Getting Started with ChessKid!
Welcome to ChessKid!
We are the #1 Chess website for Kids! Get ready to discover and take advantage of the tools we offer you.
Create your ChessKid Account
- Account Type
- Username
- Avatar
- Password and Email
Where to Start?
- Play
- Puzzles
- Learn
- Resources
- Connect
- Events
Create your ChessKid Account
Select your Account Type
If you are a Kid make sure you select a Kid Account and if you are a Parent/Teacher/Coach make sure to select an Adult Account.
We take your safety very seriously, so Kid accounts are a bit different than Adult accounts. For example, only Kids can play online with other Kids around the world, join our Public Kid Clubs and participate in Kid Club Tournaments.
Due to security reasons, ChessKid does not allow Adult accounts to connect or play with Kid accounts, add them as a Friend, or vice versa (unless the adult is a Guardian of the Kid). Here you can find more information about it: How to: Understand ChessKid's Safety Features
Connecting an Adult Account with a Kid Account
In order to connect with each other, the Adult needs to be the Kid's Primary or Secondary Guardian. This is determined by email address; if the Kid has the Guardian's email added into their account, then they can interact on the site!
Only Primary Guardians can add other adults as Additional Guardians. If you are a Kid and do not have a Primary Guardian linked to your account, it can be added from your Settings page, or please contact us and we will be happy to help you!
If you are a Primary Guardian, here are the steps for adding an Additional Guardian: How to: Manage Guardianship
Parents/Teachers/Coaches Starting with ChessKid
We always recommend to first create your own Adult account, then create your students' or kids' accounts. This way you can choose their usernames and passwords, and this automatically makes you the Primary Guardian of their accounts which allows you to manage their accounts, track their progress, group them into a Club and assign/unassign Gold Memberships.
We also have a tool in a Coach/Teacher account called 'Add Multiple Kids' where you can create up to 24 usernames at once!
Please note that if your student already has an existing account, the Parent/Primary Guardian will need to add you as an Additional Guardian so you can do all of the above things: How to: Manage Guardianship
Choose your Username
This username is the one you will use when logging into your account, so make sure you don't forget it!
While you’re waiting for your custom username to be approved, please login with your ChessKid generated username. Once we approve your custom username, you will receive an email confirmation!
If you try to log in with the new username before being approved it will not work, so you need to keep using the original username (provided by ChessKid) until your custom username is approved.
If you already have an account you can always request a custom username!
Adults can request their custom username directly from their settings page.
If you are a Kid and you have a Guardian, you can request the new custom username to your Guardian. Your Guardian will be able to request the custom username directly from their Account (on the 'Edit Kid' page), just note that it might take up to 24 hours in order for us to approve any custom username requests!
Guardians can manage their Kids' accounts directly from the 'My Kids' page. Just click on the hamburger menu next to the Kid's name, then click 'Edit Kid'.
If you are a Kid and you do not have a Guardian, you can contact us with your 3 preferred names (in order of preference) and we will be more than happy to change it for you within the next 24 hours.
Choose your Avatar
You can choose from hundreds of images that we have available, and you can change it anytime you want!
Unfortunately, due to security reasons we do not allow custom avatars for anyone on ChessKid (Kids or Parents).
Create your Password and Add an Email Address to your Account
We always recommend adding an email and make sure to verify it. This way you can easily recover your account in case you forget your credentials.
Once you get your ChessKid account ready, you will be able to use the same login information to access ChessKid Adventure! And if you have a Gold Membership, those benefits will extend to ChessKid Adventure too!
Where to Start?
We are going to provide you with a basic guide on how to use Chesskid and answer the most frequent questions, but we encourage you to Explore ChessKid and have fun while learning!
If you are new to the Chess world, we recommend you start with our Lessons and Videos. These are specially designed for Kids from absolute beginners up to a chess rating of about 1600, and there's new content added all the time!
Play
On the Play page you can choose ‘Play vs Kid’, ‘Play Slow Chess’ or ‘Play vs Bot’. It also shows your current Slow Chess games and new challenges received.
On this same page you can view your recent games and start any received challenges. First click on 'New Challenge' in order to accept it and start the game!
This Play vs Kid page is the Fast Chess section. Here, you can play with other Kids online (if you are a Kid) and play in Tournaments.
To start a game please select the Time Control (5,10 or 15 minutes) and wait for your game to start. Our system will match you with the next available player, while trying to match you with an opponent with a similar rating.
If you are a Kid, you will see 4 options (on the right side menu): Tournaments (if you're in a Club), Challenges, Games, and Friends. If you are an Adult, you will see Tournaments, Games, Friends and Console.
Here, you can see all the Fast Chess Tournaments that will happen in the next 7 days, only from the Clubs to which you belong. If you want to play in one of them, click on the Tournament name, then click on the 'JOIN' button. The 'Join' button will appear 30 minutes before the Tournament starts.
Please note that a Fast Chess Tournament will require a minimum of 4 players for the tournament to start.
Here's an article with some tips on how to have the best online tournament playing experience!
First make sure to that you are part of a Club, to know more about Clubs please visit our Clubs section!
· Click on ‘Play vs Kid’
· The Tournament section will be on the right side menu:
· Click on “JOIN”. The “JOIN” button will appear 30 minutes before the Tournament starts
· Your game will automatically begin when the Tournament starts, as long as you’re on this page and not on other parts of the website! Do not manually match against anyone!
· Each game will start after all games in the current round are completed.
Here's a video tutorial on How Kids Join a Fast Chess Tournament.
If you are a Coach/Teacher and would like to create Tournaments between your students, you first need to have a Club and add the students into the Club. Visit our Clubs section for more information.
Once you get your Club ready, you can create a Fast Chess Tournament by simply clicking on 'Play vs Kid', then click on 'New Club Tournament':
Here's a video tutorial on How to Set Up a Fast Chess Tournament.
In the Challenges section you will be able to see other Kids who are currently looking for a challenge.
In the Games option you will be able to see all the games that are being played at the moment. If you want to observe a specific one, you can click on the binoculars icon!
In the Friends section you can see Friends and Clubmates who are currently online and challenge them to a game. Please note that your Friend must be on this same Fast Chess page, only then you can look for each other and start a Game!
On the Slow Chess page you can find your current games, pending challenges and you can send new challenges to your Friends or Clubmates. Note that you can only send one challenge at a time, and your Friend/Clubmates will need to accept this challenge before you can send another one.
On the Play vs Bot page you can play with our Bots and Personalities! Just choose your ‘Botpponent’ and click on 'Play'!
In case you are wondering, here is the Rating of each Bot:
If you want, you have the option to ‘save’ your game in case you need to continue at another time. Just click on the 'Save Game' button:
When you return, you will see the option to continue your game:
Puzzles
The Puzzles Page offers you the option to solve Puzzles or play Puzzle Duel with other Kids online. Please note that your initial Puzzle Rating is 100. However, as soon as you start solving Puzzles, your Rating will go up very quickly!
You can also ‘Select a Puzzle Theme to Play' but note that these Puzzles are not Rated and do not provide any Stars.
You can choose if you want your Puzzles to be Rated or not.
If you are a Kid, you can click on your settings page and select the Play tab. Here, click on the 'Puzzles Mode' drop-down menu and choose the ‘Unrated’ option. Make sure to click the 'Save' button at the bottom of the page to save your changes!
Adults have the same option, just click on your setting page and then go to 'Games and Puzzles' on the right side menu.
Learn
With the Learn page you can expand your Chess knowledge with our Lessons, Videos, Analysis Board, Vision Trainer, Articles and much more!
On our Lessons page you can find all our Levels. Each Level includes an English video and on most Lessons we offer subtitles in English and also other languages. Just click on the ‘CC’ icon and choose your language!
Starting with King Level, you will need to earn Stars in order to level up to the next Lesson.
Here are some ways you can earn Stars:
- Make chess a daily habit! If you are a Kid, log in each day and spin the wheel to earn Stars.
- Solve Puzzles! Each correctly solved puzzle earns 3 Stars. Some puzzles which require multiple moves may award 1 or 2 stars for partially correct answers.
- Play chess! You earn Stars for both Fast Chess games and Slow Chess games. The winner of the game receives more Stars, but you will earn Stars for just playing too.
Resources
Visit our Chess Resources for Beginners and Beyond! We have an amazing ChessKid Parent Survival Handbook for Parents, an unique ChessKid Chess Curriculum for Teachers, useful resources for Kids, Printable Certificates and much more!
Connect
When hovering over the ‘Connect’ button you will see 2 options: Friends and Clubs
On the Friends page, you can see all your Friends, view your pending requests and send a new Friend request.
We take the safety of children online very seriously, so ChessKid does not allow Adult accounts to "Friend" Kid accounts, or vice-versa (unless linked by a Guardianship). If a Parent/Coach/Teacher account wants to connect or play chess games with a Kid account, they will need to be a Primary or Additional Guardian. This is determined by email address; if the Kid has the Parent's email added to their account, then they can interact on the site.
You can find more information in this link: How to: Manage Guardianship
Only Primary Guardians can add Additional Guardians. If you are a Kid and your Kid account is not linked to a Primary Guardian account, please contact us and we will be happy to help you!
First, you would need to confirm if your Friend has a Kid account or an Adult account. If you are a Kid and your Friend has an Adult account, then he/she needs to be added as your Guardian in order to add them as a Friend!
To add new Friends use the search bar at the top of the screen. In this example, I'm looking for my Friend NichTestKid. When you see your Friend’s account click on the hamburger menu and then click 'Add to Friends’:
Note: Kids may only add Friends they know in real life, and it's necessary for both Kids to send each other a Friend request. We do this in the interest of privacy and safety, so that Friends are only established when both kids know each other and have mutually sent requests.
Once two users have become Friends on ChessKid, they will be able to see each other's accounts in the ‘Friends’ tab when they visit the ‘Play vs Kid’ page:
The Clubs page will show ‘My Clubs’ which are the Clubs you belong to and our ‘Public Clubs’ which are the Clubs that you can join.
We have two Club options:
Public Clubs are created by ChessKid and anyone can join.
Private Clubs are created by Parents/Teachers/Coaches and the Club Owner / Club Admin will have to manually add the members into the Club.
Parents/Teachers/Coaches visit How to: Start and Manage a Club to learn how to add kids into your Club.
You can add students into your Club as long as you are listed as a Guardian for their accounts: What's a Primary Guardian? What's a Secondary Guardian?
If you are an Adult, the only Public Club you can join is our Parents & Coaches Club. Kids have other Public Club options such as the ChessKid Official Club!
To join a Public Club, click on the JOIN button:
If you click on the Club’s name you can see more details such as the Leaderboard, News and Tournaments. Here, we also have the ‘Leave Club’ button in case you no longer wish to be a member of the Club.
In the Tournaments tab you can find any Upcoming Tournament, as well as Current and Finished Tournaments and results.
If you are a Coach/Teacher and you would like to create a Club please visit this article: How to: Start and Manage a Club.
Note that you can add students as long as you are listed as a Guardian for their Accounts: What's a Primary Guardian? What's a Secondary Guardian?
Events
Our Events page is a continuously-updated calendar of all upcoming ChessKid online and in-person events. Please bookmark it and refer to it often so you know about all of our live streams and special events!
We also have a video tutorial series with step-by-step instructions on how to use the many features available to you: Video Tutorial Series
And EVERYTHING you need to know about 'How to Play Chess' is all here in one fun video! You'll learn all six pieces, how to win a game, the three special rules of chess, and even some opening tips. If you want to play chess and only have time to watch one video, it should be this one!