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The Tools We Use, And How They Shape Our Chess
January is the month when chess players make big promises.
More study. Better openings. Fewer blunders. No more late-night bullet (well… maybe).
The problem isn’t enthusiasm. The tricky part is working out what to actually use. There are now so many platforms, courses, coaches and “systems” that it’s easy to spend more time signing up for things than playing real chess.
So to start the new year, we thought we’d look at two simple questions:
1️⃣ Where do we play and study online?
2️⃣ How do we actually try to improve?
Not a review. Not a ranking. Just a practical look at four big names, and what each of them seems to encourage.
Part 1: Platforms — where we all end up playing
Almost all of us use one of these. They dominate the online chess world, but they feel very different.
Lichess
Free, open-source, donation-funded, and wonderfully uncluttered.
You log in, you play, you analyse. No ads. No pop-ups. No pressure to buy anything. It feels like sitting down at a chessboard and getting on with it.
Lichess tends to encourage:
- slower thinking
- more analysis
- more self-reliance
Brilliant if you like simple tools and doing things your own way.
Chess.com
Busy, lively, polished. And absolutely everywhere.
Videos, puzzles, bots, drills, lessons, events, streamers… there’s always something happening, and it’s easy to get swept along.
Chess.com tends to encourage:
- lots of games
- dipping into lessons and puzzles
- staying engaged and entertained
Fantastic if you like structure, features, and a sense of community.
Neither is “right”. Neither is “wrong”. They just nudge you in slightly different directions.
And plenty of players happily use both.
Part 2: Coaching — how we try to get better
Once you’ve chosen where to play, the next question arrives:
How do I actually improve?
Here, two platforms often come up, and they take very different approaches.
Chessable
Courses, courses, courses.
Openings, endgames, ideas, theory — all built around spaced repetition. Learn something, repeat it, reinforce it, remember it.
At its best:
- clear structure
- great for openings
- satisfying sense of progress
The risk? Collecting more material than you ever quite finish.
ChessMood
Feels closer to having a coach.
Less “memorise this line”. More “here’s how to think in this position”. There’s a big focus on decision-making, typical ideas, and staying calm at important moments.
At its best:
- builds confidence
- improves practical play
- helps turn study into results
The trade-off? It’s less about ticking boxes and more about trusting the process.
Again, neither is “the answer”. Different personalities will gravitate different ways.
But a small thought to start the year as we decide our Resolutions.
Most of us don’t need fifteen more chess apps. We just need to be slightly more disciplined with the ones we already use.
If one of these platforms helps you enjoy chess more, think more clearly, or feel a little less lost at the board, then it’s doing its job.
And that feels like a perfectly good way to begin the year. To everyone at Hammersmith Chess Club a Happy New Year, and see you soon in 2026.
