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
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!
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