Straight answer

Are online chess classes as good as in-person?

For learning chess, yes, and in some ways better: a screen lets a coach replay your child’s own game to the move it went wrong in a second, and it means the coach does not have to live near you. For over-the-board nerves and the social side of a club, no — those need a room. Many families do both: online for the teaching, a local club or the occasional tournament for the table.

Below: exactly where each one wins, written so you can tell which half applies to your child.

Book a free first classSee a full lesson first

Four things online does better

Not “it is just as good”. These are places where the mechanics of a screen genuinely beat the mechanics of a room.

1

The coach does not have to live near you

This is the real difference and it is not a small one. In person, your child is taught by whoever is within driving distance of your house, which in most of the United States is a very short list. Online, the constraint disappears entirely, and the coach can be chosen on how well they teach children rather than on their postcode.

2

Every position is on a screen both of you can see

A coach can rewind a game to the move it went wrong, put the position back on the board in a second, and show the alternative. Over a physical board that means resetting the pieces by hand, so it happens less often. Reviewing a child's own mistakes is most of how chess is learned, and online makes it cheap enough to do every single class.

3

Practice continues between classes

Chess improves with volume, and a child who plays only at a weekly club plays very little. Between ChessCubs classes, children get coach-marked homework and play in the app, so the week between lessons is where most of the repetitions actually happen. A club night has no equivalent.

4

No travel, and a smaller group

A weekly class costs you 45 minutes rather than 45 minutes plus two car journeys, which is often the difference between keeping it up for two years and stopping in March. And a room booked by the hour rewards filling it: online there is no such pressure, which is why ChessCubs caps classes at six children.

The honest half

Four things in-person does better

We teach online, so read this section knowing that. We would still rather you saw it here than found it out in a year.

1

Playing a person sitting opposite you

Moving real pieces against a real opponent who can see your face is a different experience from playing on a screen, and a child who has only ever played online notices it the first time they sit down at a tournament. Nerves, a ticking clock and an opponent's silence are things you get used to by doing them, in a room.

2

The social half of a club

A local club gives a child friends who play chess, a weekly place to go, and someone to be excited with after a win. A small online class gives them some of that and not all of it. If your child is the only one at their school who plays, a club fills a real gap, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.

3

Rated over-the-board tournaments

An official US Chess rating comes from over-the-board play at rated events, and those happen in halls, not browsers. A child heading for serious competition needs to enter them, and entering them is something a parent arranges locally. We prepare children for that in the Competitor level; we cannot be the venue.

4

A child who cannot yet manage a screen

Some children are too young, too restless or too new to video calls to get much from a live online class, whatever the teaching is like. That is a real constraint and no amount of good curriculum works around it. The free first class exists partly to find this out before anyone pays.

So which should you pick?

If your child is learning chess, take the teaching online. The coach can be chosen on how well they teach children rather than on how far away they live, and that single change is worth more than everything else on this page put together.

If your child is heading for rated tournaments, they also need over-the-board play, and that is arranged locally. A club night or an occasional US Chess rated event alongside their classes covers it. Our Competitor level prepares children for the clock, the scoresheet and the laws of the arena; it cannot be the hall.

If your child has no chess friends at school, a local club is doing something for them that no class of any kind replaces, and it is worth the drive.

For most families the answer turns out to be both, in that order: classes for the teaching, a board at home, and a club or a tournament when your child starts asking for one.

Online and in-person, answered plainly

For learning chess, yes, and in some ways better: a screen lets a coach replay a child's own game to the move it went wrong in a second, which over a physical board happens far less often. What online does not replace is playing a person sitting opposite you, and the social side of a local club. A common arrangement is online classes for the teaching plus a local club or a tournament now and then for the over-the-board experience.

Three things. It gives a child the physical experience of a real opponent, real pieces and a real clock, which is what an over-the-board tournament feels like. It gives them a weekly place to go and friends who play. And a club is usually where a child enters official US Chess rated events, because those happen in halls rather than browsers.

It depends almost entirely on the class size and the shape of the lesson rather than on the medium. A child in a room of twenty on a video call will drift; a child in a group of six whose coach asks them something every few minutes does not get the chance. ChessCubs caps classes at six children and every class follows the same six-beat rhythm, changing activity every few minutes.

Usually, because online removes travel and room hire. The saving is real but it is not the main reason to choose it: the wider choice of coach matters more than the money. ChessCubs is $59 a month for two live 45-minute classes a week in a group capped at six, which works out at about $6.80 a class.

Yes, and for a child who is enjoying chess it is a good combination. The class supplies the teaching, the curriculum and the marked homework; the club supplies opponents across a table and the social side. They do not conflict, and a coach who knows your child is playing at a club can point the homework at whatever keeps going wrong there.

Not for the classes themselves. A laptop or tablet with a stable internet connection is all a ChessCubs class needs. Having a board at home is still lovely, because children consolidate what they have learned by playing family members between lessons, and it is the cheapest possible way to get the over-the-board experience that online cannot supply.

Watch one class rather than trying to predict it. This is the question the ChessCubs free first class is best at settling: it is a real 45-minute class with a real coach, it takes no credit card, and parents are welcome to sit in. Ten minutes in, you will know whether your child is engaged or looking out of the window.

The only way to know whether online suits your child is to watch one class. The first is free and needs no card: book one and sit in.