Coddy Chess: is the free course worth your time?

What is Coddy Chess?

Coddy Chess is a free, interactive chess course from Coddy, the platform better known for bite-sized coding lessons. Each lesson puts a position on a real board, explains one idea in a couple of sentences, then asks you to make the move.

I opened the first Tactics lesson, Hanging Pieces, to see what that means in practice. A board, a green arrow, one line of text: attacked and undefended. Seven small steps, a TL;DR button if you'd rather skim, and audio if you'd rather listen. When you play a wrong move, the board shows you why it's wrong instead of just flashing red.

It uses the same streaks, XP, daily missions and leaderboards as Coddy's coding courses. If that kind of nudge keeps you coming back, it works here too. If it annoys you, you can ignore it — the lessons don't depend on it.

What's in the 134 lessons?

Three sections, 23 chapters, 134 lessons and 133 challenges. Fundamentals covers the rules from the empty board to your first game. Tactics is where you start winning material: forks, pins, skewers, mating patterns and mate in two. Playing Real Games turns that into a way of thinking — opening principles, a first system as White, first answers as Black, trading down and defending.

Are Sections 2 and 3 locked behind a paywall?

No. The padlock next to Tactics and Playing Real Games means "do these in order", not "pay first". Coddy states that there is no paywall on any chess lesson, and the certificates are free too.

You don't even have to wait. Each section has a Jump to section button, and I used it to go straight into Tactics and then Playing Real Games — the first lessons opened immediately. One honest caveat: I tested on an account without an energy limit. On a free account you get a daily allowance of energy, so a long weekend session can be cut short; your progress is never lost.

If you already know how the pieces move, jump to Section 2. If you've never played, start at the board. Section 1 is quick, and the Tactics lessons assume you know it.

What is it like to learn chess on Coddy?

It feels closer to a good puzzle app with a teacher attached than to a video course. One idea per lesson, a few positions to practise it, then the next idea. You're moving pieces within seconds, which is exactly what most beginners need and exactly what long YouTube lessons don't give them.

Where it's thinner: it's a beginner course and stops at your first real games. There's no deep opening repertoire, no analysis of your own online games, and a certificate proves you finished the material, not that you reached a rating. That's fine — it's honest about what it is — but plan your next step once you finish.

How does Coddy Chess compare with Chess.com, Lichess and Chessable?

They're not really rivals; they do different jobs. Coddy is a guided first course. Chess.com and Lichess are where you actually play people. Chessable is where you go later to study specific openings and techniques.

My suggestion: learn on Coddy, play your first games on Lichess or Chess.com, and come back to Coddy's Tactics section whenever you notice you keep losing pieces.

What other free chess lessons and tools does Coddy offer?

The beginner course isn't the only one. Coddy also has a Chess Endgames path (52 lessons: Basic Mates and The King and the Pawn) and a Tactics & Checkmates path (75 lessons: Checkmate Patterns I and Core Motifs). That's 261 free lessons across three paths.

There's also a set of free tools that don't need an account: a notation trainer, a board-setup checker, a next-move engine that explains its suggestion in words, an Elo calculator, a chess clock and an opening explorer.

Who should use Coddy Chess, and who shouldn't?

Use it if you've never played, if you learned the moves as a kid and forgot them, or if you want to learn properly before playing with your own kids. Short daily lessons suit people who don't have an hour to spare.

Skip Section 1 if you already play online and know what a fork is — go straight to Tactics or the Tactics & Checkmates path. And if you're chasing a rating, use Coddy for the gaps and spend most of your time playing real games and reviewing them.

Coddy doesn't charge for any of this, so the real cost is your time. The first lesson is the cheapest way to find out whether the format clicks for you.