Shield, Woodpecker cycles and a bot that plays your opening
Two new trainers in puzzles, and the bot can now play openings from courses.
- -Shield. You see a position and a few moves, and pick the best one on the first try. Open to everyone; Pro adds a deck built from positions in your own games
- -Woodpecker cycles. You solve one set of puzzles round after round, each round faster. Free: a set on one theme. Pro lets you mix themes, take bigger sets and build a set from the tactics you missed in your own games
- -A bot that plays your lines. Pick a course or your own repertoire, and the bot plays the opening from it. Free: two starter courses; Pro: all of them
- -Your own home page. With chess.com or Lichess linked, the home page shows your ratings, your games of the week and the positions worth another look
- -Insights and Coach are now one section. Subscribers also get progress, repertoire, psychology and goals there
Live games on Lichess, premoves and background analysis
You can now play live opponents on Lichess without leaving the site, and open the analysis the moment the game ends. With Pro, new games are analysed on their own, no button needed. A game can be shared as a picture, a FEN or a PGN with the analysis.
- -Live games on Lichess. Connect your account, find an opponent or challenge a friend by username. The game is played here, and the analysis opens after the last move
- -Premoves. While your opponent thinks, set your next move — several in a row if you like
- -New games are analysed automatically in the background. Available to Pro subscribers
- -Share a game: a picture of the position, the FEN, or the PGN with the analysis
- -Chess960 games can be analysed too
The coach opens to subscribers, and move preview
The coach review is open to subscribers: it walks the game move by move and points out where you gave the position away. Hover any move and a board appears beside it with the position that follows, while the main board stays where it is. The sidebar and the analysis panel can now be pinned.
- -The coach review is open to every subscriber. The coach walks the game move by move: it names what went wrong, shows what was better, and builds a review deck out of your own mistakes
- -The coach names only what can be checked on the board: a fork, a pin, a hanging piece, mate in N. Where the cause cannot be proven, it says “this move made your position worse” and invents nothing
- -Move preview. Hover a move in the list, in the engine lines or in the coach review, and a mini-board appears beside it with the position that follows. The main board does not move. Switch it off in the analysis settings; Pro
- -The sidebar can be pinned. The padlock in its header keeps it open, and the page narrows beside it instead of sliding underneath. On a wide screen it pins itself
- -The analysis panel has its own padlock, left of the column switch. It puts away the controls that float over each card: the layout stays as it is, the cards stop offering to be dragged
- -Email about what is new, if you want it. Subscribe with a toggle in settings or a checkbox when you sign in; unsubscribe from any letter with one link
- -Small things: the pricing page was rewritten, so you can see what Pro gives and what Free already has; the puzzles on the home page lead to tactics rather than openings; the move list no longer stumbles when you scrub quickly with the arrow keys; the rating chart no longer counts casual games
Opening courses and the repertoire trainer
The openings section is open. 12 courses, 4,037 positions, and every one of them carries a note on why the move is played. The trainer drills your repertoire by spaced repetition, and you set the volume yourself — from a single main line to the whole tree. Two courses are free; the rest need Pro, or seven trial days without a card.
- -12 courses for both colours: King’s Pawn Opening for White and for Black, the Italian, Scotch and Petrov, the French, Caro-Kann, Sicilian, Scandinavian, Slav, Pirc Defence and the London System. Each of the 4,037 positions carries a note on why the move is played and what it changes
- -Three volume levels. “Core” is the main line, “Standard” adds the opponent’s second most popular reply, “Full” is the whole course. A line at any level runs to its end; the levels differ in how many opponent replies it prepares you for, one or ten
- -Spaced repetition: a correct move grows the interval, a mistake sends the position back for review. Transpositions share progress — you learn a position once, whatever move order took you there
- -The course is visible before you enrol: the plan, 507 lessons, 36 master games, and at each of the 86 branching points, which line to take and what it leads to
- -The courses are translated in full into 16 languages, comments on every move included
- -Two starter courses are free. The rest need Pro or seven trial days — no card required
- -Game review: engine lines persist between visits instead of being recomputed on every move, the browser now runs Stockfish 18, and the review video downloads on a phone
Redesigned game analysis page
The analysis page was rebuilt: a panel of cards, live engine lines, variations in the move list, and a move-times chart under the evaluation graph.
- -The analysis panel is made of cards: engine, evaluation graph, accuracy, move list, move times, key moments. Cards can be dragged, collapsed, hidden, pinned and laid out in one or two columns, and the layout is remembered
- -Engine lines: up to five variations with evaluations, and clicking a move plays the line on the board. On positions already analysed, the lines come from the saved analysis with no recalculation
- -Variations in the move list: under inaccuracies and mistakes there is a short verdict and the best line, which opens in one click. You can turn this off in settings
- -The move-times chart is shown by default under the evaluation graph and is readable in the light theme
- -The pieces keep up when you scrub quickly with the arrow keys
- -Small things: the counter shows full moves, and at the starting position you see the game date and opening code (ECO) instead of a service label
Puzzles: retry and play on, plus a daily streak
After a wrong move in a puzzle the piece goes back and you can try again. Once a puzzle is solved you can play it on against the engine. Only the first attempt counts toward your rating. A daily streak counts puzzles and game analyses.
- -A wrong move in a puzzle: the piece goes back and you can try again right away. We don’t show the best move; tap “Explain” and the engine tells you how much your move cost
- -After you solve a puzzle or view the solution, the board becomes an analysis board: move for either side, the engine replies and rates each of your moves. None of it affects your rating
- -Only the first attempt changes your rating; solving the same puzzle again earns no points. Any checkmate counts as a solution, even if the puzzle records a different one
- -A puzzle leaderboard: by rating, by puzzles solved this week, and by best streak
- -Daily streak: solved puzzles and analysed games extend it, and the counter sits in the menu. You can pick your time zone in settings
- -Play vs AI: a king in check is highlighted, the result appears after a short pause so you see the final move, and once you close it you can browse the game instead of landing on the new-game screen
- -The “Miss” and “Great” ratings now take the tactics in the position into account: a fork, a pin, a material win. The home page no longer downloads the engine and demo videos in advance, about 7 MB
A new look and live numbers on the home page
The home page, blog, games page and settings moved to a new design and a new typeface. The home page shows live site numbers, and the games page shows a 30-day summary.
- -New design and typeface on the home page, blog, games page and settings. For new users the site theme follows the system setting by default
- -Live numbers on the home page: games imported in total and in the last hour, games analysed, today’s top rating, puzzles solved
- -An “Archive” block on the games page with the last 30 days: win rate, average accuracy, best win streak
- -Examples in the import form: Carlsen vs Gukesh and a typical game between players around 1200 open in one click
- -Blog articles have a table of contents, and the home page has a “Frequently asked” section
Puzzles, in-browser analysis and Google sign-in
A puzzles section with a rating and themes. Games are now analysed in your browser. You can sign in with Google.
- -Puzzles: millions of positions, and a rating that goes up for solved puzzles and down for failed ones. Pick puzzles by theme: fork, pin, mate in N, endgame, castling and dozens more
- -Game analysis runs in your browser, free and unlimited, at depth 15. With Pro you can raise the depth to 18, 20 or 22, or switch to analysis on our server
- -Sign in with Google: if you are already signed in to Google, there is no email link to wait for
- -A 6-digit code now comes with the sign-in link. It helps when the email is open on your phone and you need to sign in on your laptop
- -About half a megabyte of scripts was removed from the home page, so it opens faster on a phone
- -A checkmated king tilts 45° and its square turns red
Unlimited video, video styling in Pro
Anyone can make a video from a game, with no limit. It is recorded in your browser and not stored on the server. Video styling is now part of Pro.
- -Videos are not stored on the server, but you can record one again for any game. That is why “My Videos” was removed from the menu
- -There is no limit on the number of videos
- -Pro only: remove the chess.rodeo watermark or add your own, the Brutalist Print style, a poster with an image at the start of the video, and the timeline editor with the Editorial and Viral templates
- -Also in Pro: record yourself on camera as the game plays
Install as an app, video settings and fixes
chess.rodeo can be installed as an app on a computer or phone. Videos can have custom board colours, a trail behind moving pieces and your own watermark. If a PGN holds one game, its analysis opens right after import.
- -chess.rodeo installs on your desktop or phone home screen as a separate app
- -Video: custom board colours, a trail behind the moving piece, an adjustable watermark, 16:9 landscape format
- -Video: player ratings and the move counter are shown correctly, captured pieces sit on the right side when the board is flipped, the watermark and fonts appear from the first frame
- -Video: pieces no longer stutter in the final MP4
- -PGN import: if the file holds one game, its analysis opens straight away, without the list
