stars on this device.
The numbers room
Counting, sharing, doubling and balancing — maths you can move.
Square hunt
Coordinates
Every square has a name. Find it before the clock does.
Ages 6 to 10 · about 5 minutes
Piece scales
Sums and equations
A knight and a rook on one side. How many pawns on the other?
Ages 7 to 12 · about 6 minutes
Grain of rice
Doubling and powers
One grain on the first square. Double it on the next. Keep going.
Ages 8 to 14 · about 7 minutes
Heat map
Counting and comparing
A knight in the corner reaches two squares. In the middle — count them.
Ages 7 to 12 · about 6 minutes
Fair share
Division and fractions
Three players tie for second place. Who gets what?
Ages 8 to 12 · about 6 minutes
Clock watch
Time
Ten minutes for forty moves. How long is that for each one?
Ages 8 to 13 · about 6 minutes
Squad stats
Data handling
Five players, five scores. Who is the steady one?
Ages 9 to 14 · about 6 minutes
The logic room
Puzzles with one rule each. No luck, only thinking.
Chess sudoku
Logic and elimination
Each piece once in every row, every column, every box.
Ages 7 and up · about 8 minutes
Eight queens
Trial, pattern and proof
Eight queens, one board, and not one of them may attack another.
Ages 9 and up · about 8 minutes
Knight’s trail
Paths and planning
Visit every square. Land on each one exactly once.
Ages 8 and up · about 10 minutes
Last piece standing
Order and working backwards
Every move must capture. Finish with one piece on the board.
Ages 8 and up · about 7 minutes
Two truths and a blunder
Evidence and checking
Three statements about a position. One of them is false.
Ages 8 to 14 · about 6 minutes
The makers room
Write a program. Invent a piece. Then test what you made.
The world room
Where chess came from, and what a piece is worth.
The words and memory room
Say it exactly, see it in your head, mirror it.
Say it in eight
Precise writing
Describe what the piece is doing — in eight tiles or fewer.
Ages 8 to 13 · about 7 minutes
Blindfold corner
Working memory
The piece moves only in your head. Where does it end up?
Ages 8 and up · about 6 minutes
Mirror match
Symmetry
Half the board is a picture. Build its reflection.
Ages 6 to 11 · about 5 minutes
Ashta’s chess tales
Two-minute stories from fifteen centuries of chess. Read one, then play the game it leads to.
Teaching a class, an academy or a club?
Every game comes with a teacher note: the learning goal, three questions to ask, and an activity that needs no screen. One story, one game and one conversation fill a twenty-minute lesson.
- Works on one projector, on phones, or with no devices at all
- No chess knowledge needed to teach it
- Nothing to install and no accounts for pupils