For parents

What Slate Chess is

A chess app that teaches by going through the child's own games, rather than by handing out lessons. It plays, it keeps every game, and after a game it explains what happened in words.

What your child will not find in it

No chat, and no other players. There is nobody for a stranger to be. Games are against the engine on the device, or against somebody sitting next to them.

No advertising. None, anywhere, in the free version or the paid one.

No account, and no sign-up. The app works without an email address.

No loot boxes, no streaks, no pressure to come back. There is a daily puzzle, and that is as far as it goes.

Where your child's games go

The engine runs on the device, so games are analysed there and not sent away to be examined. Games sync between your family's own devices through your own iCloud account. That storage is yours, not ours, and we cannot read it.

Read our privacy policy.

Buying it, and Ask to Buy

The coach is part of Slate's paid plans: Monthly, Yearly, or a Family plan that covers up to six people in your Apple Family through Apple Family Sharing, so you buy it once on your own account and your child has it on theirs. Plans and current prices are on the home page.

If your child is under 13 they cannot buy anything themselves: Apple's Ask to Buy sends the request to you. Nothing in Slate Chess asks a child for money or for card details, and there is nothing to buy inside the app except the paid plans.

Before you decide, the three free games let them use the whole paid half on three of their own games, and paid plans start with a 7-day free trial.

Helping a child who is better than you

You do not have to play chess to help. Three things that work:

Ask them to show you the review. Slate marks the moment the game turned. Ask what they were thinking there. The explaining is the learning.

Look at the one list. Their improvement plan names the two or three things that keep happening. You can ask about those without knowing any chess.

Let them record club games. Photograph the scoresheet and the game is in the app. A child who keeps their games starts comparing them, which is most of what improvement is.

Is it suitable for a beginner?

Yes. The engine plays at beginner strength as convincingly as it plays at grandmaster strength — it is not a strong engine playing badly on purpose, so a child winning a game has won a real one.