Frequently asked questions

Students only see the level in which they are active (plus the levels they have already completed).

The next level appears on their homepage if:

• the student has played the last lesson in a level OR
• has collected all the stickers from the level OR
• passed the exam (also via an entry test)

Students’ settings are managed in the Student Management tool (accessible via the Coach tab in the menu bar). This tool shows a list of all your students and their settings. Below you can read about the settings and how to use the student management tool.

1. Add a student to your student management who already has a Chessity account. See also: Is it possible to convert an existing account into a student account?
   
   
2. Add a new student. You activate one of your purchased accounts and set it up for the student.
   
   
3. Pupils who have been inactive for a longer period of time are no longer shown in the student list. This button makes them visible again.
   
   
4.  Sort the student list by user name (alphabetically ascending or descending) or use the search field to search for a user name.
   
   
5. Sort the student list by name (first name alphabetically ascending or descending) or search for a name using the search field.
   
   
6. Add a note.
   
   
7. Sort the list by group (alphabetically ascending or descending) or search for a group using the search field.
   
   
8. Extend the premium account period by 12 months. These 12 months will commence after the original expiry date. In order to renew an account, you need to have enough premium accounts in stock.
   
   
9. Change your student's password or personal information. 
   
   
10. Turns the Simplified mode (the children's learning environment) on or off. Default setting: Simplified mode on. See also: What is the Beginner mode?
    
    
11. Unlock all lessons for an advanced student. He or she can skip easy lessons. Our advice is to be reluctant in unlocking lessons. Default setting: all lessons locked.
    
    
12. Shield the student from contacts with strangers. By ticking Protect student, you ensure that children can only communicate within their own group. Default setting: Protected status on.
    
    
13. Enable or disable the chat feature. The chat feature is a popular function within classes but sometimes leads to unwanted behavior. We recommend that you allow this function to be performed under normal circumstances, as it provides children with an important 21st-century skill. Default setting: chat enabled.
    
    
14. Lock or unlock the Arena. With a locked arena the student must first get 5 stars (per week) to be able to play games in the Arena. Default setting: Arena locked with star lock.
    
    
15. Enable or disable Chessto tasks. Chessto keeps track of which lesson(s) still have to be made in order to get a new sticker on the way to the exam. Once a week, Chessto distributes these lessons to the pupils as a special mission. If a student already has been assigned tasks by their teacher, Chessto does not hand out missions. Default setting: Chessto tasks on.
    
    
16. Use this green button to show or hide the 'Groups' widget.
    
    
17. This button allows you to purchase one or more new student accounts, which you can activate when you need to. Above the button you can see how many accounts you still have in stock.
    
    
18. Use this widget to divide your students into groups.
    
    
19. Use this widget to remove students from groups.
    
    
20. This is a useful feature if you want to change settings for multiple students in one go. Manually tick the students in question, or tick ‘Select all’ to select all students at once.
    
    
21. The most important settings are briefly explained here.

The toolkit for teachers and coaches  can be found on the coach tab. 

When you teach Chess with Chessity, our tools for teachers and coaches are extremely useful:

Short explanation of the tools in the coach toolkit.

Use the Manage Students tool for your account management and to customize your students' settings. This is also where you can buy new accounts.

The Student Dashboard measures and tracks the progress of your students. It gives you an overview at group level of the progress of your students. By clicking on a student's name, you can see which lessons they have already completed and how well they did.

The Task tool is a tool for assigning homework or a weekly task. You can select lessons to assign to individual students.

A student who has been assigned tasks can immediately see this on his or her homepage. An icon with a backpack is displayed. This backpack contains the students’ tasks:

The Demo board tool turns your IWB or computer screen into an interactive demonstration board on which you can set up chess positions and give classical instructions. 

With the Add Coach Banner tool, you can personalize your students' learning environment with the school logo or other images.

The Coach Manager tool allows you to create coaching accounts for teachers or trainers. See further: How do I create accounts for teachers/coaches

hessity's extensive teaching tools are available to anyone with a (premium) Chessity account. However, if you don't have a premium account yet, a free account will give you three days of access to all functionality.

Chessity helps teachers with a complete student management system and the most advanced student monitoring system.

Our friendly little robot Chessto - as small and cute as it is - is a very powerful, innovative and absolutely unique instrument. Filled to the brim with specially designed artificial intelligence, Chessto is virtual teacher en chess trainer that offers deeply personalized teaching to your students.

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 or game analysis (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 thsi 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? At Pawn Level, 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. It never loses its 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, it helps them during their games with tips and advice based on their personal level of chess and user data. Chessto teaches them proper opening strategies and what choices they have 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, 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 students will be a step closer to their chess diploma.

Chessto tasks that have been open for more than a month are automatically deleted.

No, Chessity does not have a traditional teacher manual.

First of all because there are huge differences in the way schools and chess clubs organize their chess lessons and the methods chess teachers use. Chessity is such a flexible teaching method that schools and chess academies can use it as they see fit. The focus is always on the individual learning process and development of the student; the teacher primarily has a coaching role to play.

Modular knowledge database for chess coaches

Make sure you read the questions in the various sections of these FAQ. They provide a lot of information about the teaching concepts and the use of Chessity, and the way coaches can organize the system for their students. If there are new questions, we add them to the FAQ. That way, we build a modular database for chess coaches.

Information about creating, setting or purchasing (additional) student accounts can be found in the ‘Accounts’ section.

If you have specific questions or want to share your own experiences, your suggestions, your successes or your doubts with us, feel free to contact us. We are here to help you. Besides, your feedback can help other coaches and helps us improve our product.

In Chessity, the role of the chess teacher is primarily that of a coach. Students take the lessons independently and at their own pace. The method adapts in various ways to the level and learning method of the individual players. This takes place ‘under the hood’, allowing the players to focus on the game, while improving their skills and learning ever more quickly.

As a coach, you can track the progress of your students in a student tracking system, which also provides you with insight into the way the performance of individual students can be improved.

In a frontal, group-based instruction model (the traditional teaching method), the teacher explains, for example, the way a knight moves or what the double attack is to the entire group, after which all the students make assignments and practice. The teacher checks the assignments and provides the students with feedback, individually or as a group, and may give additional explanation.

In a Chessity class, the students come across the knight moves or double attack in their own time. When they make mistakes, there is immediate feedback by the program. In the student tracking system, the teacher can see which of the children have problems with knight moves o double attacks. While the other kids continue with their lessons, he can bring these kids together and provide additional explanation or recommend they first acquire a third star for the lesson in question or – in the case of the knight moves – play the game Jumping Jack for additional practice.

As a coaching teacher, you are a guide to your students on their own learning curve, and learning to play chess has become truly customized.

For schools and chess clubs with many students, organizing your students into groups is very useful. Groups allow you to filter your view of the student management tool. Organize you students into smaller, more workable groups, for example by teacher or class or by sections that meet on different ways.

Groups can be created and removed, and students can be assigned or reassigned, anytime. Students can be assigned to more than one group. When you remove a group, the associated student accounts will be retained.

The Manage Students tool includes a special panel for group management. This allows you to divide your students into groups according to your own wishes and insights. 

Group management is a very flexible instrument. For example, you can group students per class per class or year of study, but also per level. You can also determine what the group is called. The name of the group can indicate the chess level, for example ‘Pawn group', but also the name of the class at school, such as ‘Class 3B’ or ‘Grade 7’.

How to organize your students into groups: 

1. Open the Groups panel in the Manage Students tool (on the Coach page): click the green button.

2. Enter the desired name of the new group and click on 'OK'.

3. Check the students you want to divide into a group

4. Select the action 'Assign to group', select the desired group and click on 'OK'.

Use the tool Manage Students to assign students to another teacher or trainer.

Check the name of the student(s) you want to assign to another coach. From the 'Choose action' drop-down menu, choose the 'Assign users to another coach' option. Fill in the user name of the new coach and click OK.

Confirm the action:

The student is now shown in both the new coach’s dashboard and in the student management. The new coach now also has the rights to change the password for this student or to choose other settings.

Note!

Students can only be assigned to a user who has been designated as a coach via the Coach Manager.

See also: How do I create accounts for teachers or trainers

Yes, Chessity has an elaborate student monitoring system that provides coaches and chess teachers with detailed insight into the progress of their students. You need a coach account to get access to these features.

The Manage Students and Dashboard tools only show students who are active users of Chessity. If a student is inactive for a time, the system automatically hides them. This cleaning up ensures that your student lists are always as well-organized as possible. 

If students are missing from your student lists because they are hidden, you can find them by clicking on the button 'Show inactive students'.

Do you want students who can already play chess to start quickly at the right level in Chessity? Then use an entry test, which you set up in the Exams tool (coach tab):

• Click on ‘Coach’ in the menu bar
• Click on ‘Exams’
• Go to the tab ‘Eligible students’
• Enter the user name of your student and select an exam level.
• Click on ‘Add’ to make the exam available on the student’s homepage 

Unlock lessons

It is also possible to unlock all lessons for a student. He or she does not have to unlock lessons by succesfully completing previous lessons, but can start with a lesson of his or her choice.

• Click on ‘Coach’ in the menu bar
• Click on ‘Manage students’
• Check the username in question.
• From the drop-down menu, choose the action ‘Unlock all lessons’ and click ‘Ok’.

Please note!

Children often (highly) overestimate their own level and skills. They start with too difficult lessons, which leads to frustration. Taking a step back is difficult for many children. Our advice is to be very cautious about unlocking all lessons! The use of entry tests is the best method to get children working at their own level.

Chessity is designed in such a way that students have freedom in the pace at which they take lessons. A student can only move on to the next lesson once he has completed the previous lesson. As soon as a star is earned for a lesson, the next lesson is unlocked.

Students can choose for themselves whether they want to continue with the next lesson or whether they want to get three stars on the current lesson first.

If students go through their lessons too fast (with few stars), the system will ensure that they are slowed down and first deepen their skills.

For every fifth lesson (the games with mix tasks), a blockage is built in: students who have only one star for the previous lessons have to return to these lessons in order to earn more stars.

This automatically prevents a pupil from moving too fast into the depths while they have not yet sufficiently mastered a skill or grasped a concept.

In the student monitoring system (Coach - Dashboard) you can see exactly which lessons your students are at and how many stars they have passed. This information helps you to guide and coach your students in their learning process.

To learn and improve in chess, it is important that children practice regularly. That works best if practicing is fun and children enjoy it. That's why Chessity makes use of game-based learning.

Motivating reward systems

Chessity motivates through an effective reward system. The brain is very sensitive to rewards. Rewards encourage people (of all ages!) to learn and be open to change. If after a well-made task a reward follows - if only the sound of a tinkling cash register or a cheering Chessto, as in the lessons at the Pawn Level - this teaches the brain that something has worked and you have to tackle such a problem in the same way the next time .

Reward incentives in Chessity

Chessity is full of audiovisual and other reward stimuli for the brain. Tinkling coins, mini-games in which frogs and rockets win a race for you, stars you earn, lessons you unlock, and real chess games and online tournaments in which winning the game thanks to your skills is your reward.

On the way to an exam, the student sees 'reward stickers'. These stickers represent the skill areas that a student must master before they can take an exam:

If a student has mastered a skill sufficiently, the sticker is shown in color on his home page. Experts in online learning state that virtual rewards as these work even better for many people than rewards in physical form.

Compact levels, fast progression to exams

The levels in Chessity are composed of compact lesson series of 40 lessons each. This allows students to obtain their chess certificates (diplomas) in a relatively short time. This is a powerful incentive to proceed to the next level. In addition, it motivates the other children in the group or class to strive to earn their diplomas as well.
Because students quickly level up from Pawn to Knight to Bishop Level etc., they  learn in a state of flow and are very engaged learners.

Mastery status in avatar

Avatars in Chessity show the highest level a user has successfully completed with a diploma.  If you have passed the Pawn exam, a pawn is shown next to your profile picture. Passed the Bishop exam? Then there is a little bishop next to the picture. This visual proof of mastery is a virtual status symbol and has a super-motivating effect.

By default, students must unlock the gaming section by making lessons.

When the arena is locked, the student must first earn 5 stars (per week) to be able to play games. This forces the students to make lessons and not just play games.

By hovering over the button Games with the mouse, the screen shows how many stars the student still has to earn to unlock the Arena:

Rather not have a star lock?

Use the Manage Student tool to disable the star lock on the Arena:

This FAQ relates to student accounts. For users with an individual (private) account, see I don't have full functionality. Why is that?

Students set to work in the simplified (beginner) mode only see a limited number of features. The beginner mode is the default setting used for new student accounts.

Note: if you have created an account for a second teacher or trainer in your student account management and you have not changed the default settings, this teacher or trainer will also see the simplified view (which means that they do not have access to the coach tools).

Simplified mode:

Regular mode:

If you want to give a student (temporary) access to more functions, you need to disable the beginner mode for this student in the Manage Students tool:

Only users with a coach account see this tab. It shows exactly what your students have written in the Café and who they have been in contact with.

You can do this in the tool Manage Student Accounts (accessible via the Coach tab in the menu bar).

Click on the icon with the pencil behind the student's name to change the email address.

To use the tools for teachers and coaches, your profile must be set to coach. Click on the arrow at the top right of your screen and choose 'My account'. Under the heading 'User environment' - Profile, choose 'coach'

Use the entry test

Do you want students who can already play chess to quickly start at the right level in Chessity? Then use the entry test, which you can set up in the Exams tool (coach tab):

The video below teaches you:

• to have students take entry tests
• how Chessto helps with new tasks if the student fails the entry test
• that only those gaps after failing need to be addressed
• that students can be accurately assessed at the right level on Chessity in just a few hours!

Note: the video describes an older version of the exam tool. Use the explanation above to set up an entry test. 

Unlock lessons

It is also possible to unlock all lessons for a student. He or she does not need to unlock lessons first but can start with a lesson of choice.

• Go to coach - manage student accounts and check the username in question.
• Choose the action Unlock all lessons in the dropdown menu and click Ok.

Note!

Children often overestimate their own level (a lot). They then start with lessons that are too difficult, leading to frustration. Taking a step back in level is difficult for many children. Our advice is to be very cautious with unlocking all lessons! Using the entry test is the best method to quickly get children working at their own level.

Children practicing in the simplified view see seven stickers (badges) on their home screen. These correspond to the seven learning objectives of the Pawn level. Once a student sufficiently masters a learning objective, the sticker is displayed in color. When a child has earned all the stickers, they automatically gain access to the exam. This way, children can see at a glance how many stickers they still need to earn before they can take the exam.

For this, use the Tasks tool.

Note: the Tasks tool is an expert tool mainly used by subject teachers and instructors with chess knowledge, who sometimes want to deviate from the normal learning path. Normally, as a teacher, you don't need to assign tasks yourself, because Chessto does that. He monitors which lesson(s) a child still needs to complete to earn a new sticker on the way to the next exam. Once a week, Chessto distributes these lessons as a 'special mission' (task). Chessto's tasks are personalized and student-specific: the student receives exactly the tasks they need for their progress. (See also: How does Chessto guide students before and after an exam?)

How do you assign tasks to students?

The Tasks tool has a workflow in three steps. When you open the tool, you always see which tasks you have assigned to your students. If you are using the tool for the first time, there are of course no assigned tasks yet. Then you start with step 2: Select tasks.

The first thing you see are all the lesson levels available in Chessity:

By clicking on a level, you open an overview with all the lessons and games of that level. Then you can select the lesson(s) you want the student(s) to practice. Indicate how many times the lesson should be done (between 1 and 5 times):

In this example, only lessons from the Pawn level are chosen, but it is also possible to select lessons from multiple levels.

After selecting the lessons, click on Select students (step 3).

A list of all your students is now displayed. Select the students who should complete the chosen lessons. In the dropdown menu under Groups, you will find all the groups you have created in the dashboard. You can check individual students or multiple students at once. 

In this example, Anne and Walter need to practice giving check and removing check:

After this, the screen of step 1, View tasks, automatically follows:

You can now see which students have been assigned a task. As the students start working on it, you can see exactly how far they have progressed, how many mistakes they have made, and whether they needed hints. By clicking on the Result icon, you get a more detailed overview per student (more on that later). 

How does the student see that tasks are ready for them?

As soon as Anne or Walter log in to Chessity, they see that something has changed:

A new image has appeared: the backpack with assignments (this disappears again once the tasks are completed). When Anne clicks on this image, she sees this:

Anne starts with the lesson 'Check in 1 move'. She needs help from the program twice to find the correct solution and earns two stars on this lesson. When she practices again in the River, the stars are also there. After completing the lesson, Anne sees that she has already completed one task. For students, it is very motivating to see how far they have come and what their efforts have achieved.

As a coach, you can also see (in the Tasks module) that Anne has practiced well:

Also read: Targeted practice: assigning tasks and homework

Assign tasks to your students >>

For this, use the Tasks tool.

Note: the Tasks tool is an expert tool mainly used by subject teachers and instructors with chess knowledge, who sometimes want to deviate from the normal learning path. Normally, as a teacher, you don't need to assign tasks yourself, because Chessto does that. He monitors which lesson(s) a child still needs to complete to earn a new sticker on the way to the next exam. Once a week, Chessto distributes these lessons as a 'special mission' (task). Chessto's tasks are personalized and student-specific: the student receives exactly the tasks they need for their progress. (See also: How does Chessto guide students before and after an exam?).

The Tasks tool has a workflow in three steps. When you open the tool, you always see which tasks you have assigned to your students. If you are using the tool for the first time, there are of course no assigned tasks yet. Then you start with step 2: Select tasks.

The first thing you see are all the lesson levels available in Chessity:

By clicking on a level, you open an overview with all the lessons and games of that level. Then you can select the lesson(s) you want the student(s) to practice. Indicate how many times the lesson should be done (between 1 and 5 times):

In this example, only lessons from the Pawn level are chosen, but it is also possible to select lessons from multiple levels.

After selecting the lessons, click on Select students (step 3).

A list of all your students is now displayed. Select the students who should complete the chosen lessons. In the dropdown menu under Groups, you will find all the groups you have created in the dashboard. You can check individual students or multiple students at once. 

In this blog, you can read how to create groups in the dashboard: Easier working with the new dashboard

All-in-1 chess lesson on the digital board

As a digital teaching method for school chess, Chessity is fully suitable for use on the digital board. By connecting your computer to the digital board, you get all lessons, example problems, exercises, and games interactively on the digital school board. This saves a lot of time and works very pleasantly. But as a teacher, you sometimes also want to be able to set up your own positions on the board. For example, to discuss a game, show a nice mate pattern, or to go through difficult tactical exercises with the students.

The digital demo board is one of the Coach functions included with a premium coach account

Then choose this icon:

With the digital demo board you can:

• Quickly load or set up a position: pieces can be placed or removed with a click on the chessboard

• Or use the FEN button to load positions:

• Create impossible positions, like this one:

 stalemate...

or the positions from the chess fairy tale with the three black kings:

 3x mate...

• Place coins or flags on the board to create your own games

• Draw colored arrows or color squares as a visual aid to indicate attacks, threats, plans, or safe squares. This greatly helps in training chess insight.

A few more advantages:

• Nice and large, so even the students at the back of the class can see it well.
• Never lose pieces again, or have to use glue to fix loose magnets
• No more carrying or tidying up

 How do you use the digital demo board?

You use the digital board tool in the same way as you use a physical demo board in the chess lesson. The online demo board is very easy to use so you can get started right away. 

Place or remove pieces

Place pieces by 'picking' them next to the board (click on the piece) and then 'placing' them on the desired spot (click on the square or drag the piece to the square). Remove them by clicking on the piece you want to remove again or by dragging it away. You can also place another piece on it. You place coins or flags in the same way.

Place or remove all pieces

Click on the icon with the empty chessboard to remove all pieces from the board.

Click on the icon with the starting position to set up the starting position.

Color square: click a color and then click on the square you want to mark. Click on the square again to remove the color.

Color area: click a color (button with corners) and then click the border squares of the area you want to mark. Click on the same border squares again to remove the color.

Draw arrow: click an arrow and draw an arrow by moving the mouse over the board with the mouse button pressed. Repeat this action to remove the arrow.

Remove marking: click on the eraser on the left to remove all markings on the board.