Best method of remote tutoring?

Question

My tutor and I are exploring ways of doing lessons over the internet, and to our surprise, there isn't an immediately obvious way to do this on lichess or chess.com. What we were looking for is an analysis board that we can both move pieces on at the same time with maybe a chat room too (though we could just call each other, so that part isn't a deal breaker).

Is anyone aware of such a site/program? Worst case, we can do a screenshare and I can just watch him move pieces on his screen, but that is definitely less than ideal.

Surely this problem has been solved since I can't imagine we are the first to encounter it. I hope I am just overlooking something obvious.

Answer 1

Have you tried lichess studies ? They can be used exactly like that. Let me give you an overview of how it works.

First you need to create a study, which you can do by heading to https://lichess.org/study/ and clicking in the green plus button.

Multiple Members

As the What are Studies page explains, you can invite people to your study:

Let me quote the page that explains what these studies are:

Invite friends to analyse that new trendy opening. Invite your coach to teach you something. Invite 20 students to your lesson. Why not?

If your study is public, anyone can review it; invited members can chat, and invited contributors can update the study.

If your study is private, only invited members can review it, and invited contributors can update the study

Moves, Symbols and Arrows

The study members can create moves, or delete them. Any move anyone does changes the board that all other members see. Any move can have arrows to point possible moves or threats as well as symbols which are the red circles that normally are used to point key squares:

Comments

Any move can have comments, and these will be identified by who made them:

Annotations

The moves can also have the common chess notation:

Chat

There is also a chat, in case anyone wants just to say anything that isn't a comment to a move:

Chapters

This feature is solely available in studies, and allows you to have multiple chapters over the same study. It is useful in many scenarios like when you want to try several different ideas with quite some depth and extended analysis while keeping the main line clean. You could have the analysis of all your games in a tournament within the same study, and turning each game into a chapter.

Engine

As you would also probably be expecting, there is a feature to use an engine evaluation any time you need it. At the time of this answer the default engine is Stockfish 9.

Answer 2

You could use FICS with the Babaschess interface for this purpose. Setting up an analysis board in the starting position is as simple as typing the command "examine" in the command window. This will create a board on the server which you have control over. Others can view your activities on this board by typing "observe [your username]" in the command window. Then if you want to give a friend looking at your board authority to move the pieces as well, you write "mexamine [friend's username]" in the command window.

This analysis board will come with a dedicated chat which can be used if you like, but I prefer to use Discord and talk directly with my analysis partner when doing analysis since talking is much quicker than typing in my case.

When you want to finish your analysis of the current position you can use the command "unexamine". Note that on FICS you can only be analyzing one game at a time with the "examine" command, so if you want to move onto another game/position to analyze you have to end the current analysis first.

If you have a game stored as a pgn file that you wish to analyze you can do this as well on FICS in Babaschess very easily. This is as simple as logging in, going to "File"->"Open PGN file"->[Navigating to and opening your pgn file]->[Choosing your desired game in the pgn file and selecting "Open as" instead of "Open"]->[Selecting "Examine on the server"]. By doing this, you upload the game to the server, enabling you to quickly go back and forth between different interesting moments in the game to analyze.

Finally, if you wish to analyze a specific position on FICS this can be done as well by typing the command "bsetup" in the command window. This will open up a dialogue box where you can choose which side to move etc. and when you're happy with your initial settings for the board you can setup any legal position you'd like to analyze. When you've finished setting up the board to the desired position you write "bsetup done" in the command window, which will then make your position into an examined game on the server by default.

Answer 3

Another option, released in 2022, is Classroom on Chess.com.

According to the news article about its release, it is an easy-to-use all-in-one tool for remote tutoring. The features are:

• Built-in video and voice chat
• Ability to load games from library collections, student archives, PGNs etc.
• Full control over board settings and other options (e.g., allowing specific students to move with White, Black, or both)

You need to be a Chess.com premium member if you would like to host more than one student though.

Answer 4

An option could be to use Team Viewer, which allows remote control of a computer. That way, you could both be using your tutor's Chessbase software (which he probably has). For voice chat, you could simultaneously use Skype or whatever other VOIP service you prefer.