Frequently asked questions

It is tough to give a general answer to this question. It depends on your level and what you want to achieve. But to give you an idea:

Beginner

If you are completely new to chess, you start with the lessons in the Pawn, Knight and Bishop levels. You will learn the rules and practice your tactical skills. That way, you build a solid basis. You can alternate your lessons with fun games in the Arena. Chessity is adaptive, so you will always play games at your own level. In ‘training’, the Jumping Jack game is a good way to master the movements of the knight.

Somewhat advanced chess player

If you are somewhat advanced (from Bishop level onwards), it is good, in addition to the lessons, to play a lot of games (which you can do in the Arena, under ‘gaming’) and to learn from your mistakes.

The ‘training’ section offers various tactics trainers. This mixed assignments closely resemble actual chess game situations, making them ideal for training. They teach you tactical pattern recognition and search strategies. You also encounter these assignments in the gaming section.

In addition, it is very important to develop a good board vision, for which Chessity has develop the Routeplanner training games. If you practice theseregularly, your visualization skills will keep improving.

Advanced chess player

For advanced chess players, the lessons of the Rook and Queen levels are interesting. In addition, it is important to do a lot of tactical training. The chess puzzles in Chessity go up to the master level, so you can always train on your own level.

At this chess level, the Endgame trainers are also recommended.

Normally speaking, new lessons have to be unlocked first by completing the lessons before them. However, for advanced chess players, it is also possible to unlock all the lessons, which means you no longer have to 'earn' lessons, but you can start with a lesson of your choice.

For individual users:

Go to My account – Account settings and check the option ‘Unlock all lessons’.

For users with a student account:

You cannot unlock lessons yourself, only your coach can do that for you.

However...

Many (young) chess players overestimate their own level. They start with lessons that are too difficult for them, and they become frustrated, which is why we recommend being very cautious when it comes to unlocking all lessons! Even for chess players with one or two years’ experience, it is better to start at the beginning. They will proceed quickly, until they reach their own level.

Cause 1

The default setting in Chessity is that all lessons are locked. You have to unlock a new lesson first by successfully completing the lesson before it. If you haven't unlocked a lesson yet, you can't go any further.

Individual users can unlock all lessons in their account settings. Users with a student account cannot do this themselves. The teacher can do this via Manage Students tool on the Coach tab

Cause 2

You haven't got enough stars to make a mix lesson yet. Every fifth lesson in the sesson series is a mixed assignment lesson that repeats the content of the four previous lessons. In those four lessons you have to get a minimum number of stars to be able to make the mix lessons. If you don't have enough stars, then you till haven't mastered the required skills yet and you have to obtain more stars first.

Cause 3

The three days unlimited play of your free account are up. A free account offers three days of unlimited access to all Chessity features, including all classes. After three days you need a premium account for continued access to all content. With a free account, you can only do the first five lessons of each level. Previously earned results are not lost. As soon as you upgrade to a premium account, you can continue where you left off.

This section provides you with chess tactics that you have done before and where you made mistakes. The puzzles (containing the mistakes) that you made most recently are the first once to be shown. So you can use this tactics trainer to learn from your mistakes. The answers you give in this section do not affect your rating.

Route Planner is a unique training tool to improve your board visualization.

The assignment is to always to check the king. The pieces on the board are shown briefly, after which they disappear. So to be able to solve the puzzle, you need to remember where the pieces are!

Blind training with the Route Planner is a very effective way to improve your board vision skills. The Route Planners/TPR selects assignments that match your level.

If you are new to this training method, it is best to start with the TPR trainer.

Yes, the level of the chess puzzles in the Arena is adaptive. So when you play games, you'll always get chess puzzles on your own level. This way players with different levels can still play against each other and they both have a chance to win.

Of course this concerns the games in which tactics are central, such as the Frog Race and the Space Race. In games with a regular chess game mode (such as gong chess and rapid/blitz chess) the level differences do come to the fore.

Chessity has developed the Route Planner training games especially for training your board vision skills. These games teach you to visualize your position. By practicing regularly, your board vision will improve immensely. You will find that you stop hanging pieces, win more games and that your rating will improve.

After you have finished a lesson or set of tactical problems, you are automatically taken to the Café, where you can see what you did wrong in each of the assignments you completed. You can play the solution in its entirety or click through it move by move. You also have the option of coming up with alternatives. Use the ‘hint’ button to get a chess computer to help you think about the next moves.

The Café also has a chat function, where you can ask questions about the assignments or the solution, and get answers from other users or someone from Chessity. If you want to revisit a chess puzzle later on, you can save it by clicking on the star.

The Café can also be accessed via the Café tab at the top of your screen.

Chessity uses the standard tables that are also used by FIDE. We treat each puzzle as though it were a player. If the puzzle isn’t solved correctly, the puzzle ‘wins’ and the player loses rating points. If the puzzle is solved correctly, the player ‘wins’ and his rating improves.

Your normal FIDE rating gives an indication of your overall strength as a chess player. Chessity uses different ratings: when you train tactics, you get a tactics rating, and for endgame training, you get an endgame rating.

Suppose that your FIDE rating is 2200, but your tactics raring at Chessity is 1800. That means you are probably better at openings and endgames, and there is room for improvement in your tactical game.

Is your Chessity rating for tactics 2600, but your actual rating much lower? Then you know that openings and endgames are your weaker points.

Your rating only chances through what you do on Chessity. We cannot change people’s rating on request.

Absolutely! You can do this on the Play page.

From there, you can challenge another player or a robot in the Playroom to:

• Blitz
  • A game with 10 minutes of thinking time per person for the entire game
• Rapid
  • 20 minutes of thinking time
• Gong chess
  • Chess without a clock. The gong ends the game if it takes too long. The player with the most material points is then declared the winner. 

In for a tournament? Then join one of our many live events. 

The Playroom is the place where you can play fun chess games against someone else. You can find it on the 'Play' page.

In the Playroom, you go through three steps:

1. find an opponent
2. negotiate which game you want to play
3. let's play!

1. Find an opponent

On the home screen, you can invite other players to play against you by clicking on the username. Another player can also invite you; you will see this by the cross that appears next to a name (clicking the cross means: reject invitation).

You can also always play against a robot. The robots are recognized by the icons with red names. The robots are adaptive: their level adjusts to that of the player.

2. 'Negotiate' which game you will play

Once there is a match with an opponent, a pop-up appears with the games you can play. Then click on the game you want to play. If the other person also wants to play this game and clicks on it, the game starts automatically. If the other person clicks on a different game, you must 'negotiate' together until you agree. 

3. Let's play

Play games (different or the same) against your opponent until one of you no longer wants to play.

In the Playroom, you can play nine different chess games:

1. Blitz: a regular game with 10 minutes per person
2. Rapid: a regular game with 20 minutes per person
3. World Cup: a 'tug-of-war' for the world cup. Solve chess exercises with the theme indicated. The player who 'tugs' the trophy towards them wins.
4. Frog Race: a game also found in lessons. Solve chess exercises to move a frog. The player whose frog reaches the flower first wins. The theme of the exercises is not indicated.
5. Space Race: a game also found in lessons. Solve chess exercises to make a rocket fly faster. The player whose rocket reaches the finish first wins. The theme of the exercises is not indicated.
6. Castle Race: a game also found in lessons. Solve chess exercises to storm a castle with a knight. The player whose knight captures the treasure wins. The theme of the exercises is not indicated.
7. Jumping Jack: a game also found in lessons. Collect coins with a knight. The player whose knight collects the most coins wins. This game is a very good exercise for the knight's move.
8. Gong Chess: a chess game where the goal is to earn as many points as possible by capturing pieces within 7 minutes. This game is very suitable for practicing the value of the pieces.
9. 5-Chess: a chess game where you can win not only by checkmating but also by earning five material points the fastest.