The vision for
ZenChess.
A chess site that's also a social network. Where teaching is the currency, moderation educates instead of silencing, and playing chess costs nothing — forever.
Play instantly. No barriers.
When you land on ZenChess, you see a chessboard. Not a marketing page. Not a paywall. A board.
- Pick a handle. No email, no signup. Just a name.
- "Play Anyone" — one click, instant matchmaking.
- "Play a Friend" — generates a link. Send it. They click. You play.
- Create an account later if you want. Or don't. We don't care.
The Ranking System
Forget raw Elo numbers. ZenChess uses a rank ladder that means something.
| Rank | Tiers |
|---|
| Bronze | I, II, III |
| Silver | I, II, III |
| Gold | I, II, III |
| Platinum | I, II, III |
| Diamond | I, II, III |
| Master | Third, Second, First |
| Grandmaster | Third, Second, First |
| Super Grandmaster | — |
| Hyper Grandmaster | — |
| World Champion | — |
| Universal Champion | The peak. One person. |
Universal Champion is singular — only one person holds the title at any time. The #1 rated player on the site. Everyone else is chasing.
The Knowledge Economy
The core idea: You earn credits by teaching. You spend credits by learning. The best players naturally earn the most because everyone wants to learn from them.
How it works
- 1 credit = 1 penny.
- Everyone starts with 1,000 credits free.
- Buy more: 100 credits for $1.
- Earn credits by answering questions, annotating games, coaching, writing guides.
- Spend credits to ask questions, get coaching, access premium teaching content.
Teaching formats
Annotated Games
Review a game move-by-move with commentary. Set your own price (or free).
Q&A Bounties
Post a position, set a credit bounty. Best answer wins the bounty.
Live Coaching
Shared board, voice chat. Coach sets a rate per minute in credits.
Written Guides
Opening repertoires, endgame technique, strategy articles with embedded boards.
If no human answers your question within 24 hours, the AI engine provides free analysis. Humans are always prioritized.
Social Network
Chess.com is a vending machine. ZenChess is a chess club with a coffee shop, a library, and a coaching center.
The features
- Profiles — your games, your ratings, your content, your rank badge. All public.
- Following — Twitter-style. Follow anyone. Their games and content appear in your feed.
- Chat — global chat, game chat, direct messages, club chat rooms.
- Clubs — create groups, run internal tournaments, club vs club matches.
- Forums — threaded discussions by topic. Opening theory, endgame technique, off-topic.
- The Wall — a live feed of every game finishing on ZenChess. Ambient activity. The site is alive.
Unique features
- Study With Me — shared board, both players move pieces. Real-time collaborative analysis. Nobody else has this.
- The Apprentice System — Diamond+ players take on mentees. Free mentorship, not commerce.
- Position DNA — the site analyzes your games and builds a fingerprint of your strengths and weaknesses.
- Ghost Mode — play without affecting your rating. For experimentation.
- "What Would You Play?" — the whole community plays one game together. One move per day, voted on.
Moderation
"Hate speech" doesn't exist as a category on ZenChess. But racism, bigotry, and illegal content are removed automatically — with an explanation.
The AI doesn't just delete. It teaches. When something is removed, the user gets a specific explanation of why it was removed and why it matters. Not a generic "you violated our terms." A real explanation.
The rules
- Free speech by default. Disagreement is fine. Heated arguments are fine.
- Racism, bigotry targeting ethnicity/religion/gender/sexuality — removed with explanation.
- Threats of violence — removed immediately.
- Everything is logged. Full law enforcement compliance.
- All moderation actions are appealable.
The principle: users are capable of growth. Moderation should educate, not silence.
What's free. What's not.
Free forever
- Playing chess — all time controls, unlimited games
- Full engine analysis (Stockfish, no limits)
- All puzzles
- Game review and history
- All social features — chat, clubs, forums, following
- Daily lessons
Costs credits
- Teaching content from other players (they set the price)
- Coaching sessions
- Q&A bounties
- Cosmetics (board themes, piece sets)
The philosophy: You never pay to play chess. You never pay to improve. You pay to access the knowledge of other humans. And you can earn that currency by teaching.
What chess.com gets wrong
Engine analysis paywalled
Stockfish is open source. Paywalling it is pure extraction. Ours is free, unlimited.
Puzzles paywalled
The most popular feature, behind a subscription. Ours are free, always.
Predatory upsells
"Upgrade to Premium!" after every game. We show one prompt per session, max.
No real community
Dead forums, ghost-town clubs. Our knowledge economy gives people a reason to interact.
Built different.
- No venture capital. No investors to appease.
- No seasonal resets. Your rank reflects your actual skill.
- No hidden bots. If you're playing a bot, it says so.
- No dark patterns. Respect the user.
- Transparent systems. Rating math is public. Bans are explained.
This is the vision. We're building it now.
If you want to help, join the Discord.