A calm place to play, learn, and go deeper — with the people you know.

Play chess now

Play a calm game of chess against an on-device opponent — pick a side and a level, take all the time you like. No clock, no account, nothing sent anywhere.

Play the computer →Across the table →

With a one-tap look-back and a gentle rating. Want a trickier game? Turn on the human-like opponent.

Getting better on purpose? The study room has the Openings Lab, the Problem Page and the Motif Ledger, built on the great games. Prefer the 1849 shapes? Visit the Staunton Room. Or turn the Cube, a puzzle about order, not speed.

Short courses

Read or listen, answer one question, then say it back in your own words. Every course has something to do together at the table, and prints as a guidebook.

• A Year on Paper — 3 lessons · pairs with Money, Drawn
• Thinking in Odds — 6 lessons · pairs with Four in a row
• How to Argue Well — 4 lessons · pairs with Read the News Well
• Reading Code — 3 lessons · pairs with Thinking with Machines
• First Reading at Home — 4 lessons · pairs with How School Teaches Reading Now
• Great Games of Chess History — 4 lessons · pairs with Great Games
• The Night Sky — 4 lessons · pairs with Today
• How to Listen — 4 lessons · pairs with The Town Table

Not sure where to begin? The Route suggests two walks: from a guess to Bayes, and from a chess trap to the Opera Game.

All 104 courses →

Play with your kid

Sit down across the table on one device — the board turns to face whoever's move it is. Giving a younger player a head start? Take off a piece before you begin, and keep a note of it shrinking in the Handicap Ledger. Or try Four in a row — easy at any age — or a small game of Go. For children's own games, Spark & Anvil has free games made for them, and many of our courses teach the same idea as one of theirs — find the grown-up side of their app.

Three minutes before dinner? The Fifth Rung has a short card on the idea behind each of their apps, with a question to ask. And for grandparents far away, The Told Book: your grandchild picks a question, you answer by voice or on paper, and the family prints the answers as a book.

Teaching them chess? Teach the Move gives you one sentence per piece and a question to ask. For an hour at one table on the same idea, print a Family Hour card. And for the youngest: The Circle at Our Table, the grown-up’s half of play. Or start from what your child loves: pick their door, from swimming to the snack machine.

Run a table

Hosting a game night? Open an online room and share the code — no chat to moderate, no strangers, no accounts. Or print a course's table activity: The two-dice table and The two-chair table work for any ages. Or play The Town Table (four to eight, agree a plan for one town), the lemonade line (four seats, a lesson about delays), Blueprint & Blocks (two players: one describes, one builds), the Hedge Maze (one draws a maze, the other guesses whether Harris’s rule gets out), or The Caller's Table (bingo, 90-ball, lô tô or a Story Card, printed from one code).

A games night at home? The Game Night Ledger pairs everyone round by round and prints the table. Studying with friends far away? Sit together in Quiet Hours: a bell, and nothing else.

Running a group with nothing to hand — a rainy recess, a late bus, the last twenty minutes of aftercare? The Back Pocket: thirteen games, a thirty-second script for each, and the phone as caller.

Running an aftercare room? The Site Shelf is a week of games on one page, with a Friday game night at pickup. Picking up a child? The Ride Home asks one question in the car. Not sure where to start? What game are we ready for? Every family plays mancala differently: write down yours with Heirloom Rules. Child asking about a game-making app? Platform Cards say who can make, see and message on each. Sitting beside a child who is playing? The Question Card gives you a question instead of a move. Print the Puzzle Post for the café table, hand on one thing you know with Heirloom Skills, turn a family cook's handful into a number with A Handful Is a Number, and walk the Cutaway House together. Test your family's dice-race rules with House Game, play Four in a Row by postcard with the Post Game, and let a teenager teach you three things with the Understudy. Put on a kitchen-table concert with a printed programme at Concert Night. Practise a hard conversation at the Rehearsal Table, see what a game-making AI decides for you in the Wish and the Workshop, and slow every board down with one switch at the Slow Table. Spending Saturdays on a pool deck? Run a set on the Deck Clock, practise the press in the Timer’s Chair, find out when your swimmer swims with the Heat Sheet, and decode the letters next to a time with the Cut Card. At the shop and the stove? Compare two packages with the Shelf Tag and halve a recipe with the Half-Batch Card. Copy a picture larger with the Copying Grid, compare two screens by area with the Screen Size Table, keep a ballgame on paper with the Scorecard, run a one-oven dinner backward with the Dinner Timeline, read the angle a shooter sees with the Shot Map, and reckon what a snack sale leaves with the Machine Ledger and a bowling night with the Bowling Sheet, see what a race time predicts with the Race Predictor, plan practice in small goals with the Practice Card, and find the maths in your family’s work with the Family Work Card. Looking for a free place to learn? Here is an honest comparison. And three short courses for grown-ups: How to Play Again, How to Run a Room and Coach by Questions.