# Strategy Games

> Chess, checkers, Go, and Sudoku from first move to strong play - and the thinking under them that also powers code: reading ahead, patterns, and judging a position. Play every game on the site as you learn.

5 guides.

- [Sudoku From Zero](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/sudoku-from-zero) _(beginner)_ - Learn Sudoku from the rules to expert patterns: singles, pencil marks, pairs, pointing, X-Wing, Swordfish, and XY-Wing, then write a Python solver. Every step is a deduction you can justify, never a guess.
- [Checkers From Zero](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/checkers-from-zero) _(beginner)_ - Learn American checkers from the first move to strong play: the rules and the 1-32 notation, why forced captures make the game, shots and exchanges, strategy and the opposition, endgames, and how a computer proved that perfect play is a draw.
- [Chess From Zero](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/chess-from-zero) _(beginner)_ - Learn chess from zero: how every piece moves, the special rules (castling, en passant, promotion), checkmate and draws, reading notation, the basic mates, tactics, opening principles, middlegame plans, endgame essentials, and how to learn from an engine without letting it think for you.
- [Go, the Board Game, From Zero](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/go-the-board-game) _(beginner)_ - Learn Go (weiqi, baduk) from zero: the few rules that matter, liberties and capture, ko, life and death, scoring with Japanese rules, opening ideas, tactics like ladders and snapbacks, reading ahead, and the story of AlphaGo.
- [How Computers Play Games](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/how-computers-play-games) _(advanced)_ - How a program plays chess, checkers, Go, and Sudoku: game trees, minimax, alpha-beta pruning, evaluation functions and Stockfish, solved games, Monte Carlo search, AlphaGo and AlphaZero, and constraint solving, with runnable Python at every step.