Blinky

Practise against Blinky

Blinky plays a random legal move about 35% of the time. Otherwise it plays Stockfish at skill level 0, searching only 2 half-moves ahead, so it misses most threats you set up. Practise spotting forks and pins before they happen, and check every capture before you make it. If a rule catches you out, the en passant and castling lessons cover the two that confuse new players most.

After each game, set up the position where it turned in the best move calculator and see what Stockfish would have played. Pro members can also run the whole game through the chess analysis board for a move-by-move review. If Blinky feels too easy, move up to Gizmo (1100); if it is too strong, drop to Wobble (400).

All 11 levels are on the play chess against the computer page, and the bots up to 2600 are free. How each one is tuned is explained in our guide to chess bots.