Why did you make this site?

I'm a big believer in trusting the process instead trying to find a secret set of steps to do well.

This site is focused on showing you positions not tactics. The goal is to eventually have a quick way to see interesting positions across many different games easily. For example, it could be cool to see the pivotal positions in Magnus Carlsen's games in an automated fashion. Or show you positions reached from an opening you want to study. And then show you your accuracy at knowing the advantage in games that started with a certain opening.

With chess I feel like tactics are overemphasized and building an understanding of positions from a more probabilistic perspective could be worthwhile. Instead of fetishizing what someone did, look at the circumstances that allowed those juicy tactics to come to fruition. In this case the Stockfish evaluation score gives you a rough idea of one player's advantage at a given point of time. Which should correspond to win likelihood depending on complexity left in the game.

Like with BBQ, it's less about one secret ingredient, and more about the process of thoughtful care throughout the cook. Consistent good tasting smoke, quality firewood, and treating the meat used appropriately for what it is. And of course understanding your guests. Good BBQ isn't a splash of Dr Pepper and Worcestershire sauce in a marinade although that wouldn't be bad per se. But there's more to it than those "tactics".


I didn't see something like this out in the chess world (maybe I missed it?) and I'm excited to see what the chess community's feedback is. I have a lot of ideas I could add on to this to make it more fun and interesting to use if people like it. Win probability and making it into a game you can play and track your performance are probably first on the list. Then making some form of game to practice!

Please feel free to email me at matteo@chessnit.com for feedback or general comments.

How the heck do I analyze positions?

Read this position analaysis guide for some pointers.

Why is this site called Chessing It/Chessn' It?

I would play a lot of chess and do the puzzles around the house. After a while my wife randomly started saying, "He be chessin' it" in the spirit of Brad Paisley "Crushin' It" - Official Video

The phrase stuck and I needed a semi-relevant name for this site I was working on so here we are.

Where do the games come from?

Lichess and a derived work. Most of the games are blitz and that leads to interesting positions.

Where do the scores come from?

We use Stockfish with skill level set to 20 and a depth of 20. The values are approximate but should be relatively close to what you see on Lichess.

FEEDBACK: I have a feature idea or a bug

Contact matteo@chessnit.com or support@chessnit.com