What does an online chess lesson for kids actually look like?
Most parents booking their first online chess lesson don't really know what to expect. Will it be a teacher presenting slides? A game with the tutor? A lecture about openings? This piece walks through what actually happens — the platforms, the structure, what your child does, and what you'll see if you're watching.
What does an online chess lesson for kids actually look like?
A 1-to-1 online chess lesson is a video call between your child and a tutor, with a shared digital chess board they both can use. The tutor leads — but it's interactive, not lecture-style. Your child plays, solves puzzles, and works through positions live with the tutor responding to every move.
How the technology works
The setup is simpler than parents often expect. Two things running side by side:
- Zoom for the video call. You and the tutor see each other; your child sees the tutor and vice versa.
- Lichess for the chess board. Both your child and the tutor can interact with the same digital board through a shared session. The tutor controls what's on it — set up a position, run through a puzzle, play a practice game — and either of them can move pieces depending on what the lesson is doing at that moment.
That's it. No installs, no accounts to create on your child's side. We send the necessary links before each lesson — your child just clicks to join.
Lichess replaces the physical chess board and notebook in a traditional lesson. It actually works better online than a physical board would: positions can be set up instantly, mistakes can be undone and re-tried, and the tutor can highlight squares, draw arrows, and circle pieces to show exactly what to look at. A traditional board can't do any of that. Tutors will also sometimes pull up a real game — a famous match, or one your child played recently — and walk through it move by move with the same arrows and highlights.
One practical thing worth knowing: lessons work best on a laptop or desktop computer with a mouse. Phones are too small for the chess board to be readable. Tablets work, but children move pieces faster and more accurately with a mouse than with a touchpad or finger. If your child has access to a laptop and mouse, use those. It removes a small friction that adds up over a 30-minute lesson.
A 1-to-1 lesson runs on a Zoom call plus a shared digital chess board on Lichess where both the child and the tutor can move pieces. We send the necessary links before each lesson. Lessons work best on a laptop with a mouse rather than a phone or tablet.
What happens during a lesson
Lessons are interactive throughout — your child is solving, playing, and being asked questions the entire time.
A typical structure looks something like this:
- Quick warm-up. The tutor opens with a few light questions or a tactical puzzle to get your child thinking in chess mode. Two or three minutes.
- Review and pickup. If your child has had previous lessons, the tutor reviews what was covered last time and checks how it's stuck. For a first lesson, this is replaced with a quick chat to gauge what your child already knows.
- The main teaching. This is where new material gets introduced — an opening principle, a tactical pattern, an endgame technique, or whatever's next on the curriculum. The tutor sets up positions on the board, asks your child what they'd play, and works through the answer together. Everything is worked out live.
- Practice. Your child applies what was just taught. Sometimes that's solving puzzles based on the new pattern. Sometimes it's playing a position out against the tutor. The tutor watches every move and asks questions like "why did you play that?" or "what's your opponent threatening?"
- Wrap-up. Quick recap of what was covered. Some tutors will set a small task to work on between lessons — a few puzzles to solve, a position to think about, or a short game to play. It's light and optional rather than the kind of homework children do for school.
The whole thing is conversational. Good tutors talk to your child the entire time — asking questions, listening to answers, adjusting on the fly. A child who's struggling gets simpler positions. A child who's racing ahead gets harder ones.
A typical lesson has a short warm-up, review of previous material, a new concept introduced through worked examples, applied practice, and a brief wrap-up. Lessons are interactive throughout — your child plays, solves, and answers questions.
How lessons differ for beginners vs more experienced kids
The structure above stays roughly the same, but what fills it changes a lot.
For complete beginners, the first few lessons are about the basics most parents assume tutors will skip but shouldn't:
- How each piece moves (without rushing)
- How to set up the board correctly
- The goal of the game (checkmate, not just capturing pieces)
- Simple tactics: forks, pins, basic checkmates with a queen
The tutor uses very simple positions on the board and lots of guided questions. Progress feels slow at first, then accelerates once the basics click — usually within a handful of lessons.
For children who already know how to play, the lessons skip the basics and go straight to the things they're missing — typically opening principles, tactical patterns they haven't seen, and how to actually have a plan rather than just reacting.
A child who's been playing casually for a year often jumps several levels in a small number of lessons, because for the first time someone is showing them why their moves work or don't work. Casual play teaches kids to react. Lessons teach them to think.
The tutor calibrates pace, difficulty, and content to your child specifically — that's the whole point of 1-to-1 over a group format. Our piece on chess clubs vs 1-to-1 online lessons goes into that comparison in more depth.
For beginners, early lessons cover piece movement, board setup, and simple tactics with very simple positions. For children who already play, lessons skip the basics and focus on the gaps — usually opening principles, tactical patterns, and how to plan rather than just react.
What the parent's role is
For ongoing lessons, parents don't need to be present. Most children focus better without a parent in the room — they engage more directly with the tutor and don't perform for an audience. You can use the time however you like.
For a trial lesson, we recommend something different: be present, or at least drop in for the last 5–10 minutes.
Here's why: a trial lesson is a decision moment. You're trying to work out whether 1-to-1 online lessons are right for your child, whether the tutor is a good fit, and whether to commit to ongoing classes. None of that is easy to judge from your child saying "it was fine" afterwards. Watching the lesson — or coming in at the end to ask the tutor questions — gives you a much better picture of how your child engaged, what the tutor noticed, and whether to go ahead.
You don't need to know how to play chess yourself. You're not there to evaluate the chess content. You're there to see how your child responds to the tutor and to ask any practical questions — about pace, what to expect from regular lessons, or anything else.
If you're considering booking a trial, our FAQ for parents covers the practical questions (device requirements, attention span, screen time) directly. And if you're not sure whether your child is ready at all, we've also written about how to tell if your child is ready for chess lessons.
For ongoing lessons, parents don't need to be present — most kids focus better without a parent in the room. For a trial lesson, we recommend you watch (or drop in for the last 5–10 minutes) so you can judge the fit yourself rather than relying on what your child reports afterwards.
What to expect from your first lesson
The first lesson is partly teaching and partly mutual fact-finding. The tutor uses the first 5–10 minutes to gauge what your child knows, how they engage, and what pace will work. By the end, your child will have done some real chess — not just a getting-to-know-you chat — and the tutor will have a clear sense of how to structure future lessons.
If you're ready to see what it looks like in practice, we run 30-minute trial classes with a real tutor, no commitment after. Easier to try once than to keep wondering.
