Frequently asked questions

Yes. Playing, learning and puzzles are free. A paid membership lifts the daily and weekly limits on engine analysis, rated puzzles and archive replays.

No - you can play as a guest straight away. An account keeps your rating, history and progress, which a guest session does not.

Guests play casual games only. Rated play, the learning drills, puzzles, the archive and analysis all need a free account.

English, Vietnamese, and Chinese in both simplified and traditional script. Master names and openings use the correct terms in each.

A rated game moves your Elo. Your rating sets your rank tier, from Silver up to Diamond, shown next to your name.

You choose the total time each player gets, an optional increment added after every move, and a cap on any single move.

Yes - ten strengths from Beginner to Grandmaster. Games against the engine are unrated.

In a game where both players agreed to them beforehand, a hint shows the engine's best move and a short verdict. Ratings are adjusted: whoever used a hint gains less and loses more than an opponent who did not.

Yes. Watch shows games in progress, and finished games can be replayed from any player's profile.

Ninety-two items: 55 drills from basic piece moves to tactics, 20 opening systems, and 17 checkmate patterns. Each one is a position you play rather than a video.

Games and puzzles are rated separately. Your puzzle Elo reflects the positions you solve; your game Elo reflects your results against opponents.

A timed run: solve as many as you can before the clock ends. Your best score goes on the leaderboard.

After a game, analysis reports each side's accuracy, an evaluation graph, the best move at every turn, and a grade for each move played.

32,204 games from 2,629 masters, browsable by player, opening and year, and replayable move by move.

Yes, and they refill. The free plan includes 3 engine analyses a week and 5 archive replays a day; paid plans raise or remove both.

It lifts limits: more engine analyses, more rated puzzles and Storm runs, more archive replays, in-game hints, and no ads. It does not change how rated games work.

From the membership page, at any time. You keep your benefits until the end of the period you have already paid for.

Nothing is deleted. Your rating, history and progress stay; only the raised limits go back to the free allowance.

The account details you give us and the games you play. We do not sell data. We use Google Analytics to count visits, and Google AdSense serves the ads that free accounts see, while members see none. We strip the query string from a page before reporting it, so nothing sensitive reaches either. The privacy policy has the detail.

Yes - write to us and we will remove it. Games you played remain in your opponents' histories, as they are part of their record too.

Use the forgot-password link on the sign-in page and we will email you a reset link.