By connecting an openings database to the Lichess API, and using that to fetch instructive opening information, such as statistics and top games, I was able to create a web application where users can easily explore, analyse and practice chess openings.
Hi everyone,
Like many others, my chess interest got reignited this last year. I was improving quickly at first. But when I lost against tougher opponents, analysis showed me that I frequently played some bad moves right out of the opening.
In chess, most of the time the first 4-10 moves could be considered βtheoryβ: both black and white should follow a certain set of moves in reaction to each other to not fall behind. To not get caught off-guard at the beginning of a game, knowing the first few moves of theory for every move your opponent plays is key to becoming a strong player.
After getting frustrated by falling into some opening tricks and traps too many times, I spent the last few weeks building a web application to explore, analyse and practice chess openings. I've connected an openings database to the Lichess API, and use that to fetch instructive opening information, such as statistics and top games, once every 24hrs. I initially created this project because I thought it would be a nice way for me to memorise certain openings, and also up my JS skills a bit. But when it was finished I figured Iβd release it on a cool domain because it might be helpful to others as well.
Included features:
- A searchable openings database of 3000+- records
- A detailed page for every opening, containing lines and continuations
- Lichess' statistics for every opening (such as amount played, average rating and win distribution)
- Lichess' recent top rated games for every opening (to find out what to do next after the first few moves)
- An exploration board to explore opening lines by playing moves
So, did the "2020 Chess Boom" also reach you, and do you want to improve your opening preparation, ranging from the "Sicilian Defense: Smith-Morra Gambit Declined, Center Formation" to the "Bongcloud Attack"? You can practice all of those lines and more on chessopener.com
For your developer interests; itβs fully JavaScript; a React-Redux frontend connected to an Express-Sequelize backend. Both are open-source and can be found on my GitHub.
Jordi
Chess Opener
Chess Opener