What is home practice?

One puzzle at breakfast counts as chess training, and so does a lesson online. Home practice is chess training that you choose yourself. It is extra, on top of the games and lessons you already have. Keep it up for 3 months, and you start to spot moves you used to miss.

What do you do in a session?

• Puzzles: find the move that wins a piece, or the checkmate.
• Your own games: find the move where it went wrong.
• Openings: learn the first moves of a game well.
• Endgames: learn to win when only a few pieces are left.

Pick one or two of these each time. Think for yourself first, and use a computer only later. Gukesh's first coach kept him away from chess computers, so Gukesh had to find every move himself. Later, he became world champion.

Where do you find it?

You can start most of it today. Solve puzzles online, on a kid-safe account that your grown-up made for you. Play through your own games on a real board. Watch a lesson online, and then try it out on the board. Clubs, schools and online chess sites run lessons too. To find one, ask at school or at the nearest club, or ask a grown-up who plays. If there is nothing near you, home is enough, because home counts the same as a club.

How do I keep it up?

Pick a fixed day and time, and keep that time for chess, so it turns into a habit. Keep a log, which is a record of every session you do. Twenty minutes on most days helps more than one long session a month. If you really pay attention, twenty minutes is a real session. After 3 months, look back at your log.

How you get the sticker

Your grown-up or coach checks it and hands you the sticker. Show them your log: the notebook, the puzzle streak on your profile, or the lesson list. A coach can also say that you came every week. If you have no club or coach, your grown-up at home checks your log. Did you train like this before you had the passport? It still counts.