For Elisa Camps Troncoso, chess is more than a pastime—it’s a family tradition.
A learning designer at Duolingo, Camps Troncoso comes from a long line of players who passed down their love of the game, generation by generation. So when she set out to introduce beginners to the complexities of chess, she found an unlikely ally in Oscar, Duolingo’s pompous but playful teacher.
“He truly believes he’s the best person in the world to teach you chess, even if that’s true or not,” she says, adding that Oscar’s humor proved to be surprisingly effective at teaching the notoriously stuffy game.
Duolingo’s chess course brims with humorous details to lower the intimidation factor for beginners. When the king is put in check, he shakes in fear—then crumbles to pieces when in checkmate.
Oscar even has a catchphrase or two. Capture his castle and he’ll lament, “My rook has been took!”
The whimsy checks an important box, Camps Troncoso says. “One of my main missions is to remove the preconception that chess is something that only smart and intellectual people do. You don’t have to be a genius.”
The incongruity is what makes the lessons work. The game’s reputation for solemnity and strategy gets turned on its head by Oscar’s wacky humor.
In another unlikely pedagogical approach, Oscar isn’t all knowing—or even totally honest.
“If Oscar blunders, he’ll say he did it on purpose and that you’re just not aware of his ultimate plan because your chess skills are not there yet,” Camps Troncoso says.
Like all Duolingo courses, the chess lessons start out simple. You’ll learn how the rook moves, then dive into a tactic known as a fork, which is when a single piece moves into a position that can attack two or more opposing pieces simultaneously.
Step by step, the app shows you how to recognize and execute the move. “We ask learners to slowly let go of the rail,” Camps Troncoso says.
In a language lesson, every word and phrase helps you achieve a specific purpose, like ordering food at a restaurant, Camps Troncoso adds. The same applies to chess, where the goal is checkmate.
“When learning a language, you’ll learn the ‘can,’ then use it to ask different questions. The one word can serve multiple purposes,” she says. “It’s the same for chess in terms of how to capture pieces.”
Camps Troncoso learned to play from her father—a competitive chess player, who taught her using a Doctor Who chess set he crafted for her by hand.
Her great-aunt Aida Camps Rosales was the first female professional chess player to hail from Mexico. “The prejudice she encountered wasn’t just from male chess players; it was also in the form of a lack of scholarships and economic support,” Camps Troncoso says.
Camps Rosales herself led the first female team from Mexico in the International Chess Olympiad in 1974. As she rose in the world of chess, she continued to teach other women so they could walk through the same doors she fought to open.
Today, Camps Troncoso sees her work at Duolingo as a continuation of what her great-aunt spearheaded.
“I’m trying to fulfill her mission but with so much more access than she had,” Camps Troncoso says. “Teaching other people how to play chess, and for free, means the world to me.”