About OptiChess

Most chess training is puzzles, and puzzles carry a signal that never exists in a real game: there is something here, find it. You know before you start that a concrete solution exists. That removes most of what makes a real position hard — deciding whether the position warrants calculation at all, and if not, what to do instead.

The result is a gap most players will recognise. Puzzle ratings climb and playing strength does not follow. You get good at solving problems that announce themselves, and no better at the other ninety percent of moves in a game.

OptiChess trains the rest. Alongside tactics, you are asked to judge positions where nothing is forced, and to choose between plans when several moves are playable. Each is rated separately, so when progress stalls you can see where rather than just that it has.

Where the positions come from

Every item is generated from real games played by club-level players, analysed with Stockfish. Nothing is hand-written, and nothing is drawn from master games — the mistakes in a 1400's game are the mistakes a 1400 needs to stop making.

Who made it

OptiChess is built by one person in Dublin. It is early: the training works, some of the edges are rough, and feedback changes what gets built next.

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