Steps Method

The Steps Method is a complete system for teaching and learning chess progressively. Developed in the Netherlands by Rob Brunia and Cor van Wijgerden, it is organized into six main steps. Each step assumes earlier skills and adds more demanding concepts and problems.

The material pairs manuals for the instructor with exercise workbooks for the learner. Lessons have specific goals, and many tactical subjects, meaning move sequences that exploit immediate threats, are divided into small building blocks. Along with the pattern to learn, the method teaches a search strategy, meaning clues for recognizing when that resource may occur in a position.

More than solving diagrams

Progress does not depend only on finishing pages or reaching a particular age or rating. Learners should apply skills in games, receive feedback, and repeat material that is not yet reliable. Later steps add game analysis, positional factors, meaning lasting features of a position, and more complex endgames, the phase in which relatively few pieces usually remain.

It is not one thinking checklist to use on every move. It is a teaching program that organizes teaching, practice, and assessment over years. This separates it from the Woodpecker Method, which repeats a fixed problem set in increasingly fast cycles.