Sell a Chess Game Analysis Online

Chess players and coaches can sell game analysis online by offering a priced Paid Question for one position or opening decision, or a custom request for a full annotated review of a completed game, delivered as written notes, marked-up diagrams, or a voice walkthrough, with payment and delivery handled from one bio link. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.

No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. pricing

A common message after a rated game or a tournament round is: “Can you look at this game — where did I actually lose it?” That question is worth answering, but it needs a clear price and boundary before you start. Chess.com, which describes itself as the world's largest online chess platform, passed 250 million members on February 27, 2026 (Chess.com) — a large pool of players who finish games and want a second opinion.

What's the fastest way to sell a chess game review?

The fastest paid chess review is one scoped question, not a full game. Paid Questions let a follower pay upfront to ask one private question, and you send one written reply on your own time — no live call or scheduling. You set the price and reply time (how it works).

A single question about one position, one blunder, or one opening choice fits a Paid Question: the client describes the position or pastes the moves as text, and you reply privately in writing.

Examples of a scoped opening or position question:

• “I keep losing this Caro-Kann line by move 15 — what's the idea I'm missing?”
• “Was 22...Qxb2 actually a blunder, or is there real compensation?”
• “Which of these two rook endgames should I have gone for?”

A Paid Question is for one clearly bounded question. The pool of players with one such question is not small: Chess.com's own Q1 2026 board report recorded 2.6 billion games played and 9.7 million daily active users in that quarter alone (Chess.com board report).

Should a full game go under a paid question or a service?

A full game belongs under commissions and paid custom work — Custom Work. One question belongs under a Paid Question. With Custom Work, your client can send a PGN, screenshot, or game link, and you can deliver written notes, diagrams, files, or links once the review is ready. You set the fixed price and a delivery time of up to 5 days.

Use Custom Work when the client needs to send the whole game — a PGN file, a link to the game, or a screenshot — and get back a complete review rather than an answer to one question.

A client who only needs one full game reviewed does not need to commit to a recurring lesson. A scoped Custom Work listing can be the whole transaction: one game in, one review back, one clear price.

Why would someone pay a person when free engines exist?

People pay a human for the explanation an engine omits. Free engine review is everywhere: Chess.com's Game Review scores accuracy from 0 to 100 and labels each move — Brilliant, Best, Inaccuracy, Blunder — from engine evaluations. Engine output says what happened, not why the plan failed.

“Accuracy: This score, ranging from 0 to 100, represents how accurately you played according to the engine's evaluations. The more you make the best moves, the higher your accuracy score will be.” — Chess.com, How does Game Review work?

Lichess gives the same engine capability away for free and publishes the underlying games in bulk. The Lichess open database listed 8,038,784,095 standard rated games available for free download in PGN format (Lichess open database). Lichess describes post-game computer analysis with Stockfish as a standard feature of a site it calls 100% free.

“After finishing a game, you can request computer analysis using the latest Stockfish chess engine and learn from your mistakes.” — Lichess, About lichess.org

Because engine evaluation is free on both of the largest platforms, a paid human review has to sell something else: connecting a blunder to a repeated misjudgment of a pawn structure, explaining why a “Best” move worked positionally and not just tactically, or spotting a time-management pattern an accuracy score cannot see. The gap between an accuracy number and a lesson is the thing a paid chess reviewer is really selling.

How much should a chess game analysis cost?

No published market rate exists for a flat per-game chess analysis fee, so price a review from your own time and the game's complexity rather than from someone else's listing. Hourly lesson guides are the closest available benchmark: Superprof reports an average of about $50 per hour for US chess lessons (Superprof).

Superprof puts beginner chess coaches at $20–$30 per hour and advanced coaches at $70–$150 per hour, with an advanced-tier average of $110 per hour. Superprof separately reports an average hourly rate of $26 across the more than 2,650 online chess tutors listed on its own platform. Those figures come from a lesson marketplace's own pricing guide, not an independent wage census, and Superprof does not publish a rate for a single-game written analysis.

The three prices in the table are examples to show the arithmetic, not market data. Brillay charges 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals, so a $40 game-analysis service leaves $36.80 before taxes, payment-processing fees, and your own costs. Typical US card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per successful transaction is separate and set by Stripe, not by Brillay (Stripe pricing).

What should a game-analysis listing include?

Before a client pays, spell out the game format, player level, exactly what you will deliver, what one review covers, when they will receive it, and what is not included. Custom Work closes after one delivery. If the listing answers those questions up front, one game review is less likely to turn into unpaid ongoing coaching.

• Input: A PGN file, a link to the game (Chess.com, Lichess, or another platform), or a clear written move list. PGN is the standard export format for online games — Lichess published 89,288,421 standard rated games for July 2026 as a single downloadable PGN archive.
• Player level: Rating band or self-described level, so the review matches how the client actually plays.
• Deliverable: Written annotations, marked-up diagrams of key moments, a short audio summary, or a combination.
• Scope: One full game versus a specific phase, such as the opening, a critical middlegame stretch, or the endgame.
• Delivery time: A delivery time you can reliably meet inside Brillay's 5-day cap on service delivery time.
• Exclusions: State plainly that the offer is a single-game review, not an ongoing coaching plan or a live session.

For example: “One full annotated review of one completed game, delivered as written notes plus a short audio summary of the three most important moments. Does not include opening-repertoire building or a second game.”

Clear written terms and delivery records are useful if a payment dispute comes up later: a fixed price, client brief, delivery time, and finished file make it easier to show what the client bought and what you delivered.

Related reading: how to write a custom request offer covers scoping a listing so requests stay inside what the client actually purchased.

What else can a chess creator sell alongside analysis?

A chess creator can offer four things beside game analysis: Personalized Videos for custom videos, Tips for one-time thank-yous, Goals for one named funding target, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries for sponsorship interest. Each one matches a different kind of message: encouragement, support, help with a named goal, or a business proposal.

• Personalized Videos: One recorded video for a good-luck message before a tournament round or a congratulations clip after a result.
• Tips: A way for someone who benefits from your free content or streams to support you without buying a specific review.
• Goals: Support toward a named goal, such as tournament travel or a coaching-course library, shown with a progress bar rather than a shipped product.
• Brand Collaboration Inquiries: A separate inbox for chess-app or equipment brands proposing a partnership, kept apart from client requests.

FIDE, the International Chess Federation, awards official titles such as Grandmaster and International Master and administers the international rating system. FIDE stated on June 23, 2026 that around 500,000 players hold an official over-the-board FIDE rating (FIDE). FIDE's 500,000 officially rated players are a small fraction of Chess.com's 250 million registered members, so the large majority of any chess audience holds no FIDE rating at all. Chess creators at any title or rating can price and sell a game analysis on Brillay.

How do you get a chess analysis offer live?

Getting a chess analysis offer live takes one bounded listing, not a full coaching menu. Set the price, input format, deliverable, exclusions, and delivery time for a single-game review. Once that is running, add a Paid Question for one-off position questions. You do not need to prepare a catalogue of finished analyses first; the listing sells the review you will make after the first paid request arrives.

When someone asks, “Can you look at my game?”, send them to the one link in your bio. Followers pay upfront and submit the game without creating an account; you review and deliver it later, and you can decline a request. For a broader look at how chess coaches structure income beyond one-off reviews, see how do chess coaches make money; for the general question-versus-service decision, compare whether the client needs one written answer or a finished game review.

Frequently asked questions

Chess coaches usually want to know what to charge, whether a full game fits a paid question or a service, and how to stop one review from becoming free ongoing coaching.

Do I need set prices, a chess title, or a certain rating?

No. FIDE awards titles like FM, IM, and GM and runs the official rating system; Custom Work and Paid Questions are available to chess creators at any title or rating. Start with a price you can stand behind for the amount of time the review will take.

Should I open paid questions or full game reviews first?

Use a Paid Question for one specific position, blunder, or opening decision answered in writing. Use Custom Work when the client needs to send the whole game as a file or link and receive a complete annotated review.

What if a client sends more than the listing covers?

If a client sends more than the listing describes, you decide whether to fold it in, ask for it as a separate request, or leave it out — the listing's stated exclusions set that boundary before payment, not a mid-review negotiation.

Isn't a free engine review good enough?

A free engine review scores accuracy and flags individual moves, but engine output does not explain recurring patterns or connect a mistake to a player's habits the way a human reviewer can (Chess.com). Explaining that pattern is what paid human analysis adds on top of a free engine accuracy score.

What does Brillay charge?

There is no monthly fee — the platform fee described above applies only when you get paid, whatever your title, rating, or follower count, and creators in 41 payout countries can connect a bank account through Stripe.

Create your free Brillay page and turn the next “can you look at my game?” message into a priced, scoped offer.