Capture the physical game
A phone on a steady stand beside a selected board records 1080p video with audio, with a framing guide and optional game details. A clear video you already have works too.
ChessZCam · for coaches, academies and clubs
Review the decisions. Not the data-entry work.
Before a coach can explain the turning point, someone usually has to rebuild the whole game from a scoresheet or a recording. ChessZCam reads the moves from an ordinary phone video, flags anything it is unsure of, adds optional Stockfish grades and exports a PGN — with a person checking the record before it reaches the lesson.
In active development
Tested at real tournaments
A person checks the record
Waitlist: first access + discount
From tournament to lesson
Prepare a usable game record before coaching begins.
The most valuable coaching time is spent on choices, plans and habits — not on typing every move into an analysis board. Here is how a physical game becomes lesson material with the current build.
Build the move draft
ChessZCam finds the board corners, scans the recording at an adaptive 1–4× speed and stores every move with its timestamp and video frame. Uncertain moves are flagged, not guessed.
Verify uncertain positions
Check each flagged move beside the exact video frame, or against the scoresheet. Add a missed move by clicking or dragging, and end the game at the last real move.
Keep the context with the game
Player names, event, date, round and result stay with the verified record, so a game can be found again months later.
Find the critical moments
Offline analysis on the device grades every move, shows each player's accuracy and the move Stockfish preferred — a quick map of where the game turned.
Take it into the lesson
Export a PGN for the analysis tool you already use and focus on the player's thinking. Save the review as a project, keep selected games for progress reviews and club history, or render an overlay video for feedback.
Real screens · built-in demo clip · September 2026 build
What a coach actually works with.
Unedited screenshots from the September 2026 development build. Pick a step; click a screenshot to enlarge it.
ANALYZE VIDEO
A recording in, a move list out.
Open an MP4 or WebM, lock the board and press Play & Detect. When the scan finishes, ChessZCam says plainly how many moves it recorded and how many need a human look.
- Adaptive scan that slows down by itself when needed
- Every move kept with its timestamp and video frame
- Long recordings can be analysed part by part
REVIEW & REPAIR
Evidence beside every move.
The move list, the video frame and the board after the move sit side by side, so a flagged move can be checked without replaying the whole game.
- Add a move by clicking or dragging, castling and promotion included
- Repair several missed moves, then rescan once
- Mark the real moment of a corrected move in the video
STOCKFISH ON THE DEVICE
Where the game turned — before the lesson starts.
Optional offline analysis at Balanced or Deep depth. The engine points at the moments worth discussing; the coach explains why they matter.
- Ten grades from Book move to Blunder, and accuracy per player
- The move Stockfish preferred, with its line, in plain language
- Opening names from an offline book; commentary in English and Malay
PGN & OVERLAY VIDEO
A clean PGN for your usual tools.
Export a PGN once the flagged moves are checked — or, only if you explicitly choose to, an unverified draft. For video feedback, render the game with a broadcast-style overlay.
- PGN for any analysis board or database you already use
- MP4 with the overlay burned in, or transparent WebM / PNG sequence
- Landscape or portrait, up to 4K; save the review as a project
A narrow but meaningful fit
Useful when game reconstruction happens again and again.
A coach who reviews one physical game now and then may not need another tool. An academy handling many games each month feels the repeated preparation cost much more clearly.
Likely fit
- Academies reviewing students' tournament games
- Clubs archiving championship or league games
- Coaches giving video feedback on a real game
- Training groups that play on real boards
- Junior programmes following selected featured games
Probably unnecessary
- Every game already arrives as a verified PGN
- The coach only needs the final position or a short clip
- Setting up a phone takes longer than typing the game in
- No one has time to check the flagged moves
Role in the workflow
ChessZCam prepares the game record; the coach provides the insight.
Helps with
Preparing a draft move record — with engine grades if you want them — from a physical game before the coaching session begins.
Still needs checking
Compare flagged moves with the video frame, the scoresheet or the final position before the PGN is used in a lesson.
Results depend on
Camera stability, lighting, board and piece contrast, hands blocking squares, video quality and how the phone is set up.
Coaching remains human
Interpretation, feedback, training plans and understanding the player still come from the coach. Stockfish shows where; you explain why.
ChessZCam is for recording, review and broadcast — never for settling a dispute at the board. That belongs to the arbiter. Where the project stands today is on the launch status page and the roadmap.
Real tournament games · made with ChessZCam Studio
See the kind of record that can support a lesson.
Two real games, turned into overlay videos with human intervention kept to a minimum — so they show what ChessZCam can do today, and where it still falls short.
19 September 2026 · Round 7 · Under 12Lotus's Kulim.
26 July 2026 · Round 2 · Board 1SJKC Keong Hoe, Penang.
What these games demonstrate
- An ordinary tournament board filmed with an Android phone — no electronic board
- Moves read from the video and rendered as an overlay video with ChessZCam Studio
- Real hall conditions: hands, lighting, and players at the board
A quick note on accuracy. In both games almost every move was read correctly, including checks and castling, but you may still spot a slip — do tell us. The digital board sometimes moves slightly out of step with the video, timing we are still refining. Detection accuracy depends heavily on the setup and the quality of the video.
An earlier live beta test is still on YouTube. Read what failed and what changed →
Questions before trying it
Common questions from coaches and clubs.
Does ChessZCam teach chess or replace a coach?
No. It is a recording and game-record workflow. Stockfish grades can point at the critical moments, but interpretation, feedback, training plans and human judgement still come from the coach.
Is it useful when a player already writes notation?
It can still help when the scoresheet is incomplete, hard to read or needs to be matched with video. A clear scoresheet is also a good way to verify the detected PGN. If the game is already typed in, Sync PGN to Video (Android app; not in the first Studio release) matches that PGN to the recording so you can review the moves on video.
Can a club use it as a game archive?
That is a sensible workflow: verify the moves, keep the event details with the game, save the review as a project, and store the exported PGN in whatever archive or database the club already uses.
Should every training board use a phone?
Not necessarily. One phone watches one board. Begin with selected games where the saved preparation time clearly justifies the setup and the checking.
Do we need a PC or electronic boards?
No electronic boards are needed. A phone alone can record, analyse, review and export. ChessZCam Studio for Windows adds a big screen and more speed if you want them.
What happens to our students' videos?
Detection runs locally. Videos and games stay on your own phone or PC, and no login or internet connection is needed to record, analyse and export.
Can ChessZCam settle a dispute about a move?
No. ChessZCam is for recording, review and broadcast. Decisions at the board belong to the arbiter.
When can our academy get it, and what will it cost?
Studio comes first, with a free 14-day trial on one PC that starts only when you agree to the terms and start it in Studio (no code needed); trial invitations go to the waitlist first. Package prices are on the ChessZCam page, and waitlist members get 50% off their first package when sales open. Joining is free and is not an order. Launch details go to the waitlist before anyone else.
CORE WORKFLOW
OTB video to PGN
The step-by-step path from a recorded board to a verified game record.
Read the workflow → SETUPA good camera setup
Stand, angle, light and framing — the biggest factors in how many moves need checking.
Open the setup guide → BLOGWhen the camera misses a move
How ChessZCam flags uncertainty and how a missed move is repaired.
Read the article →Protect the coach's attention
Spend preparation time where it changes the lesson.
Join the waitlist now. Trial invitations go to the waitlist first, and members get 50% off their first ChessZCam package when sales open (packages). Joining is free and is not an order. Then try it on a few selected games and compare the full setup-and-review time with your current method. ChessZCam is built by one independent developer and chess parent in Malaysia — feedback from coaches is very welcome.