A few years ago, I trained with a Chess Grandmaster. Inspired by this, I built a CLI chess coach in 2 hours.
Lately, I'd been feeling stuck in my chess journey. So, a couple of weeks ago, I made a Reddit post to get tips on improving my Chess ELO from 1,800 to 2,000+.
One of the main suggestions I received was to zoom out and do a thorough review of my own chess games. To analyze not only one chess game at a time, but my last 20+ games: to understand the strengths/weaknesses that are inhibiting me from growing as a player.
The key to 2,000+ ELO, I learned, is to spot weak areas and intentionally design my daily practice around them. With any endeavour, deliberate practice is often better than meandering practice.
It was about asking the same types of questions that my GM coach often asked me:
- Where do I usually lose advantage?
- What phase of the game do I struggle with most?
- Do I repeat certain types of mistakes often?
But knowing what to work on isn't easy. We can't always see our own blindspots. This is why coaches can unlock growth; they help us see from a vantage point what we often miss in our self-critique. Doing a meta-analysis of my last 20 chess games would take me 3-5 hours at least, and be limited by my current knowledge. Doing this every 2 weeks for continued growth seemed like a daunting task, as a hobbyist chess player.
So, I spent a few hours over the weekend to build a tool for myself that does exactly this, in less than ✨ 1 minute ✨:
- Pull my last 50 chess games
- Analyze all games through a chess engine
- Breakdown performance by opening, middle and endgame
- Find critical, game-defining positions
- Suggest opening lines to improve my win-rate
- Highlight strengths and weaknesses in my game style
- Build a personalized plan for me to reach the next 100 ELO
I suddenly had a mini chess GM coach on my terminal.
The first report was mind-blowing. The analysis was painfully accurate ("practice rook endgame fundamentals" 🥲), and it felt like magic. It unlocked patterns that I had been missing for months. I learned why I've been stuck, and what to spend time on. It felt having a WHOOP, but for chess.
This is just a V1, but I'm already brimming with so many more ideas to grow it. This is now a part of my toolkit on my side-quest of becoming a titled chess player.
I proceeded to launch it on Reddit, and overnight had 50+ people who wanted to use the tool too. This has the potential to become a valuable tool for serious hobbyist chess players. Launching soon as a standalone product.