Duolingo will soon be able to help you master another new skill: chess.
The platform’s new chess course will use short puzzles, such as moving a knight to the right place to practice its L-shaped movement or checkmate a king stuck in a corner, to help you learn the game. You’ll also be able to play “mini-matches” or full games against the Duolingo character Oscar, who will be your coach during the lessons.
Chess joins topics such as music and math that are language-independent but can still be learned with Duolingo. When asked whether the company plans to create courses based on other games, in-house software engineer Sammy Siegel replied: “We don’t have any plans to share yet, I think we’ll just see how this launch goes and then move on.”
According to Monica Earle, Duolingo’s PR director, the chess course is being launched in beta on iOS in English. Earle estimates that in four to six weeks, more iOS users will be able to try it, and then it will move to Android and become available in other languages.
