The problem: everyone wants their game analyzed, nobody wants to invoice
If you stream chess, post puzzles, or hold a title, you get the same requests daily: "Can you look at this game?" "Why did I lose this endgame?" "What opening should I play against the London?" A genuine game review takes 20 to 45 minutes. Doing it free on stream is content; doing it free in DMs is unpaid coaching.
The standard coaching pipeline has friction at every step. Marketplace coaching sites take a cut and set the terms. Running it yourself means a scheduling link, a payment request, a Zoom room, and students who book a slot and evaporate. For a $40 lesson, twenty minutes of admin is a real tax — and the spontaneous version ("I'm free right now, who wants a review?") has no infrastructure at all.
What to sell on Cheddify
Cheddify is one link in your Twitch, YouTube, or chess.com bio. Students pay as guests in the browser; you take the call on your phone. Formats that map to chess coaching:
- Game review with the meter running. They send the PGN or game link, you screen through it together move by move. Per-minute billing means a sharp 20-minute review and a sprawling 50-minute one both pay correctly.
- Live analysis hours. Toggle yourself available after a stream. Viewers who just watched you connect immediately for a paid review — no calendar, the magic is now.
- Booked 45-minute lessons, prepaid: opening repertoire building, endgame technique, tournament prep before an event.
- Paid DMs for one-question coaching: "Best move here and why?" with a position screenshot. A price filters the noise and pays you for the answers you were already giving. See how paid DMs work.
What to charge
Chess coaching spans teaching and expert consulting, so rates spread wider than most niches. Club-level coaches teaching improvers commonly charge $1 to $1.50 per minute (in line with typical hourly lesson rates). Titled players — FM, IM — with an audience often hold $2 to $3 per minute, and GMs or well-known streamers can command $4 to $5, particularly for short high-intensity reviews. As always, your audience sets the ceiling more than your title does; start modest, watch demand, and adjust. See how to sell your time as a coach.
The math on a real session
Take a 45-minute booked lesson at $2 per minute. The student pays $90, plus roughly 3 percent processing (about $2.70) on top. Cheddify takes 20 percent plus $2 per call: $18 + $2 = $20. You keep $70, paid out through Stripe. Compare that to a marketplace taking 30 percent with none of the live-now upside. Full breakdown on the pricing page.
The honest part
Cheddify brings you no students. There is no marketplace and no discovery — it converts the audience you already have from streaming, YouTube, or your club. If you have no audience yet, an established coaching marketplace will fill your calendar faster while you build one. If your chat and DMs already ask for reviews you cannot fit in free, Cheddify is free to claim and puts a meter on the analysis you are already doing. Here is how it works.