How to use ChessQuizLab

Only coaches can register. Choose Create teacher account, enter your name, email and a password, and accept the site policies. Your account is a teacher account permanently — roles are fixed and cannot be changed later.

Passwords need at least 8 characters with an upper case letter, a lower case letter and a digit. If you forget yours, use the reset link on the sign-in page: the emailed link works for 60 minutes, and you can request a new one after a short cooldown.

In the Settings tab of your dashboard you can pick your piece set (Cburnett, Merida, Alpha, Chessnut or Unicode) and your board colors. The choice is saved to your account and applies to every board you see. It does not change what your students see — they pick their own.

Students cannot register themselves. In the Students tab, add a student's name and email and set a temporary password (same strength rules). Give that password to the student privately for their first sign-in.

Later you can either set a new password for a student directly and tell it to them, or send them a reset email. Students you create belong to your account only; no other coach can see them.

Chess ratings. On a student's page, use Add accounts to record their Lichess username, Chess.com username and US Chess ID. Their classical, rapid, blitz and puzzle ratings are then fetched automatically and refreshed once a day, with a Refresh button for an immediate check. US Chess shows two columns — tournament play and online play — plus the membership expiration date. Students can add their own accounts from their dashboard too. Each class in the Students tab shows the average rating of its students for every one of these, so you can compare groups at a glance.

In the Classes tab, create a class such as "Beginners Tuesday" and then tick the students who belong to it. A student can be in several classes, and the earliest class deadline applies. Each student's ratings and class averages are also charted over time.

Classes do two things: they let you set a quiz deadline for a whole group at once, and they group your results and charts so you can compare groups. Deleting a class deletes only the group — the student accounts stay, simply unassigned.

In the Quizzes tab, choose New quiz and give it a title (students see this) and an optional description, for example the topic or a reminder. Then open the quiz editor to add positions.

Each position starts from the standard starting position. Play legal moves to reach the position you want, or turn on Position setup to build it freely:

• Clear board removes every piece; Reset puts the standard starting position back.
• Pick a piece from the palette and click a square to place it, or drag it onto the board. Dragging a piece from square to square also works.
• Choose Erase and click a piece to take it off.
• Set the side to move — that is the side your student will play.
• Tick the castling rights that still apply. Options switch off automatically when a king or rook is not on its home square.
• Paste a FEN string to load a position from an analysis board, or flip the board to view it from the other side.

Write the prompt your student reads, for example "White to play and win a piece".

You can edit any quiz and any of its positions later, including the title, the prompt, the solution and the order of the positions. Attempts already recorded keep their scores.

Play the whole line for both sides in the editor. When a student takes the quiz they only enter the moves for their own side, and the opponent's replies play themselves from your recorded line.

Choose what happens when a student plays a move that is not in your solution:

• Continue — the reply still plays and the student finishes the line, but the answer counts as wrong.
• Stop — the question ends immediately and counts as wrong.
• Strict — the wrong move is refused, so the student keeps trying until they find the right one.

Every position's answer key is checked on the server. Students never receive the solution with the quiz, so it cannot be read from the page.

Turn on Allow variations when a position has more than one acceptable solution. Play a line, save it as a variation, and repeat — any recorded variation counts as a correct answer. The first one is the main line.

With variations enabled you can also switch on Randomize replies: when several lines are still possible, the opponent's reply is picked at random instead of always following the first one.

Tag each position with the tactic or mating pattern it trains. Tags drive the per-theme success charts in your results, so consistent tagging is what makes the "which patterns need work" view useful.

A quiz is a Draft until you switch it to Published. Drafts stay private to you.

Publishing alone does not give anyone access: a student sees a quiz only if you also tick them in the assignment panel. Use Select all to assign the whole list at once, and untick a student to take the quiz away again.

Each quiz has a stable share link. It keeps working until you delete the quiz — nothing expires. Deleting a quiz deletes its positions and all recorded attempts.

Set a due date and time per class per quiz. Students can still submit after the deadline, but the attempt is marked Late so you can see it at a glance.

Each student gets one attempt per quiz. When they have used it, the quiz is locked for them until you re-open it, which grants exactly one more attempt. Earlier attempts stay on record, which is what makes the progress charts possible.

Completed attempts appear in your Results tab the moment a student submits, grouped by class, with the score as correct answers out of the number of positions.

Open a student to see every attempt of theirs question by question, with a small image of each position and the moves they played. If you disagree with the automatic score — for example after reviewing their line yourself — you can override it and add a note explaining why. Only you and the site administrator can read that note.

Charts come in two flavours. Current standing uses each student's most recent attempt, so it shows where they are now. Progress over timecompares the first and latest attempts of re-opened quizzes, so it shows improvement.

You can switch the attempt view between latest, first and all attempts, and switch each chart between line, bar and pie. The theme chart shows the success rate per tag, and the score trend lists scores in the order the quizzes were submitted.

Flag a quiz as Shared and other coaches can find it in their dashboard's Shared library tab and copy it into their own account.

A copy is an independent draft of the positions, solutions and tags. The other coach never sees your students, your assignments or your results, and changes they make do not affect your original.

The Feedback tab sends a message to the site administrator. Pick a category (a bug, an idea or a general question), add a short subject and describe what you need. Only you and the administrator can read it, and their status and reply appear in the same tab.

Your coach creates your account and gives you your email and a first password. Sign in at the sign-in page; if you lose your password, ask your coach or use the reset link on that page.

Your dashboard lists the quizzes your coach has assigned to you, with the deadline for your class where one is set. Open a quiz and start answering.

New to the game? The basic rules of chess page explains how every piece moves, with diagrams and printable one-page sheets.

• Only legal moves are accepted — the board follows the FIDE rules of chess.
• You play one color only. Your opponent's replies appear by themselves, so just enter your own moves.
• You can move back to an earlier position; the moves you already played are kept.
• Submitting sends your answers to your coach and cannot be undone. You get one attempt per quiz unless your coach re-opens it.
• Submitting after the deadline still works, but is marked Late.

Analysis arrows. You can draw on the board while you think. On a computer, hold the right mouse button on a square and drag to another square to draw an arrow, or right-click a square once to circle it; repeat the same arrow or circle to remove it. On a phone or tablet, tap Draw above the board, then drag to draw an arrow or tap a square to circle it, and tap it again to go back to moving pieces. Clear marks removes everything you drew, and you can also single-click any empty square to clear all your marks at once.

Your drawings are only for you: they are never saved, never sent to your coach and never counted in your score. They disappear as soon as the position changes or you move to the next question.

Your own charts are on your dashboard: your score trend, your strength per theme, and your progress on quizzes you retook. In Settings you can choose your own pieces and board colors.

Nobody sees another user's work. Students only ever see their own quizzes and results, coaches only see their own students, and shared quizzes carry no student data. Full details are in the Privacy Notice, and the rules for use are in the Terms of Use and Acceptable Use policies.

Still stuck? The FAQ answers the questions coaches and students ask most.