The rules of corners take five minutes to explain: step or jump, and bring nine pieces into the far corner. Winning the race is another matter: spotting long chains of jumps, building ladders and never leaving a piece at home come with practice. It goes faster when someone tells you after every move whether it was good. On 9qum that is the job of the AI coach in Play with a coach mode, and for games on your own there is a computer opponent with four levels.
🎓 Play with a coach ▶ Play corners
You play a game against the AI, and the coach rates every move you make with one of six marks: best, excellent, good, inaccuracy, mistake or blunder. Corners has no captures, so the coach looks at the race: how far the move brought your pieces towards the far corner, and whether it opened a long jump over your pieces for your opponent.
On a blunder the game pauses. The coach shows what is wrong with the move, for example which chain of jumps it just handed to your opponent, and offers to take it back. You look for a better move right away instead of finding out at the end of the game.
During the game the coach comments as you play: it notices long jumps, counts the pieces already in the corner and reminds you about the 40-move rule, telling you how many moves are left and how many pieces are still at home. That is the biggest trap for beginners, and the coach will not let you walk into it unnoticed.
There are ten coaches, each with their own way of talking. Games with a coach do not affect your rating, so mistakes here cost nothing.
Start with the course in the Learn section. It has 15 steps, and each one is a live board with a position where you find the move yourself. The board highlights where a piece can go and gives a hint after a wrong move.
If you don't know the rules yet, read the corners rules first. Then go to Puzzles: 50 corners positions. The themes are the longest jump, into the corner in 2 and in 3 moves (whatever your opponent replies) and leaving home: getting every piece out before the move-40 check.
When the coach marks fewer and fewer moves as mistakes and blunders, play the computer without hints. It has 4 levels: Novice, Amateur, Strong and Master. Novice suits children and first-time players, while Master calculates deepest of all. Games against the AI are saved in your history, and any of them, or any position, can be opened in Game analysis, where you can make moves for both sides, set up your own position and get advice from the AI.
Corners is a good first game on a checkers board: nobody loses any pieces, and the rules make sense in a couple of minutes, yet it teaches children to count moves ahead. Keep sessions short at first: one course step or a couple of puzzles and one game with the coach. Parents can sit alongside and work out together why a move was marked as a mistake.
Free: the Learn course, puzzles, game analysis, the computer at all 4 levels, online tables and coach mode with three coaches (Daniyar, Aigerim and Aruzhan), including a rating for every move, the pause on a blunder and three hints per game. Ask the coach: 3 questions a day.
With a subscription: seven more coaches and more questions to the coach. Playing is free, and signing up takes a minute.
The next step is the online tables. Games against people count towards a Glicko-2 rating that is separate for corners, and tournaments let you test yourself. You can invite a friend with a link through any messenger.
🎓 Play with a coach 📚 Learn 🧩 Puzzles
It judges the race: how far the move brought your pieces towards the far corner and whether it opened a long jump for your opponent. A move that loses time or hands your opponent a "bridge" is marked as a mistake or a blunder.
With a coach, the AI rates every move, pauses on blunders and gives hints. Against the computer you play on your own, without ratings, at one of 4 levels: Novice, Amateur, Strong or Master.
The 9qum interface and the coach's advice are available in English, Russian and Kazakh. The voice depends on your device: if it has no voice for your language, the advice stays on screen as text.
No. Coach mode is for learning. The Glicko-2 rating is based on games against people at the online tables.
The rules are simple and there are no captures, so corners suits young schoolchildren too. The course starts from zero and the coach explains every move, which helps children and adults alike.