Help & Support

Everything you need to know about schach.ai

Play Modes
Chester & Hints
Progress & Stats
Guardian Council

The Three Play Modes

Kingdom Story

A story-driven curriculum that teaches chess concepts through magical kingdoms. Each kingdom focuses on one tactic family.

  • Complete levels in order to unlock new kingdoms
  • Each level is a specific chess position with a known best solution
  • Chester gives guided hints if you're stuck
  • Completing a level earns XP and may unlock a spell

Spell Practice

Unlimited tactical puzzles sourced from the Lichess database, filtered by chess tactic type (fork, pin, skewer, etc.).

  • Choose a spell theme from the Spellbook
  • Each puzzle has a precise solution — find the winning move
  • Performance is tracked: accuracy, streak, time per puzzle
  • Great for drilling a specific tactic you want to master

Duel Arena

Play full chess games against Pip, your raven rival, at your chosen difficulty and colour. Training or Classic mode.

  • Three difficulties: Guided Squire, Knight's Challenge, Wizard's Trial
  • Training mode shows move quality and Chester's hints
  • Games auto-save so you can always resume
  • Stats from completed duels power the Progress page
Chester

Meet Chester

Chester explains chess ideas in lessons, offers puzzle hints and coaches you during duels.

Magical Hint System

Stuck on a puzzle? Start with a small hint and ask for more detail as you need it.

1

The Nudge

“Look at the kingside” or “Your knight has a target”. Points you in the general direction.

2

The Focus

“Can you find a fork?” or “Look for a discovered attack”. Identifies the pattern or piece.

3

The Solution

“Move Knight to f7”. The exact winning move. Use sparingly to learn the most!

Living Personality

Chester reacts to the board state in real-time with different moods and expressions.

Excited Chester
Excited & Proud
When you find a tactic or win a game
Focused Chester
Focused & Patient
When you're thinking deep or calculating
Concerned Chester
Concerned
When you leave a piece hanging or blunder
Progress Tracking — What Gets Measured
Win / Draw / Loss
Overall record from all completed duels
Win Rate
Percentage of completed games won
Activity Heatmap
30-day calendar of games played per day
Weekly Chart
8-week bar chart of wins, losses, draws
Avg Think Time
How long you spend per move on average
Captures & Checks
Tactical aggression indicators per game
By Difficulty
Win rate breakdown per difficulty level
By Colour
Performance as White vs Black separately

Stats are calculated from Duel games only. Story and Practice progress are tracked separately via XP and spell completion.

Guardian Council

Lessons, spell puzzles, duels and the Progress page are free.

Guardian Council adds Chester coaching during duels and an email to parents after each game. Stay signed in on your child’s device to receive match notes.

Guardian Council

Chester coaches your child and sends you match notes.

Chester Coaching
Match emails for parents
Choose your plan

Monthly or yearly · Cancel anytime

Frequently Asked Questions

General
Gameplay & Chester
Progress & Data

Still need help?

We're a small team building this with care. Send us a note and we'll respond within one business day.