I built a chess coach that explains moves like a grandmaster instead of showing engine lines — powered by LLM
I built a chess coach that explains moves like a grandmaster instead of showing engine lines — powered by LLM

I built a chess coach that explains moves like a grandmaster instead of showing engine lines — powered by LLM

The problem I wanted to solve: Stockfish tells you what the best move is, but never why. Players under 1800 don't lose because they can't read centipawns — they lose because they don't understand plans, structures, key squares.

What the tool does:

  1. Imports your games from Chess.com or Lichess
  2. Stockfish 17.1 WASM runs in your browser (fully local, nothing uploaded)
  3. A pattern detector finds 18 types of recurring mistakes across all your games (missed forks, exposed king, bad bishop, neglected development...)
  4. An LLM generates coaching narratives in the style of a 2700+ coach

Instead of: -89 cp · Best: Nc3 Nf6 Be3

The AI coach says:

"Bd3 is premature — the bishop attacks nothing and blocks d3 where the queen may want to go. Nc3 was the right move: it defends d4, prevents Black's ...e5 counterplay, and leaves the bishop free to settle on Be3 or Be2 depending on Black's plan."

You can also chat with the coach — it knows your full game history, opening stats, specific weaknesses. Ask "why do I keep losing with Black in the French?" and it answers with data from YOUR games.

Other features: spaced repetition (SM-2) on your own blunders, puzzle rush with real mistakes, 6-month progress tracking.

Free tier: unlimited Stockfish. Pro ($14.99/mo, 15-day free trial): LLM coach + chat.

https://chessmentorai.com

Happy to discuss the prompting approach — getting the LLM to explain chess like a coach (not an engine) was the hardest part.

submitted by /u/sepiropht
[link] [comments]