Best chess apps for kids

Safe environment, age-appropriate content, parental controls, game-like progression.

A chess app for a child has two jobs the adult apps do not: keep strangers out, and keep the child coming back without a leaderboard doing the work. Most lists hand parents the same adult apps with a kid mode bolted on. ChessKid was built for children from the start, Dr. Wolf is a beginner coach that happens to suit them, and one adult app does the safety part well enough to be the step after both.

First pick

ChessKid, from the Chess.com family, is the pick for ages six to thirteen. There is no open chat, play is against other children or the computer, and a parent or coach dashboard sits over the account. The free tier is real but rationed: three puzzles a day, the beginner lesson level, the first bot levels and the last thirty days of games, all without ads at any tier. Gold, around fifty dollars a year, opens the full lesson and puzzle library, which matters once a child plays daily. Its weakness is the framing: the cartoon world wears thin around eleven or twelve, and older kids drift to Chess.com.

Second pick

Dr. Wolf is the pick for a child who wants to be talked through a game rather than taught in lessons. The coach narrates every move in plain words, loses on purpose at the right moments and never lets the child feel crushed. The free tier is three coached games, then a subscription at about six dollars a month. For a child under about 1200 who will not sit through a lesson, it is the better on-ramp; it is outgrown within months, which is the point. Lichess with kid mode switched on, which removes chat and messaging, is the free, ad-free step for older children who have left ChessKid behind.

Verdict

Under ten: ChessKid, free tier first, Gold after a few months of daily use, when three puzzles a day stops being enough. Ten to thirteen, impatient with lessons: Dr. Wolf for a few months, then ChessKid or Lichess kid mode for the playing habit. Thirteen and up: Lichess, with the understanding that it is an adult site with chat turned off, not a children's product. Duolingo's chess course, free inside the Duolingo app, is the name parents now ask about; ChessDir has not reviewed it; it teaches the moves in lesson form and offers games against other players, and whether that is a safe space for a child has not been assessed here.

Free-tier limits and prices checked on 2026-10-10. This page sits under the chess apps for beginners guide.