Chess posters
LearnPosters has 100 free printable chess posters, grouped into 6 topics: Fundamentals, Tactics, Endgames, Openings, Middlegame. Openings, patterns and endgames worth memorising. They are made for any age — a nine-year-old and a forty-year-old reach for the same chart. Every one downloads as a vector PDF that prints sharp on US Letter, A4 or a copy-shop A1.
Piece values, notation, the checkmate patterns that decide club games, and the openings a beginner meets first. The kind of thing that repays being looked at a hundred times.
100 free printable posters · 6 topics · vector PDF
Fundamentals
Movement, notation, values and the opening principles.
Piece Values
What each piece is worth, and the cases where the number is wrong.
Algebraic Notation
How to read and write a game: files, ranks, symbols, special cases.
Opening Principles
Five rules that replace memorising lines for your first thousand games.
How the Pieces Move
Every piece's movement, including the three special rules.
The Three Special Moves
Castling, en passant and promotion — the rules people get wrong.
Check, Mate & Stalemate
The three states, and the one that turns a win into a draw.
Setting Up the Board
The orientation and the piece order, with the two mnemonics.
Naming the Squares
The coordinate system, and the colour rule that helps you visualise.
Rules of Play
Touch-move, illegal moves and the etiquette of a real game.
Chess Clocks
Time controls, increments, and what happens when the flag falls.
Piece Mobility
How many squares each piece controls, and where.
Your First Game
What to actually do, in order, if you have just learnt the moves.
Material Imbalances
What each unequal trade is worth, and when the numbers mislead.
Ways a Game Can Be Drawn
All six routes to a draw, including the ones you must claim.
Recording a Game
How to keep a scoresheet, and why it is worth doing.
Online & Over the Board
What differs between screen and board, and what carries over.
Tactics
Forks, pins, skewers and the mating patterns.
Tactical Motifs
The seven patterns behind almost every combination.
Checkmate Patterns
The named mates worth recognising instantly, and what each needs.
Before You Move
The blunder check that costs ten seconds and saves most games.
Forks
One piece attacking two, and which pieces fork best.
Pins
Absolute and relative pins, and how to exploit each.
Skewers
A pin in reverse, and why it wins material more directly.
Discovered Attacks
Moving one piece to unleash another, and why it is so strong.
Deflection & Decoy
Two ways to move a piece off a square, and how they differ.
In-Between Moves
Inserting a forcing move before the expected reply.
Back Rank Mate
The most common checkmate at every level, and how to prevent it.
Smothered Mate
The knight mate against a king boxed in by its own pieces.
Clearance & Interference
Two rarer motifs that decide sharp positions.
The Desperado
Making a doomed piece pay for itself before it dies.
The Windmill
A repeating discovered check that harvests material.
Overloaded Pieces
A piece defending two things cannot defend both.
Trapping Pieces
How pieces get trapped, and which are most vulnerable.
Calculating
A method for calculating a line without getting lost.
Sacrifices
The two kinds of sacrifice, and how confident you need to be.
Defensive Tactics
The resources that save lost positions.
Finding Tactics
A scanning routine for spotting tactics in your own games.
Endgames
The positions you must know cold.
Basic Checkmates
Forcing mate with minimum material, and how many moves each takes.
Pawn Endgames
Opposition, the square rule, and the two ideas that decide king-and-pawn races.
Endgame Principles
What changes once the queens come off, and how to play it.
Rook Endgames
The most common endgame, and the two positions that decide most of them.
Rook Behind the Pawn
The single most useful rule in rook endings.
King & Pawn vs King
The fundamental endgame, and the rule that decides it.
The Opposition
The king manoeuvre that decides pawn endgames.
Passed Pawns
Creating them, escorting them, and stopping them.
Pawn Majorities
Turning a majority of pawns into a passed pawn.
Bishop Endgames
Same-colour and opposite-colour bishops behave completely differently.
Knight Endgames
How knights behave in endings, and why they resemble pawn endings.
Queen vs Pawn
Stopping a pawn on the seventh with a queen, and the two exceptions.
King Activity
The king becomes a strong piece once the queens are off.
Fortresses
Drawn positions that cannot be broken despite material deficit.
Zugzwang
Being forced to move, when every move loses.
Rook vs Minor Piece
When the exchange wins, and when it does not.
Two Bishops Mate
Forcing mate with two bishops, in about twenty moves.
Simplifying to Win
Which trades help when ahead, and the endgame to aim at.
Tablebases
What perfect endgame knowledge showed, and what it changed.
Which Endgames to Learn
The endgames that actually occur, in the order worth learning them.
Openings
The main lines, their ideas, and what each one is trying to do.
1.e4 or 1.d4
The two main first moves, and the kind of game each tends to produce.
The Italian Game
The classical opening, and the ideas behind each move.
The Ruy Lopez
The Spanish Game, and why 3.Bb5 is more subtle than it looks.
The Sicilian Defence
The most popular answer to 1.e4, and what Black is actually doing.
The French Defence
1...e6, the solid choice, and the problem it creates for Black.
The Caro-Kann
1...c6, and why it solves the French's main problem.
The Queen's Gambit
Not really a gambit, and what happens if Black takes.
The London System
A setup you can play against almost anything, and its trade-off.
The King's Indian Defence
Letting White build a big centre, then attacking it.
The Scandinavian
1...d5, the most direct answer to 1.e4, and its cost.
The English Opening
1.c4, and the flexibility it buys.
Common Opening Traps
The traps that actually appear in club games, from both sides.
Gambits
What you buy with a sacrificed pawn, and when it is worth it.
Choosing an Opening
How to build a repertoire without memorising thousands of moves.
Transpositions
How different move orders reach the same position, and why it matters.
Tempo & Development
What a tempo is worth, and how it is gained and lost.
Opening Pawn Structures
The structures the main openings produce, and the plans they dictate.
Preparation
How to prepare for a specific opponent, without over-investing.
Avoiding Theory
Sound openings that need very little memorisation.
Common Opening Mistakes
The errors that decide most club games in the first fifteen moves.
The First Fifteen Moves
A checklist for the opening phase, whichever opening you play.
The Fianchetto
Developing a bishop to the long diagonal, and what it costs.
Controlling the Centre
Two ways to control the centre, and why both are valid.
When to Castle
Which side to castle, and when not to castle at all.
Middlegame
Plans, structures and what to do when the book runs out.
Making a Plan
How to decide what to do when the opening ends and no move is forced.
Weak Squares & Outposts
Squares no pawn can defend, and what to put on them.
Open Files
Where rooks belong, and how to win a file.
Good & Bad Bishops
What makes a bishop bad, and the three ways to fix one.
Bishop or Knight
When each minor piece is stronger, and what to trade toward.
Attacking the King
The conditions an attack needs, and what to do when they are absent.
Defending
How to defend a worse position, and the mistakes that lose it faster.
Prophylaxis
Preventing the opponent's plan before pursuing your own.
When to Trade
The rules of thumb for exchanging, and the exceptions.
Pawn Weaknesses
The structural weaknesses to create in their position and avoid in your own.
Coordination
Pieces working together, and how to spot when they are not.
Space
What a space advantage gives you, and how to keep it.
Improvement
Study method, time management and how rating actually moves.
How to Improve
Where study time actually pays off, by rating band.
Analysing Your Games
How to review a game so that it teaches you something.
Tactics Training
How to practise puzzles so they transfer to real games.
Time Management
How to spend clock time, and where it is wasted.
The Blunder Check
A ten-second routine before every move.
Rating Systems
What a rating means, and why it moves the way it does.
What to Study First
Where club players actually lose games, against where they spend study time.
Playing Stronger Players
How to get the most from games you will probably lose.
Questions about the Chess posters
- What is the Chess section of LearnPosters?
- Openings, patterns and endgames worth memorising. Piece values, notation, the checkmate patterns that decide club games, and the openings a beginner meets first. The kind of thing that repays being looked at a hundred times.
- What topics do the Chess posters cover?
- 100 posters across 6 topics. Fundamentals — Movement, notation, values and the opening principles. Tactics — Forks, pins, skewers and the mating patterns. Endgames — The positions you must know cold. Openings — The main lines, their ideas, and what each one is trying to do. Middlegame — Plans, structures and what to do when the book runs out. Improvement — Study method, time management and how rating actually moves.
- Who are the Chess posters for?
- The chess charts are for any age; a nine-year-old and a forty-year-old reach for the same one. Nothing here is tied to a school year, so a curious beginner and someone revising the same material for an exam are looking at the same chess chart.
- Which Chess poster should I print first?
- Piece Values, Algebraic Notation and Opening Principles are the ones people reach for first — they are the references the rest of the chess set assumes you already have on the wall.Piece ValuesAlgebraic NotationOpening Principles
- Are the Chess posters free to print?
- Yes — all 100 of them. Each chess poster is a free vector PDF that needs no account, prints on US Letter or A4, and enlarges to A1 without softening. Home, classroom, library and tutoring use are all covered by the licence.Read the licence
Where the chess charts come from
These posters summarise. When you need the full account — or the normative text a chart is compressing — start here.
- FIDE Handbook — Laws of Chess — Fédération Internationale des Échecs. The governing rules the movement and notation charts follow.
- Chess opening theory — Wikipedia. Names, move orders and history for every opening on the sheets.