Training tool for Chess openings.
One of the most difficult parts of Chess is learning all the different openings. For the uninitiated, an opening is a sequence of moves played at the beginning of the game that puts the player of the opening at an advantage. This means that usually the player with the stronger opening knowledge will emerge from the first few moves of the game with an advantage in material or position.
When I first started learning openings, I could not find a good way to go about the memorization process. Since the game of Chess is always evolving, certain move orders move in and out of the Chess meta. For this reason, traditional opening courses often leave the trainee unprepared for what they will encounter in their own games. This project strives to bridge that gap. Using data gathered from Lichess the player can practice playing openings in a very realistic environment.
There are 3 tabs explorer, practice, and analysis:
Explorer - Shows the moves for the current game in the top part of the side panel. The bottom part of the side panel allows you to see the most common moves with win percentages. Clicking an option in the sidebar or playing a move on the board will update the view with the relevant data.
Practice - Study openings through weighted repetition. Initially, a list of openings will be displayed. You can hover over the moves in the move list to see a preview of the board in that position. Openings can be filtered by playing the starting moves on the board. Selecting an opening will present a play button. Clicking this will start the practice simulation. For this, play the moves of the opening. The explorer portion of the sidebar will show your current centi-pawn advantage along with possible next moves. When a line is completed, the simulation will reset and play a likely different line.
Analysis - Use Stockfish 11 to find the best moves in a position from a computer's perspective. Each line will show an optimal move list (hoverable) along with a pawn score.
- Openings - 365chess & chess.com
- Explorer Data - Lichess API
- Chess Engine - stockfish
- UCI Protocol - uci
- Icons - react-icons
- Chess Board - chessground