Do not remove bark, you need to slow the peripheral moisture loss down not speed it up.
Seal the ends with wax or old paint to reduce the speed of moisture loss.
Keep the logs as long as possible so that any end splits that form are a smaller percentage of the whole.
The whole object when trying to dry logs is to slow the rate of surface loss down to match the speed that the inner moisture can migrate out to replace it, if not outer wood shrinks whilst core is still swollen and splits will occur.
If Logs are big enough, you can split down the middle through the pith, this will speed up drying and reduce the risk of unwanted splits as the half log can curl back from the split face as it dries.
When the wood has been stored long enough to get moisture down in the 20% region it can be cut into smaller lengths but unless you intend to turn it whilst still 'green' then never cut it shorter than a third longer than the diameter to allow some safety room for end split propagation.
Always seal the endgrain immediately it is cut, summer wood will start splitting in minutes, winter wood will start in hours.
Horse chestnut tends to be a rather bland soft wood, beware of spalting, it can look attractive but if it starts to show Black mold then the wood can just take on an unattractive grey cast.
Timescales: Unless you take up green turning or partially rough turn pieces to speed up drying then expect to keep logs in the dry for 2-3 years minimum before they are somewhere near 'safe' to handle.
Slabbed timber is usually reckoned to take a year per inch thickness, logs can take longer due to need to reduce moisture loss rate to avoid splitting
If you rough turn to shape then leave enough material to allow for cross grain shrinkage, a 12" diameter bowl for instance is likely to shrink an 1" across the grain resulting in an oval form that needs enough wood left to true up, this can also result in some ingenious methods of re-mounting to finish off.
