ZoomChess is an online chess learning system for 4-18 year olds. The service delivers a personalized program of lessons, exercises, and puzzles to your child through a computer. As your child uses ZoomChess, the system dynamically adjusts and delivers content appropriate to their level. The ZoomChess curriculum was developed over 30 years of teaching children chess in the classroom, and has helped earn many scholastic State and National Championship titles in the U.S.

As often as they like. The lessons are colorful, kid-friendly animations, and short enough for kids to enjoy on their own. For best results, we recommend using ZoomChess each day and develop consistency. Just like learning a musical instrument or sports, playing well depends on focused practice. ZoomChess is an ideal at-home practice environment.

ZoomChess was designed for kids, but it’s never too late to learn to play chess. We encourage kids from 3 to 103 to use ZoomChess.

Jill Keto (a ZoomChess founder) provided the voice and animation to the curriculum and lessons of US Senior Master Harlan Lee (another ZoomChess founder), whose after-school programs have taught chess to thousands of students over 30 years, and helped develop many national champions.

Yes. ZoomChess must be used on a desktop or laptop computer.

The ZoomChess system uses Java, which is not supported on mobile phones or tablets.

ZoomChess is fully narrated by a talking teacher, so even the earliest readers will be able to play.

Sign up for the free 14-day trial, available on the homepage. After the 14-day period, if you decide you want to continue, you need to purchase a subscription. You can get ZoomChess free by encouraging your school to buy a group subscription. After-school chess clubs or other groups get discounted rates. ZoomChess makes a great gift, so you might encourage a relative or friend to buy it for your child.

Yes, ZoomChess is designed for kids, even pre-schoolers. Try the 14-day free trial to see if your little one enjoys chess on a computer. We recommend short sessions for very young kids, with real-world reinforcement on an actual chess board.

English is the only language in which ZoomChess is available at this time. If we decide to translate ZoomChess, what language would you like to hear? Let us know.

ZoomChess offers discounts to Homeschool group subscriptions. You can get a year of ZoomChess for as little as $25 per child for groups of 5 or more.  Using ZoomChess in a Homeschool group setting can become very lively and social, with kids huddling around one computer figuring things out as a team. You can access the lessons under “Topics” in the Training Room, if you want to watch and discuss a specific subject as a group. Then the kids can each practice the concept within their own ZoomChess account, or on a physical chess board – together.

You can use ZoomChess to teach groups of Homeschool kids with or without a chess coach. This can be directed by a Homeschool parent who is an experienced chess player. But often it is a parent who is a chess novice, but is eager to learn right along with their children. The beauty of ZoomChess is that it enables even very young children to progress quickly, and continue learning regardless of the playing ability of their own parents.

Normally, after-school Chess Clubs use ZoomChess as a supplement to chess club instruction, and as a convenient way for students to practice and play better at home. More practice = more tournament wins. Some chess clubs use ZoomChess during instruction time, showing videos, discussing concepts, and solving puzzles as a group. Some chess coaches use it to assign homework to their Chess Club kids. ZoomChess is very flexible, and Chess Clubs use it in many different ways.

An individual child can use ZoomChess for $6.95 per month, $29.95 for 6 months (28% off the full monthly rate), or $49.65 per year (40% off the full monthly rate). Families and Classes are eligible for further discounts. Please see PRICING for more details.

If you have already registered and have signed up for a free trial, you can subscribe by either clicking “Pricing” on the ZoomChess homepage OR from “My Account” on your Student Dashboard. If you have not signed up for a free trial, you should do so. You’ll get a better understanding of how the system works if you play ZoomChess before you buy.

With regular use, your child will become proficient in chess. ZoomChess will train your child through 1600+ rating (US Chess Federation), which is the level of a competitive high school tournament player.

A full list of topics can be found in the Tour Section of our website. To access them in the ZoomChess application, first launch ZoomChess. You’ll be in the Training Room, and notice there are four buttons at the top. One of them is called “Topics”. From there, you will be able to access the curriculum by topic.

No. The ideal way to use ZoomChess is to allow the Training Room to guide your child through the curriculum. Just turn it on and let your child play.

The “Training Room” takes the student through puzzles, exercises and lessons at the level matching the child’s chess ability. As the student progresses, the training room content changes to more challenging material.

“Checkmate” is a flexible practice environment for checkmating the computer using a pre-defined group of pieces (like a Rook ands Queen, for example).

“Game Play” allows the student to play full chess games against the computer at the student’s level.

Yes. Narration can be turned off from the OPTIONS menu in the training room.

ZoomChess measures your child’s response time and error rate to determine what their ability actually is. In the beginning, it is figuring out how much your child knows, and where the “holes” are. Certain concepts must be mastered before progressing. If your child thinks the material is too easy, make sure they are not rushing through the exercises. Careless mistakes count as mistakes, and are factored into the playing level.

Click the “Topics” button in the Training Room, where you will find a wide variety of curriculum subjects to explore. From here, you can choose to view a lesson or train these topics with exercises and puzzles. Additionally, If you are looking for topics relating to checkmating with specific pieces, say – Two Bishops – click the “Checkmate” button in the Training Room.

Click “Log In” on the top of the homepage. Then “Click HERE if you forgot your username or password”.

Go to ZoomChess.com, and in the upper right corner, click “Log In”. Enter your username and password, and click “Submit”.

Your child can access ZoomChess two ways
1. From your Parent Dashboard
2. Logging in to ZoomChess with the child’s own ZoomChess account

ZoomChess training tracks student progress and delivers exercises according to the individual child’s level. Therefore, it is not a good idea to let other people play on your child’s account. If other people play “as” your child…the progress will be skewed and possibly deliver training that is too difficult for your child. You may add an additional child to your account at any time. However, you only require one Parent Account, from which you will be able to track the progress of all your children.

Yes, anyone can set up a free trial at any time. When you are ready to add the 2nd child to your subscription, you may click “I’d like to add kids to My Family” on the Parent Dashboard.

You can get a group subscription. Each student will have their own ZoomChess account. You can use ZoomChess in any space in the school with computer & internet access. You can watch lessons together, by plugging any computer into a smart board. Or if you have access to a computer lab, all the kids can access their own ZoomChess accounts at once. We encourage school teachers to have at least one physical chess board in the classroom, such as a roll-up vinyl tournament set.

Parents can sign up for a free trial for themselves and play like a student.

When you log in with your own User Name and Password, you will automatically be directed to your Dashboard.

Yes of course! Simply use the email address of the Parent or Legal Guardian, and check the consent box when you sign up the child.