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AI · alternatives · 2026

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24 alternatives to I trained a chess engine to play like humans

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…

1e4.ai is a chess web app where players compete against neural networks trained to mimic human Lichess players across specific skill levels from 800 to 2200+ Elo. Built on data from billions of Lichess blitz games, the… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier.

  1. 1

    I built over the last two years a human-like neural network chess engine that tries to predict your rating from a single game. It automatically adapts to your play and tries to play like a human at your level would play, giving you a balanced game. At the core I’m using an AlphaZero / Leela Chess Zero style neural network that I have trained on 1 billion human games from the lichess.org open database. Around this network I have built a chess engine in Rust with algorithms that use the outputs from the NN to produce human-like moves at a given rating from beginner to world champion, as…

    2022 · noctie.ai · its alternatives →

  2. 2CA
  3. 3

    Transform Your Chess Skills with AI-Powered Training

    Jan 2026 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    I've been playing chess for a few years with my ELO stuck around 1600 on Lichess. I wanted an app that combined puzzle training, interactive lessons, game analysis, and AI coaching in one place. But all the apps I used over the years either felt overwhelming, had UX that wasn't up to my expectations for a modern app or were lacking some fundamental features that I really wanted. So, I built LearnChess.ai. The technical angle I'm most excited about: it's built local-first using LiveStore (event-sourced, SQLite on-device), which means zero loading delays for user data and full offline support.…

    Jul 2026 · learnchess.ai · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    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 · its alternatives →

  6. 6
    Aimchess▲129

    Learn chess your way with AI tools and data driven approach.

    2020 · aimchess.com · its alternatives →

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    We're thrilled to announce that www.maiachess.com is now in open beta, meaning everyone can access it! Maia is the most human-like chess AI, and is an ongoing research project at the University of Toronto developing fun, useful, and novel human-AI collaboration in chess. Please give it a try and let us know what you think. We're still rapidly improving and iterating on it. * Play Maia-2: Play the (updated) most human-like chess engine, tailored to your skill level * Analyze your games: See how you (or the pros!) stack up with both Maia’s human-based predictions and classic Stockfish…

    2020 · maiachess.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Thought I would post in celebration of 1 year of my website being online. I've been working on it on and off and currently the website allows users to play Hex, Tumbleweed, Amazons, and Connect 6 against friends or against practice bots. I've been a long time player of some of these games and I felt for a long time that the world could use a few more popular abstract strategy games compared to Chess or Go. If you try it, let me know what you think. I'm always looking for new games or new features to add :)

    2025 · abstractboardgames.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9CG

    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 · its alternatives →

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    A chess engine implementation inspired by AlphaZero, using MLX for neural network computations and Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) for move selection.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

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    Hello! I created SpicyChess(https://spicychess.com) because I wanted a tactics training app that would have the following features: - Spaced Repetition. - Countdown time to simulate blitz Chess where you have to find the best move quickly. - The ability to save puzzles for later review. I'd love to hear any feedback that you may have !

    2023 · spicychess.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Chessmate is a transformer-based model that predicts your next chess move, tailored to players around 1500 ELO on lichess. Soon it will also offer personalized models and a broader range of ELO-based models. Hopefully this can offer a new and innovative way to learn chess and enjoy playing against a uniquely challenging bot!

    2024 · chessmate.ai · its alternatives →

  13. 13CE

    We built ChessBoss at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon this week. It didn’t make the top 10 but I thought Hacker News might think it’s pretty cool. https://devpost.com/software/chess-boss There are these really cool smart chessboards that can suggest moves and track your games... but they’re $400 and weigh 19 pounds. And of course there are apps that can analyze games but tracking and inputting games by hand is a huge pain. Or fully-digital chess apps... but board games are way more fun in real life! We wondered: “why can’t you just do that in software and bring the best…

    2019 · devpost.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14DA

    over the past couple months, i've picked up an old project around writing AI in python. the premise is to code a strategy for an AI player to use in a simplified RTS game. the AI basically takes the seat of a human player and the human codes its brain. main site: http://okayzed.github.com/dmangame/introduction.html app engine server and match archive that runs and hosts games: http://dmangame-app.appspot.com github: http://github.com/okayzed/dmangame more AI: http://github.com/okayzed/dmanai i'm looking for players, comments, ideas, etc - thanks!

    2011 · okayzed.github.com · its alternatives →

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    Create board game rules and covers with machine learning

    2020 · its alternatives →

  16. 16TP

    Hi HN, I have been working on this website for a few weeks with some buddies of mine and would love if you checked it out. TuringJest provides a jackbox-esque experience with its two game modes. *One Shot Prompt* - Submit a prompt for all players (including the AI) to answer. - Answer your prompts in the way that you think ChatGPT would answer them. - Vote for who you think the real AI is. *Talk It Out* - Plan an event in a group chat with your friends. - Trick everyone into thinking you are the AI while voting for the real AI. Let me know what you think!

    2023 · turingjest.app · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    at a pub in london, 2 weeks ago - I asked myself, if you spawned agents into a world with blank neural networks and zero knowledge of human existence — no language, no economy, no social templates — what would they evolve on their own? would they develop language? would they reproduce? would they evolve as energy dependent systems? what would they even talk about? so i decided to make myself a god, and built WERLD - an open-ended artificial life sim, where the agent's evolve their own neural architecture. Werld drops 30 agents onto a graph with NEAT neural networks that evolve their own…

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18PT

    Hey everyone! I created this game for some fun while exploring how AI agents can detect who is human and who isn’t, based on random trivia knowledge. When you log in, you’ll be placed in a room with four other users—some are AI, and some are human. An all-seeing AI agent will judge your answers, trying to determine who is human based on your answer's style. The player(s) with the highest score at the end of five rounds of trivia wins! It’s free to play. Just type in a username and get started. Have fun!

    2024 · playandsurvive.vercel.app · its alternatives →

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    An AI chess coach that analyzes your own games

    Jun 2026 · chesscoach-web.vercel.app · its alternatives →

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    A minimal Emacs client for the Lichess API. Contribute to tmythicator/lichess.el development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

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    I am a developer and a huge chess lover. I play mostly puzzles on Lichess. At some point I realized that I would love to have a similar puzzle-like game app for programming, so I built one! Please try it out and give me some feedback, any kind of feedback is warmly welcomed.

    May 2026 · codequizz.com · its alternatives →

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    Chess — but a mini-game decides every capture

    Jun 2026 · dualchess.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Play real-time multiplayer chess with friends or AI

    May 2026 · superchess.iamraj.dev · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Play chess with hundreds of AI generated characters

    2023 · chesswith.ai · its alternatives →

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