How the coach works
A coach that watches your games, finds your weak spots and trains them
Walnut Chess works like a real chess coach. It watches your games and puzzles, names the mistakes that keep coming back and builds your practice around them, reviews the games you play on Chess.com and Lichess, backed by Stockfish so it's right about the chess. Everything on this page is free, for every player, always.
Watches
Your games, here and from wherever you play
Every game you play against Chess AI here is reviewed by Stockfish and explained by the coach. Add your Chess.com or Lichess username too, choose how far back to go and which time controls count, and those games come in and your newest ones are reviewed straight away, so they count toward your weak spots just like games here. New ones follow whenever you open the app.
- Chess.com and Lichess by username, with no password and nothing to install.
- Kept up to date: new games come in on their own, or only when you ask.
- Pick what counts: bullet, blitz, rapid, classical or daily.
- PGN files from anywhere else, one game or many.
Finds
The mistake that keeps coming back, by name
Every mistake and blunder in your games, here or on Chess.com and Lichess, is checked for what went wrong: a fork you walked into or missed, a piece left hanging, a pin, a discovered attack, a mate. When the same one turns up in three of your last ten games, the coach raises it as your weak spot.
- Named, not guessed. Mistakes are sorted by rule from the engine's review, and one that fits no pattern is left unnamed.
- With the evidence. "A fork cost you in three of your last ten games", with the games to look at.
- Levels by area. Tactics, openings, endgames and mating each get a level from your games and puzzles.
- What's going well, too. Clean games and drills that worked are noticed and said, not just the slips.
Trains
Practice aimed at that spot, then a check it worked
A weak spot comes with a short drill of puzzles on its theme, and a tip on what to look for. If the drill shows the idea is still new, there's another round before moving on. Before your next game, a two-puzzle warm-up goes over the idea from the last one. Once five more games are in, the coach tells you whether it's coming up less often.
- Drills on the theme the coach found, pitched at your puzzle rating.
- Find the better moves: go back to the moments that decided a game until you find the stronger move, and the coach learns from how you do.
- Warm-ups on last game's mistake, before the next game.
- Follow-up after the drill: did it help, and what's next.
The coach
Starts with a chat, stays with you
New players begin with a short conversation: have you played before, what do you want to get better at? Players with some experience solve a few placement puzzles; beginners don't have to. Out of that comes a plan, which decides where Learn, Train and Play start you.
After that the coach is the first thing on Home, with one suggestion for what to do next, worked out from your plan and your recent games. When your games show a weak spot, that comes first.
- Always one tap away. The coach opens over any page, on desktop and phone.
- Knows what's on your board. Open it on a game, lesson or puzzle and it talks about that position.
- Answers with the real thing. Ask "what should I study next?" and it opens the game, lesson, puzzle or position right beside the chat.
- Remembers the thread. Long conversations are summarised, so a new chat picks up where the last one left off.
- Checked against the engine. Its explanations are grounded in Stockfish's analysis, not guesses.
Guided play
Practise with the coach beside the board
Turn on Guided and the column beside the board becomes the coach. It shows your options for the position, ranked, with a sentence on why each one works. You play, it gives a verdict, and the game's conversation stays in one thread you can read back later.
Your opponent is Novice AI, Club AI or Master AI, named for the class of player each plays like, or an exact Elo. How to get the most from guided play.
- Ranked candidate moves, each with a plain-language reason, the threat it meets and the likely line.
- Instant verdicts on the move you just played, from best to blunder, and why.
- Think first. On by default: the options stay hidden until you tap, so you practise finding moves rather than copying them.
- Attack and defence at a tap. Tap a piece to see what it attacks and what defends it.
- Ask about any option. "Why not this?" gets an answer about your position, next to the options it's about.
Review
The coach goes through every game with you
After each game, here or on Chess.com and Lichess, Stockfish grades every move and finds the turning points. The coach explains them in words: what you were going for, what it cost, and what else was on the table. Our twenty-minute review routine shows how to use it.
- A walkthrough that stops only where something happened.
- Move grades from best to blunder, with the reason for each.
- Ask "what was I going for?" on any move and the coach answers.
- Play from here takes any position into a new game so you can try the better move.
Learn
Lessons your coach picks for you
A library worth studying, every move explained, with paths through it chosen for your level. The coach ranks what to study next against your profile, so you're never left staring at a catalogue.
- Journeys from your first square to advanced play, starting where your plan says.
- 3,800+ named openings with their ideas, typical plans and history.
- Famous games that shaped chess, annotated move by move.
- Essential endgames, from basic mates to Lucena and Philidor.
Train
Practice aimed at what the coach found
Pick a line or a game and a colour. The bot plays the other side and corrects you the moment you drift from what you studied. Spaced repetition brings each line back just before you would forget it, and puzzles focus on the themes that got away.
- Line drills for your openings and the games you're learning.
- Rated puzzles with their own Glicko-2 rating, separate from your games.
- Proficiency checks that settle your level in tactics, openings, endgames and mating.
- Flashcards for the patterns and ideas worth knowing by heart.
- A daily streak that counts in your own time zone.
Kids mode
The same coach, made for a child of 5 to 12
A parent or guardian signs up, tells the coach in the first chat that a child will play, and confirms they look after them. Kids mode then changes the whole app: brighter colours, bigger buttons, short sentences, and Walnut, a friendly talking walnut who cheers good moves, comforts after a slip and reads things out loud. More about kids mode.
- Animal friends to play, from Toby the Turtle up to Olive the Owl.
- Read to me: Walnut reads the coach's replies, hints, puzzle answers and flashcards aloud.
- A gentle coach that keeps to chess, explains every word and never talks ratings.
- Grown-up controls: switching kids mode off needs the account password, and kids accounts can't be found in friend search.
- A Sunday note for the grown-up: games, wins, puzzles and flashcards from the week.
Why trust it
An AI coach that doesn't make up the chess
Language models are good at explaining and bad at calculating. So the coach never has to calculate: Stockfish evaluates every position, grades every move and checks every line, and the coach's job is to say what that means for you. More on how that works.
- Engine first. Grades, threats and best moves come from Stockfish.
- Words second. The coach turns them into ideas you can use in the next game.
- Help on request. Nothing plays for you; you decide, then the coach responds.
Price
Free. Every feature, every player, always.
There is no paid plan to upgrade to. The coach, guided play, reviews, the whole library and every drill are free, and they stay free. What "always free" means.
- No subscription, no trial and no card.
- No premium tier. Nothing on this page is held back.
- A fair daily limit on coach replies keeps it running for everyone. The board, the engine and the library have none.
Start training free
Free, always. Your first stop is a short chat with the coach, then link your games.