Anyone whos taken language lessons on the Duolingo app is certainly familiar with the Duolingo owl, Duo. If you skip out on lessons, Duo will ping you — crying! — to come back. Over the past few years, hes gotten more aggressive with his approach: He died, and was brought back to life by people completing their daily lessons. Talk about guilt tripping. Now, he wants to teach you to play chess.
Duolingo is testing out chess lessons on the app; theyre rolling out a limited beta that began Tuesday and will go wider “soon.” A Duolingo spokesperson said its the first new course subject to be added since it added math and music in 2023. Chess is more popular than ever, gaining traction with a younger generation of players. (Teens got absolutely obsessed with chess in 2023.)
“As chess increases in popularity, we wanted to provide a fun, accessible way for people to learn,” a Duolingo spokesperson told Polygon. “We want to teach subjects that people can learn for a long time, like languages, math and music. Chess is a game you can play your whole life and continuously improve your skills.”
Like its other courses, Duolingo breaks down learning into small parts that can be completed in short bursts, daily. Itll teach everything from what the pieces are, how they can move, and go into patterns and strategy. “Most lessons focus on solving short puzzles to sharpen your thinking, and learners can apply what theyve learned in fast-paced mini-matches or full games against the in-app chess coach, Oscar, one of Duolingos beloved characters,” per the news release.
Chess will come to all iOS Duolingo users “in the coming weeks.”
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