How chesscli works

How to learn chess openings, tactics and endgames on chesscli: build or add a course, learn it line by line, practice and drill it, then play it against the bot and review your own games.

Last updated 2026-10-28

1. Get a course: An opening repertoire, or positions to master: tactics, mates, endgames. Ready-made or your own.
2. Learn it: Play each line once with guidance; in positions, find the move first.
3. Make it stick: Replay your lines from memory, weakest first, until each one is perfected.
4. Use it: Play the bot from your openings, then check your real games against them.

Get courses

A course is a set of lines: an opening repertoire, or positions to solve.

Explore courses

Ready-made repertoires from chesscli, titled players and the community. Open Explore

• Search by opening, or filter by side and kind.
• Try the first line before adding anything.
• Add to my courses. No account needed.

Build your own

An opening repertoire, or a position course: tactics, mates, endgames. New course

• Paste a PGN: every variation becomes a line.
• Or record the moves on the board.
• For positions, paste a FEN and play the solution.

Collections

Group courses your way, like “Black repertoire”. A course can be in several. Go to Home

• On Home, tap + New collection.
• Tick the courses that belong in it.
• Practice this collection mixes their lines.

Train a course

Open a course and pick a mode at the top of the training screen.

Learn

See each line once, with guidance.

• Play the move the arrow shows.
• Notes explain the ideas behind the moves.
• In position courses, find the move first; Hint shows it.

Practice

Play your learned lines from memory, weakest first.

• Pick one line, or All lines for a full round.
• Hint lights up the piece, then the arrow.
• Two clean runs in a row and a line is perfected.

Drill

Whole lines, back to back, building a combo.

• Needs 3 learned lines.
• No hints: the first wrong move ends the run.
• Beat your best combo.

Puzzles

Lichess puzzles from games played in your opening.

• Opening courses only.
• Puzzles near your puzzle rating.
• Solved or not, your rating moves.

Arena

Play your opening against the bot, then play the game out.

• The bot follows your course’s lines.
• Leave your repertoire and it shows what the course plays.
• Once out of book, the engine takes over.

Mix

Practice every course at once, weakest lines first. Start Mix

• Plays every learned line once per round.
• A round ends with your clean runs.
• Start it from Home or ⌘K.

Play and review

Put your openings to work, then see how they held up.

Play the bot

Seven levels, from about 1000 to 2200. Games are unrated. Play

• Optional clock: 3 + 2, 10 + 0, or your own.
• Start from your course lines, or a free game.
• Take back, offer a draw, open the game in Lichess.

Review your games

Import your last 50 games from Chess.com or Lichess. Review

• See where you left your repertoire, game by game.
• Turn your mistakes into puzzles, analysed on your device.
• Learn or practice the line you missed.

Progress

Your streak, a calendar of your training and every course’s progress. Progress

• Train a little every day to keep the streak.
• See what’s learned and what’s perfected.

Your data

No account needed. Sign in only if you want more.

Saved in your browser

Courses, progress and settings stay on this device. Settings

• Export a backup in Settings now and then.
• Import it on another browser to move everything.

Sync across devices

Sign in with an email link or Google. Sign in

• Your courses and progress follow you.
• Signing out keeps everything on this device.

Publish a course

Share your repertoire on Explore. Learners get their own progress.

• Needs a username, a name, a description and 5 lines.
• A new author’s first course is reviewed once.
• Updates go live as soon as you publish them.