Alternatives
Products that do what I built a chess explorer that explains strategy instead of just stats does
I built this because I got tired of Stockfish giving me evaluations (+0.5) without explaining the actual plan. Most opening explorers focus on statistics (Win/Loss/Draw). I wanted a tool that explains the strategic intent behind the moves (e.g., "White plays c4 to clamp down on d5" vs just "White plays c4"). The Project: Comprehensive Database: I’ve mapped and annotated over 3,500 named opening variations. It covers everything from main lines (Ruy Lopez, Sicilian) to deep sidelines. Strategic Visualization: The UI highlights key squares and draws arrows based on the textual…
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2021 · chrisbutner.github.io
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2024 · louisabraham.github.io
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2023 · lost-at-sql.therobinlord.com
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I have been working on SQL Explorer, an open source, Django-based reporting and query tool for (gulp!) almost ten years. It's a tool that fits just right for me and many others, and I love and use almost every day. Write SQL, share results, do some analysis, get insight. No surprises. A live demo instance is here (no login or anything required): https://demo.sqlexplorer.io/ And here's a fairly unprofessional, but very enthusiastic, video tour: https://sql-explorer.s3.amazonaws.com/Sql+Explorer+5.mp4 The UI is constrained enough that there's very little to learn,…
2024 · github.com
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I made a chess engine today, and made it fit within 2KB. I used a variant of MinMax called Negamax, with alpha beta pruning. For the board representation I have used a 120-cell "mailbox". I managed to squeeze in checkmate/stalemate in there, after trimming out some edge cases. I am a great fan of demoscene (computer art subculture) since middle school, and hence it was a ritual i had to perform. For estimating the Elo, I measured 240 automated games against Stockfish Elo levels (1320 to 1600) under fixed depth-5 and some constrained rules, using equal color distribution. Then converted…
Feb 2026 · github.com
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blunderchess.net is an open source, peer-to-peer chess app where every five moves, players each get to make one blunder-move for their opponent
2025 · blunderchess.net
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2023 · chessmonitor.com
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I continue my experiment of transposing classic games onto an irregular grid. I've previously released variants of minesweeper and checkers. And now I'd like to share my variant of Chess. Chess can be a pretty punishing game, but I thought this was nevertheless a way to make it even more challenging by making it trickier to anticipate your opponent, even though both players still have the same information. From the playtests I've done, that challenge is pretty compelling. It also seems to be more fun at 2 people, where both players keep surprising one another.
2024 · polyreplay.com
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2021 · deepnote.com
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Hi HN! I wanted to share with you a chess analysis tool that I was building for the past week. First of all I want to explain what is the problem that I'm trying to solve: Chess Engines such as stockfish are superior for us humans, but it's not self explanatory. A player can review their game by stockfish and it will tell them that some moves are very bad and losing, but why? This is the problem that we are trying to solve. ChessRabbit acts as a chess agent with stockfish evaluation tools. It takes every move that the player plays and it reasons about it, with the help, validation, and…
8d ago · chessrabbit.co
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Hello, This is something I've wanted to build for awhile (first bought the domain in 2020 (then lost it for a year+)). It's a tactics solver on each new tab page. There are 5 modes of play: Easy (<1200 elo) Medium (1200-1800) Hard (1800-2400) Expert (2400+) Speedrun (solve as many puzzles as possible in 60 seconds). I'm having a ton of fun with it, and definitely noticing improvements with actual games (definitely solved the most puzzles in my life while developing this extension). If you check it out, please let me know what you think. Any feedback is good!
Apr 2026 · leetchess.com
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For no specific reason, I trained a neural network to generate random chess positions that look similar to positions from actual games (from lichess db). I also made it so you can condition it on some fixed pieces, and adjust the number of pieces. It turned out to be quite effective and I find it surprisingly fun and instructive to generate e.g. endgame positions with a certain pawn structure (set low temperature, place some pawns and position the kings, adjust number of pieces to get an endgame), and then figure out how to win vs. the computer in those positions. I hooked it up so that you…
2024 · chessdream.ai
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I built 1e4.ai - a chess web app where you play against neural networks trained to mimic human Lichess players at specific Elo ranges. There's a separate model for each 100-point rating bucket from ~800 to 2200+, and the bots not only choose human-like moves but also burn clock time, play worse under time pressure, and blunder in human-like ways. Live demo: https://1e4.ai Code: https://github.com/thomasj02/1e4_ai A few things that might be interesting: - Trained on almost a full year of Lichess blitz games, around 1B total games - Architecture is an a small…
May 2026
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Free chess analyzer to find blunders and master your game
Jan 2026 · chessmoveexpert.com
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Hey HN, I built Spin Lab: a browser-based interactive explainer for table-tennis spin. It visualizes topspin/backspin, spin rate, ball trajectory, bounce behavior, and why the opponent’s return reacts the way it does. I built it because spin is central to table tennis, but most explanations are either too hand-wavy or too static. Thanks Fable, we miss you
Jun 2026 · srijanshukla.com
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