Chess coaching questions, answered
The real questions coaches ask — managing students, running classes, homework, progress, and starting an academy — each answered with the tool that does it.
Managing students & batches
How do I manage chess students online?
Chess Nexus gives you a single coach dashboard to manage your whole roster — add students, group them into batches, set assignments, follow their progress and chat with them directly. It's free forever for up to 30 students. See the full coach guide for the step-by-step.
How do I organize students into chess batches?
Create batches on your Batches page and drop each student into one. Assignments, courses and class schedules can then target a whole batch at once instead of one student at a time — so running several groups stays simple even as your academy grows.
How do I manage multiple batches of students at once?
Everything you do — assignments, courses, class schedules, and private races and tournaments — can be aimed at a specific batch. Run several batches of different levels, set each batch's work once, and every student in it receives it.
Running classes
How do I run online chess classes?
Use the built-in live classroom — no Zoom needed. You get a shared board, video and audio, and can push a position or an endgame straight onto the board for the whole class. Every coach gets at least one live class a day free; paid plans raise the length, frequency and class size.
How do I structure lessons for beginners?
Build a course — an ordered syllabus of studies, master games, videos and free endgame positions — and enroll a beginner batch in it. Students work through it in sequence, and you can teach the same material live in the classroom. That keeps a beginner group on a clear path instead of ad-hoc lessons.
How do I create a chess curriculum?
A curriculum here is a course: an ordered list of lessons built from your own studies, master games, videos and endgame positions. Build it once, reuse it across batches, and students follow it lesson by lesson.
Homework & assignments
How do I assign homework to chess students?
Create an assignment and give it to a student or a whole batch. Assignments can be tactics drawn from a student's own blunders, Play-vs-Stockfish positions, or puzzle sets. Students receive it in their account and you see who's completed it — full detail in the coach guide.
How do I send chess homework automatically?
Save an assignment as a template and reuse it across students and batches instead of rebuilding it every week — you can also pull from a shared blunder library. That turns weekly homework into a couple of clicks. Assignments draw on the same tactics and puzzle engine students use, so the work is always relevant.
Tracking progress
How do I track my chess students' progress?
Each student has a progress view — puzzles solved, races and activity over time, plus games they've played on Lichess and Chess.com in the last 30 days. You can send parents a shareable progress report link so families see it too.
How do I analyze my student's games?
Students analyze their own games in the browser with a built-in engine, and you can turn a student's blunders into a tactics assignment — so they re-solve the exact positions they got wrong in real games. It's the fastest way to fix recurring mistakes. See how improvement is structured here.
Automating & growing
How do I reduce admin work in my chess academy?
Batches, assignment templates, reusable courses, a class schedule that notifies students automatically, and parent progress reports each remove a piece of manual work. Set things up once at the batch level and the platform delivers it to every student for you — that's the point of a coach-run platform over spreadsheets and chat apps.
How do I keep students engaged and motivated?
Private races and tournaments just for your students, puzzle challenges, a monthly focus theme, and visible progress all give students a reason to keep coming back. Friendly competition inside their own batch is often the strongest motivator for kids.
How do I start a chess academy online?
Sign up as a coach — free forever for up to 30 students, no card — add your students, group them into batches, build a course as your curriculum, and set a weekly class schedule. Everything an academy needs — roster, lessons, homework, live classes, reports — is in one place. You can even earn credit by referring other coaches.
Everything a chess coach needs, in one place
Free forever for up to 30 students. No card required.
Explore more of Chess Nexus
Every feature is free with no ads. Pick where you want to grow next.
Chess Puzzles
Daily puzzles from super-grandmaster games, the Monthly Focus challenge, TTT and Bingo. A free, fun way to train tactics.
Learn more →Puzzle Race
Solve as many tactics as you can against the clock. Timed puzzle races by theme, with live leaderboards.
Learn more →Play Chess Online
Play live games against other members or challenge the Stockfish engine — all free, no ads.
Learn more →Play With Friends
Create a private room, share a link and play 2-player chess with a friend in real time — free, no ads.
Learn more →Masters Games
Play through famous grandmaster and World Champion games move by move, and guess the master's move — free.
Learn more →Analyse My Game
Get a move-by-move review with a CAPS accuracy score, blunder detection, piece heatmaps and session badges.
Learn more →Improve at Chess
Your Nexus Guide studies your own games, finds your weaknesses, replays your mistakes and drills the tactics you keep missing — free.
Learn more →Chess Coaching Platform
A free toolkit for chess coaches and academies — student roster & batches, assignments, course builder, private class races and parent reports.
Learn more →Live Chess Classroom
Teach chess live without Zoom — HD video, screen share and one shared board every student sees, with attendance marked automatically.
Learn more →Endgame Training
Endgames pulled from real master games, grouped by type — then play them out against Stockfish until you can actually convert them.
Learn more →Opening Repertoire
Build your repertoire on the board, drill it with spaced repetition, and find the exact move where you left your prep in real games.
Learn more →Chess Course Builder
Build an ordered syllabus from your studies, built-in studies, videos, master games and endgames — enrolled to a whole batch.
Learn more →Progress Reports
One shareable link per student — rating, puzzles, assignments, attendance and recent games. Parents need no account.
Learn more →Complete Coach Guide
How everything works, step by step — onboarding, students, batches, assignments, courses, schedule, attendance, parent reports and the built-in live classroom.
Learn more →Coach Referral Program
Refer another coach and earn 25% of their first subscription as wallet credit toward your own plan — in your own currency, with no limit on referrals.
Learn more →3D Chess Arena
Enter an immersive 3D world as an avatar — play real-time tournaments at the table and solve tactics in a 5-stage Puzzle Hall with live leaderboards and chat.
Learn more →Chess Study
Structured lessons and tests — basic tactics, openings, endgames and positional play — chapter by chapter.
Learn more →Chess Community
Follow friends, join clubs, see live activity feeds and weekly leaderboards in the Chess Nexus social hub.
Learn more →