Meet Cody: An AI Chess Coach That Explains the Why

Chess engines settled the question of what the best move is years ago. What they never solved is teaching. An engine hands you "+1.8, Nd5" and goes silent. The number is a verdict, the move is an order, and neither one makes you a better player. Most people don't have a coach sitting next to the board to fill that silence.

Cody is our attempt to be that coach. It's an AI chess coach that runs in your web browser (desktop, tablet, or phone, nothing to install) and explains the game in plain language while you play, by text or live voice. This post covers what it is, what you can actually do with it, who it's for, what it costs, and, honestly, what it doesn't do.

The idea: strong engine underneath, plain language on top

Under the hood, a strong chess engine evaluates every position. On top of that, the AI coach translates the engine's output into the things a human coach would say: what the plan is, what's hanging, which threat actually matters, why the tempting move fails. It follows the board you're looking at, and while it talks it can draw arrows and highlights right on the squares, so "the knight is heading for d5" comes with the route drawn in front of you.

That's the whole philosophy. The engine supplies the truth; the coach supplies the reasons.

What you can do with Cody

Play full games with a coach at your side

You can play complete games against Cody while it coaches you through them. It points out threats, explains your options, and answers questions mid-game. It's the closest thing to having a patient training partner who never gets tired of "wait, why can't I take that?"

Review your finished games

With a free Cody account, import a finished game and Cody builds a move-by-move review you can question from the position. The game can be a public Chess.com or Lichess game link or any pasted PGN, including games you played over the board. Instead of scrolling a list of question marks, you ask: why was this a blunder, what was the idea behind their move, what was my best plan here?

If you connect a public Chess.com or Lichess profile, Cody imports the available game history and lets you sync new games from your Cody profile. It only ever reads public data: no platform passwords are needed, and none are ever asked for.

Ask about any position

Set up any position and ask away. A puzzle from a book, a position from a stream, the spot where your last blitz game went sideways. If you can put it on the board, you can interrogate it.

Solve puzzles with a nudge

Cody's puzzles come with hints that are deliberately incomplete: a nudge, not the answer. A hint that solves the puzzle for you teaches nothing. A good one points your attention at the right corner of the board and still lets you do the finding.

Coaching by voice

Text is the default, and there's also live voice: you talk to Cody the way you'd talk to a coach at the table. It hears you, sees the current board, and answers out loud, hands-free, while you move pieces. There are several voices to choose from, and it works on phones, which turns a commute or a couch into a training session.

Who it's for

Cody adapts to the level you set during setup, and the range is genuinely wide. A complete beginner gets the rules and the vocabulary explained: what a fork is, why the knight can jump. A strong club player gets concrete lines and nuance. The same board, a different coach depending on who's sitting at it. And if you're coming back to chess after years away, the level setting means you can start where you actually are rather than where you left off.

What Cody doesn't do

A few honest limitations. Cody handles standard chess only, so no Chess960 or other variants yet. It needs an internet connection, and it's web only; there's no native app, though the browser version runs fine on phones and tablets. And one thing worth stating plainly: Cody is a training tool. Using it during rated online games would be cheating, full stop. Use it before your games to prepare and after them to understand what happened.

What it costs

With a free account, text coaching is free and unlimited. That's the core of the product, and there's no cap on it. Free accounts also get a monthly allowance of voice credits. The paid Club and Master plans mainly add more voice time, Master includes the most natural flagship voice, and paid accounts can buy extra credit packs when needed. Current details are on the pricing page.

Try it without an account

You don't need an account to preview Cody. The live board works immediately for a short coached session. A free account unlocks unlimited text coaching, imports, and persistence, so your chats, game reviews, and settings are saved between sessions. If you're curious what coaching with actual reasons feels like, start on the live board, see how game review works, or read the FAQ first.