Free Chess Analysis with Stockfish 17 in Your Browser — No Sign-up, Runs Locally

莫镇华 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 03:27:43 +0000

As a developer who plays chess in my spare time, I've always been frustrated with the limitations of free analysis tools. Chess.com locks deep analysis behind a paywall, and while Lichess is great, I wanted something that felt more... developer-friendly.

Then I stumbled upon Chess Analysis — and honestly, it's become my go-to tool for reviewing games.

What Makes It Different?

🔒 Privacy-First: Everything Runs Locally

Here's what caught my attention as a dev: the Stockfish 17 engine runs entirely in your browser via WebAssembly. No server round-trips, no uploading your games to some random server. Your PGN files and analysis stay on your device.

For those of us who care about privacy (or just hate waiting for server responses), this is huge.

⚡ Stockfish 17 — The Strongest Free Engine

We're talking about the same engine that's rated 3600+ Elo. And it's running right in your browser tab. The multi-PV analysis shows you not just the best move, but the top 3-5 alternatives with their evaluations.

🎯 Zero Friction to Start

No account creation. No email verification. No "free trial" that expires. Just:

Go to chess-analysis.org
Paste your PGN or import from Chess.com/Lichess
Start analyzing

That's it. I've used it on my phone, my work laptop, and my home PC without ever creating an account.

Features That Actually Matter

Import From Anywhere

Paste PGN directly
Fetch from Chess.com — just enter your username
Fetch from Lichess — same deal
Upload PGN files

Real-Time Eval Bar

The evaluation bar updates as you move through the game. You can see exactly where you went wrong (spoiler: it's usually move 15 for me 😅).

AI Coach (New!)

This one surprised me — they added an AI-powered move explanation feature. It tells you in plain English why a move was a mistake and what you should have played instead. Great for learning, not just analyzing.

Opening Preparation

The /opening-prep feature lets you prepare against specific opponents. It pulls their game history and shows you their opening tendencies. I used this before a club tournament and it actually helped me win a game against a higher-rated player.

Rivalry Analyzer

Compare your head-to-head record against any player across both Chess.com and Lichess. See which openings you struggle against them and where you have an edge.

Training Suite

100K+ Tactical Puzzles with filtering by theme, rating, etc.
Opening Trainer with spaced repetition
Endgame Practice with tablebase support

The Tech Stack (For Fellow Devs)

Since this is dev.to, you might be curious:

Next.js 15 / React 19 / TypeScript
Stockfish 17 via WebAssembly
Tailwind CSS + MUI
Static export to Cloudflare Pages
chess.js + react-chessboard

It's open source too: the whole thing is MIT licensed.

Comparison: Chess Analysis vs Chess.com vs Lichess

Feature	Chess Analysis	Chess.com (Free)	Lichess
Engine Depth	Unlimited	Limited	Unlimited
Local Processing	✅	❌	❌
No Account Required	✅	❌	✅
Cross-Platform Import	✅	❌	❌
AI Move Explanations	✅	Paid	❌
Opening Prep vs Opponent	✅	Paid	❌
Privacy (No Upload)	✅	❌	❌

Who Is This For?

Casual players who want free, unlimited analysis
Privacy-conscious users who don't want their games on external servers
Players on both platforms who want unified analysis
Tournament players preparing against specific opponents
Developers who appreciate a clean, fast, open-source tool

Try It Out

🔗 chess-analysis.org

No sign-up. No credit card. No BS.

Just paste your PGN and see where you blundered. (We all blunder. It's fine. 😄)

Have you tried any other chess analysis tools? What features do you wish existed? Drop a comment below!

How I stopped wrestling with Photoshop and started editing images with text prompts

莫镇华 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 03:14:33 +0000

TL;DR

As a developer who constantly needs to edit images for projects, documentation, and side hustles, I stumbled upon an AI image editor that lets you transform photos using simple text descriptions. No Photoshop skills required. It's free to start, and honestly? It's changed my workflow completely.

The Problem Every Developer Knows

You're building a landing page. The client sends over product photos with messy backgrounds. Or you need to upscale a low-res logo. Or create consistent character images for your app's onboarding flow.

What do you do?

Option A: Spend 2 hours learning Photoshop (again)
Option B: Pay a designer $50 for a 5-minute task
Option C: Use a free AI image editor online and get it done in seconds

I chose Option C.

What Is This AI Image Editor?

It's an online AI image editor that uses advanced machine learning to understand what you want and apply those changes to your images. Think of it as having a Photoshop expert who speaks plain English.

Instead of learning layers, masks, and adjustment curves, you just type:

"Remove the background and replace it with a modern office setting"

And it does exactly that.

Key Features That Actually Matter

After using this image editor AI for a few weeks, here's what stood out:

1. Text-to-Edit Technology

This is the killer feature. Describe your edit in natural language, and the AI handles the rest. I've used it for:

Changing backgrounds on product photos
Adjusting lighting and colors
Removing unwanted objects
Adding text overlays

2. Character Consistency

If you're building apps with avatars or creating content with recurring characters, this is huge. The AI image editor maintains visual continuity across multiple images — same face, same proportions, same style.

3. Precision Region Control

Need to edit just the sky? Or fix someone's eyes without touching the rest of the photo? The image AI editor lets you target specific areas with pixel-level accuracy.

4. AI Image Upscaling

Got a 400x400 image that needs to be 4K? The upscaling feature enhances resolution while preserving details. Perfect for those legacy assets that need a refresh.

5. Background Removal & Replacement

One-click background removal that actually works. I've tested it on complex images with hair, transparent objects, and tricky edges. Solid results every time.

How I Use It (Real Examples)

For Documentation Screenshots

I often need to blur sensitive data or highlight specific UI elements. Instead of opening an image editor, I just upload and type: "Blur the email address and add a red circle around the submit button."

For Side Project Assets

Building a SaaS? You need hero images, feature illustrations, and social media graphics. This best AI image editor handles batch processing, so I can maintain consistent styling across dozens of images.

For Client Work

Quick turnaround on image edits without the back-and-forth with designers. Upload, describe, download. Done.

The 4-Step Workflow

Choose Your Model — Different AI models for different tasks
Upload Your Image — Supports JPEG, PNG, GIF, WEBP up to 20MB
Describe Your Changes — Be specific about what you want
Download Your Result — High-quality output ready to use

Most edits complete in 5-15 seconds.

Is It Really Free?

Yes, there's a free AI image editor tier that lets you get started without a credit card. You get enough credits to test the features and see if it fits your workflow. Paid plans unlock higher limits and additional features.

Who Should Use This?

Developers who need quick image edits without context-switching
Indie hackers building products on a budget
Content creators who want consistent visual branding
E-commerce sellers who need professional product photos
Anyone who's tired of fighting with traditional image editors

What I'd Improve

No tool is perfect. A few things I'd love to see:

API access for programmatic editing (would be amazing for automation)
More preset prompts for common use cases
Faster processing for batch operations

Final Thoughts

If you're a developer who occasionally needs to edit images — and let's be honest, we all do — this AI image editor online is worth trying. It's not going to replace professional design work, but for 90% of the image editing tasks I encounter, it's faster and easier than any alternative.

The fact that it's free to start means there's no risk in giving it a shot.

Try It Yourself

The tool is available at AI Image Editor — no signup required to explore the interface.

What's your go-to tool for quick image edits? Drop a comment below. Always looking for new tools to add to the toolkit.

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