Six students, not sixty
Most online chess is a broadcast with a chat window. At six, the coach can ask a specific child a specific question about the position in front of them — which is what teaching is.
Live, not recorded · Batches of six
Online chess classes that feel like a real class
Live coaching from FIDE-rated coaches, six students to a batch, with your own games analysed every week. Across India, and NRI-friendly slots.
- Six to a batch
- Your own games analysed
- Same coach every week
The objection, answered first
“Online chess classes don’t work” is usually true. Here’s why ours are different.
Your own games, not generic slides
Every week, two of your child’s actual games are analysed. The next class starts from the mistake in one of them, not from slide 14 of a deck.
The same coach every week
Not a rotating pool. A coach who has watched your child for three months knows the difference between a careless move and a gap in knowledge — and those need opposite responses.
Live means a coach who can stop you mid-move and ask why.
The weekly loop
What a week actually looks like
Five steps, and the fifth one is the reason the loop works: your child’s next class begins where their last mistake ended.
01
Live class
One idea taught, then played. Camera on, physical board beside the screen.
02
Assigned practice
A narrow puzzle set — the same pattern repeated, not a variety pack.
03
Your games
Real games against real opponents, at a real time control.
04
Coach analyses two
By hand first. What you thought, and what was actually true.
05
Next class starts there
From your mistake, not from a syllabus page. That is the whole design.
The boring, trust-building details
How we actually run it
The things nobody puts on a landing page, which are the things you would want to know.
- 01 Platform[CONFIRM: Zoom + Lichess study, or Chess.com classroom]
- 02 What your child needsA laptop is better than a phone, and a physical chess set beside it matters more than either. Headphones help. A second screen does not.
- 03 If a class is missed[CONFIRM: recording availability and make-up slot policy]
- 04 Batch sizeSix. If a batch is full you wait for the next one — a seventh chair is not added because someone asked.
- 05 Coach continuityThe same coach for the whole level. Coach changes happen when a child moves up a level, not because of a rota.
- 06 Time zones[CONFIRM: whether online batches are IST-only or include Gulf, UK and US slots]
Time zones
Batch start times
NRI families are a real part of our online cohort, so the slots need to be real too — not an IST timetable with a conversion note.
| Zone | Region | Batch times |
|---|---|---|
| IST | India | [CONFIRM: IST batch times] |
| GST | Dubai, Gulf | [CONFIRM: Gulf batch times, or confirm IST-only] |
| BST / GMT | United Kingdom | [CONFIRM: UK batch times, or confirm IST-only] |
| EST | US East Coast | [CONFIRM: US batch times, or confirm IST-only] |
These rows stay visibly empty until the real timetable exists. A published timing that turns out to be unavailable costs more trust than an honest blank.
Online vs offline
An honest comparison, including where online loses
Pretending online wins on everything would be the fastest way to lose a careful parent. Here is the real breakdown.
Better online
- Every game is already digital, so analysis is instant and complete
- No travel — which for most families is 40–60 minutes a week returned
- Easier to keep a coach when you move city or country
- Recorded analysis your child can rewatch [CONFIRM: whether classes are recorded, and for how long]
- Wider batch pool, so level-matching within a batch is closer
Better in person
- A coach can physically reset a board and redirect a distracted six-year-old
- Handling real pieces builds board vision faster in the first year
- Playing a person across a table is closer to tournament conditions
- Parents can watch a class from the back of the room, unannounced
- The social part — children push each other in a way a grid does not
Identical
- The curriculum, level by level
- The coaches, and their FIDE profiles
- Batch cap of six
- The monthly written progress report
- Two sessions a week, and the practice between them
The same six-step loop, on a screen
Learn→Practise→Play→Analyse→Improve→Reapply
Nothing about the method changes online. The loop is what produces improvement, and it does not care whether the coach is in the room or on a call — it cares whether your child’s own games get analysed every single week.
Find your level first. The report tells you which online batch fits.
Works on a phone · Adults too · Report is instant
FAQ
Questions about online classes
Is online really as effective as in person?
For children of about seven and up, yes — provided the batch is genuinely small and there is a physical board beside the screen. For four to six year-olds we recommend in person if it is practical, because a young beginner benefits from a coach who can reset a board and hold attention in the room.
What if my child gets distracted?
Six students means the coach notices within a minute, which is the actual answer. Practically: camera on, a real board next to the laptop with the position set up on it, and no second tab. Children who are physically moving pieces drift far less than children who are only watching.
Which platform do you use?
[CONFIRM: platform — Zoom plus a Lichess study, or a Chess.com classroom]
Can we switch to offline later?
Yes, and families do. The curriculum, the levels and often the coach are the same, so a child moves across without repeating anything. Families who leave Bengaluru also move the other way and keep their coach.
Do you record the classes?
[CONFIRM: whether classes are recorded, and how long recordings stay available]
Group class or one-to-one?
Group, for almost everyone. A batch of six gives a child opponents at their level, someone to compare thinking with, and a reason to prepare. One-to-one is worth it for tournament preparation, for a very large gap between a child and their batch, or for an adult on an awkward schedule.
How do international families pay?
[CONFIRM: payment method and currency for students outside India]
Online chess coaching in India — what to look for
Online chess coaching in India ranges from one-to-one with a titled player to a hundred children in a webinar, and the price does not reliably tell you which one you are buying. Four questions separate them, and all four can be asked before you pay anything.
- How many students are actually in the batch? Ask for the number, not the word “small”. Six is a class. Twenty is a broadcast.
- Whose games get analysed? If the answer is “we review master games”, your child’s own mistakes are never being addressed.
- Is it the same coach every week? A rotating pool cannot tell a careless move from a knowledge gap, because nobody has watched long enough.
- Can you verify the coach? A FIDE ID and a public profile link takes ten seconds to check.
Group class or one-to-one?
For most children, group. A batch of six gives a child opponents at roughly their level, someone to argue with about a position, and the mild social pressure that makes practice happen. One-to-one removes all of that and replaces it with attention, which is worth paying for in three specific situations: a child preparing for a rated tournament with a deadline, a child whose level has moved a long way from their batch, or an adult whose schedule makes a fixed batch time impossible.
A common and sensible arrangement is group classes with occasional one-to-one sessions before an event, rather than one-to-one as the default. Our pricing for both is on the fees page — [CONFIRM: online group and one-to-one pricing].
How many classes a week?
Two, for almost every child. Chess improvement happens between the classes — in the puzzle sets, the games played, and the mistakes reviewed — and a third class mostly eats the time that would otherwise go into those. Parents ask for more classes more often than for anything else, and it is the request least likely to help.
What does help: fifteen minutes of narrow, repetitive tactics on four days a week, two or three games at a real time control rather than three-minute blitz, and one game a week that the child looks at again afterwards before anybody else does.
Online classes for NRI families
A meaningful share of our online cohort is outside India, mostly in the Gulf, the UK and North America. The two things that matter are a genuine batch in your time zone rather than a converted IST slot, and a coach who stays the same across a school year. Both are questions worth asking any academy you are considering, including this one — our published timings are above, and the rows we cannot yet fill honestly are marked rather than invented.
If you would like to know where your child stands before choosing a batch, the free chess report card takes eight minutes on a phone, and the full method is published in advance of any conversation.
Related pages
Where to go next
Six students. Your own games. The same coach every week.
Start with the free report card and we will tell you which online batch fits — before anyone tries to sell you a class.