Frequently asked questions
Chessity is a digital method to learn chess in a fun and easy way. The method is suitable for both primary school pupils and secondary school students, as well as adults. Chessity is designed in such a way that you can learn to play chess independently, even without a chess teacher.
The pupils go through the program at their own pace and receive help from our robot Chessto. It explains chess concepts, helps when a student finds something difficult, and distributes missions to ensure that students achieve their goals. The teacher guides the pupils in their learning process from a coaching role and does not need to be able to play chess himself.
Chessity is fully adaptive and adapts to the level and way of learning of the user in a variety of ways, thanks to specially developed artificial intelligence. In Chessity, learning to play chess is a playful process. Gamification connects the method to the digital world in which children grow up. Learning chess in a game-based, child-friendly online learning environment boosts motivation and is super effective.
See also:
- Can I use Chessity to teach chess?
- Can my child learn how to play chess with Chessity without adult help?
Chessity is built for all audiences!
To provide everyone with a pleasant learning experience, Chessity is divided into two modes. The Playful mode is specially developed for children, with a colorful design and game elements like rocket and castle races that make the lessons extra fun. After each completed lesson, children end up in a playful environment, making their progress extra appealing.
The Classic mode offers a calmer learning environment, without game elements. This is ideal for those who prefer more focus and less distraction — think of adults, older students, or children who prefer to work in a more serious style.
Users can choose which mode suits them best. If you want to switch modes, you can do so by changing your settings under My Account. You can find it under User Environment.
Note: the Chessity app currently only supports the Classic mode.
When creating a new account, you are asked if you already know how to play chess. Do you already know all the chess rules by heart? Then you can start with the entry test! In this test, Chessto examines how much you already know about chess. In the test, you do not receive feedback on wrong or right answers, and you also do not receive special instructions. The task is simply: play the best move.
This way, we check if you have already learned tactical patterns like the pin. Do you score well on the entry test? Then you may skip certain sections within the learning path and might even start at the black level in one go.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the entry test, you can adjust your current level under learning settings in my account.
First of all, don't worry. Chessity will never charge you unexpectedly. Creating a teacher account is free, and then all students who sign up within your learning environment can enjoy a month of learning fun on Chessity.
The business model is simple: we work on a subscription basis. With a trial account, you have access to all features – no hidden surprises. However, once this period ends, most features and lessons will be locked. With a premium subscription, students then get a year of access to all content. If you're curious, you can see Chessity's offer here >> . But first, enjoy the free trial period with the whole class.
First of all, don't worry. Chessity will never charge you unexpectedly. Creating an individual or family account is free. Then you can enjoy three weeks of learning fun on Chessity.
The business model is simple: we work on a subscription basis. With a trial account, you have access to all features – no hidden surprises. However, once this period ends, most features and lessons will be locked. With a premium subscription, you then get access to all content. If you're curious, you can discover the prices of Chessity here>>. But first, enjoy your free trial period.
Chessity is an excellent tool for teaching chess in schools and at chess clubs.
Chessity offers unique functions for chess coaches, including a complete curriculum and extensive student monitoring system. Correcting homework is a thing of the past, students can help each other, and the system gives direct feedback if a student makes a mistake.
This enables chess coaches to teach larger groups, while differentiating between chess levels at the same time. Chessity's student monitoring system provides chess teachers with a wealth of information to optimize student potential.
See also:
- What role does Chessto play in the learning process?
- How does Chessto help me as teacher in teaching and coaching my students?
If your child has a student account from their school or chess club, they can also use the software at home, completely free of charge! Your child logs in with their own username and password and can continue at home from where they left off at school.
Children can learn chess from about six years old. Due to the playful design and learning through play, Chessity is very suitable for young children. Chessity is tailored for use from grade 1 of primary school, but we even have experience with children as young as four who have independently learned chess with Chessity.
However, we recommend starting with Chessity from 6 or 7 years old. Why?
- At that age, children can read well, understand the rules better, and have enough patience and interest to learn.
- The most important thing? They are often very curious and love to learn through games. Exactly what makes chess so fun!
Chessity is suitable for chess players of all ages. Chessity offers a fun way to learn to play chess for both kids and adults. Users can select a kid-friendly design or an adult learning and training environment.
See also:
In Chessity children learn chess by playing. The program provides feedback and explanation, mostly in a visual way. This makes Chessity also suitable for young children who are not (yet) able to read (well) and for struggling readers.
When the program uses language, both in spoken and written form, its level is attuned to the vocabulary and the language and reading levels of young children.
The lessons are introduced with short instruction texts. At the beginner level, the explanation is a bonus; most children skip the explanation and start practicing immediately.
Thanks to artificial intelligence, the children receive personalized help while practicing. Our friendly robot Chessto provides personalized explanations and instructions during the exercises and helps until a student has fully mastered the skill.
For the games, no reading skills are required at all.
Chessto is the virtual chess teacher in Chessity. He is a friendly little robot that helps the student learn new skills, coaches while playing a chess game and guides them through their learning process on their way to an exam. Chessto uses artificial intelligence specially developed by Chessity and is completely unique in chess education.
Moreover, Chessto enables teachers who feel unqualified to teach chess or cannot play chess themselves to include scholastic chess in the curriculum. With the aid of Chessto, in the addition to the existing gamification and teaching bot technology in Chessity, schools worldwide can now make chess available to their entire student body.
And kids? They simply love to have a little chess friend that helps them play chess.
Read more about Chessto:
- Chessto keeps learners in the flow (blog)
- What role does Chessto play in the learning process?
- How does Chessto help me as teacher in teaching and coaching my students?
- How does Chessto coach students before and after an exam?
- What happens if a student does not do the Chessto tasks?
- What reading skills are required for Chessity?
- I want Chessto to coach me in my chess learning process. Is that possible? (Individual user)
In order to understand this properly, it is good to know a little more about the background of Chessity. Chessity is designed to give all children the opportunity to learn chess in school. In a fun and effective way, with a method that on the one hand helps chess specialists in classroom management and on the other hand does not require school teachers to be able to play chess themselves.
It's no coincidence that Chessity is a digital method. A digital learning method is not an end in itself, but a springboard to more effective, personal and modern chess education. Thanks to digitalization, chess teaching has become scalable (one teacher can mentor more children at the same time) and within reach for teachers or parents who cannot play chess themselves or feel unqualified to teach.
Chessto - as small and cute as he is - is a very powerful, innovative and absolutely unique instrument. While the children learn independently with high-quality instructions from Chessto and feedback from the program, the teacher has plenty of time for personal attention to individual learners. This can take the form of chess instruction (chess trainers) or coaching children in their learning process (teachers), or both.
For students, especially children, it is simply great to be helped by Chessto; exactly with the things they find difficult or don't quite understand yet. Just as often as is necessary and in the way that this individual student learns the most from.
This is what Chessto does:
1. Explaining and teaching
How does a knight move? Can a queen make far moves? And how do you take an opponent's piece without losing one of your own pieces? In the lessons, Chessto acts as a virtual chess teacher that helps children learn how to play chess.
Chessto also plays a prominent role in teaching and practicing checkmate and defending against mate. Not only does it help the children to understand the concept of 'mate' properly, it also activates prior knowledge in a structured way. This makes it easier to process and remember the new information. Children learn to automate the thinking steps, so that they can better apply the lessons they have learned in their chess games.
Chessto doesn't mind explaining things three times, ten times, or even twenty times. He never loses his patience and is always helpful and cheerful. However, the robot has deliberately been programmed in such a way that children cannot sit back and let Chessto do the work.
2. Coaching during a game
Chessto is full of sophisticated artificial intelligence. As soon as children are able to play a real game of chess, Chessto helps them during their games with tips and advice based on their personal level of chess and user data. Chessto teaches them proper opening strategy and what choices one has to make in the different phases of a chess game. Think of aspects like developing pieces, castling and king safety, and attacking safely. At the right time, focused on the individual learning objective of the user, while Chessto adapts to the level of the user. In short, Chessto offers truly customized learning and coaching, that focuses on what it is all about: the chess student.
Our user data shows that the chess level of children improves by leaps and bounds in a very short period of time. After half an hour of playing chess with Chessto, the effect is already measurable!
3. Coaching in the learning process
Chessto keeps an eye on which lesson(s) still need to be made in order to get a new badge on the way to the exam. It coaches the students in their learning process.
Once a week, Chessto distributes these lessons to the students as a special mission. Mission accomplished? Then a new badge will be displayed on the homepage and the student is one a step closer to their chess diploma.
Once all stickers have been received, the student can take the exam. Chessto's guidance, both in the exam coaching and during the lessons, ensures that the students learn even more efficiently, so that they can quickly obtain chess diplomas and enjoy learning.
4. Coaching after a failed exam
If a student fails the exam, Chessto comes back into action. He analyses the mistakes that were made during the exam and on the basis of this it compiles a package of lessons that need to be practised in order to pass the next attempt.
As a teacher you can leave the guidance to Chessto without any worries (although it is always possible to view the exam results yourself).
If you are looking for a teaching method to teach chess, then of course you want the best teaching method. Chessity is made from the conviction that digitalization is the most powerful means to let children learn and to aid teachers.
Our method is designed in such a way that it allows every school to include scholastic chess in the curriculum. Teacher do not need learn how to play chess in order to teach chess, there is no need for hiring a chess professional to teach, and differentiating between chess levels within a group is easily done.
Chessity is not a digital version of a paper method, but is fully developed from our digital DNA. Not only is Chessity adaptive and makes use of gaming learning, we have also developed advanced artificial intelligence that is absolutely unique. This makes Chessity one of the most innovative teaching methods in the world, both in the field of chess education and in general.
Independent learning with Chessto
The method is designed in such a way that children can learn to play chess completely independently. This is done in a playful manner, in an attractive child-friendly online learning environment, full of challenging mini-games. The Chessto robot, a virtual chess teacher, helps the students to master chess skills. It gives personalized chess instruction, helps when a student is struggling and motivates the students to persevere.
Chessto not only helps with learning and practicing new subjects, it also teaches the children what choices to make during a real game of chess. During a game, Chessto coaches students with tips and advice based on their personal level of chess and user data. This technology has been developed by Chessity and is not available in any other teaching method.
Motivation for each pupil
Children learn best when they are motivated to learn. Chessity lets students discover how much fun learning can be. The students are owner of their own learning process and can learn both linearly and non-linearly. The method uses gamification and game-learning. This makes practicing more fun and stimulates you to do more tasks. As a result, the learning process is more intensive.
Tailor-made teaching material
The method adapts itself in various ways to the level and learning styles of the user. The exercises are automatically differentiated on multiple levels. The same applies to the feedback and instruction provided by the program. Through the use of teaching bots and artificial intelligence, each student receives personal feedback and instructions that are precisely tailored to their own level. The teacher doesn't have to check anything; that's what the program does.
Student Monitoring System
For teachers there is an extensive dashboard that provides detailed insight into the progress and learning development of the students. This gives the teacher a powerful tool to coach students in their learning process.
Badges and exams
Students also have insight into their progress and performance themselves. For example, children can earn badges if they have sufficiently mastered a learning objective. Once a student has earned all badges of a level, they can take the level exam.
21st-century skills
Chessity is in line with current educational and pedagogical developments and contributes to the development of 21st-century skills among children. Learning to play chess with Chessity strengthens the metacognitive skills of the students. The long-term effect of this is that children become less dependent on a teacher and learn better.
Everyone who learns to play chess - be it children or adults - has their own strengths and weaknesses. What is an easy chess lesson or puzzle for one person can be a huge stumbling block for another.
For effective chess training, it is important that the difficulty level of the exercises matches as closely as possible the level of the chess player. It must be challenging enough, but not too difficult to make it demotivating. ‘Level’ is thus an individual given, which also changes as a player gets better.
The kind of technology-enhanced learning that Chessity offers makes it possible to respond to the different learning and training needs of users. The chess level is adjusted for each user in such a way that everyone achieves an optimal learning efficiency.
Such an adaptive and therefore personal teaching method is not only good for those who learn to play chess, but also for teachers. Because of the flexible way that Chessity adapts to students’ individual needs, teaching groups of students with different chess levels is no effort at all.
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Absolutely! Chessity offers hundreds of chess lessons with no less than 18 diplomas. From absolute beginner to advanced, you can get started with Chessity. The lessons can be followed independently. Each lesson includes a short explanatory text. Additionally, you get an example where a task is demonstrated.
And if you get stuck on a lesson? Chessto is ready to assist you. With subtle tips and hints, he guides you to the answer. This way, you can work completely independently without a teacher or chess trainer.
Yes, you can. Chessity has developed the training games Visualization Practice specifically to train board vision. You can find these training games under the tab Train.
Click on the Visualization Practice to train your board vision. These games teach you to visualize positions. By practicing this regularly, your board vision improves significantly. You'll notice you give away fewer pieces, win more games, and your rating goes up.
Chessity offers a complete online training course. For beginners, it is a fun way to learn how to play chess and it offers excellent training tools for advanced chess players. Chessity provides users with all the feedback they need.
All of the lessons can be taken independently and come with clear examples, a clear explanation and thousands of exercises.
If your child wants to learn chess, but you cannot or do not know enough chess to teach them properly, Chessity is ideal.
Chessity is a didactically responsible method designed so that your child can learn chess completely independently. This happens in a playful way, in an attractive child-friendly online learning environment, full of challenging mini-games. Your child progresses through the program at their own pace and receives help from the little robot Chessto. He provides chess explanations, helps when your child finds something difficult, and motivates them to persevere.
Learning chess offers children many benefits. Chess is good for brain development, sharpens thinking skills, and is so educational for children that it even helps improve math and language skills. By playing chess, your child learns to concentrate better and improves memory.
Absolutely! Chessity is very suitable as a training method for youth sections of chess clubs. Thanks to the visually engaging digital lessons and game-based learning, children find Chessity much more fun to work with (at home) than traditional chess methods.
Because the program gives children direct feedback, the chess trainer has no marking work and there is plenty of room during training for playing on the board and discussing positions and games.
Fewer chess trainers needed
Many chess clubs struggle to find enough trainers. By using Chessity, fewer trainers are needed and trainers can be deployed more effectively. Children learn to play chess independently with Chessity, where the program guides them in chess content. This makes it very easy for parents or grandparents to supervise a beginner's chess training.
The assistant acts as a coach in the learning process. With the online dashboard, he/she can see exactly where the children are in the exercises and how well they master the material, without having to look over their shoulder. The assistant monitors the results and stimulates and motivates where necessary.
Linking accounts
Youth members who already have a Chessity account through school or privately do not need to purchase a separate club account. They can link their existing account to the club by adding their club trainer as their coach. Their data will then appear in the trainer's student tracking system.
If you know the basics of chess or are an advanced player looking to improve your game, Chessity has a lot to offer you. The more you learn and practice, the better you become.
Our didactic specialists and chess trainers have developed about three hundred lessons and training games that are not only very effective but also very fun to do.
Research has shown that chess level improves by training various brain functions with chess patterns and interesting exercises at an adaptive level.
Chessity is developed with that knowledge as a starting point. By practicing and training with Chessity, chess players become demonstrably stronger.
Yes, you can. We offer schools the opportunity to follow a free chess workshop with Chessity. This way, you can experience how easy it is to teach chess with Chessity and how enthusiastic the students are.
Moreover, creating a (teacher) account on Chessity is non-binding and free of charge. If you want to try Chessity with a class, there is also a trial period. All students can use Chessity for free for a month. After that, most content is locked. If you are enthusiastic about Chessity, students can continue with Chessity Premium after the trial period. Chessity offers educational institutions favorable prices for larger quantities.
So, you can try Chessity for free without having to pay for anything.
