Releases

Each Chessboard Magic release includes hundreds of fixes, performance improvements, and interface refinements. On this page, we highlight the key features of each release.

Release v1.2

Release Date: Oct 31, 2025

This release marked a major step forward for the Repertoire Builder, expanding it from a feature-rich training module into a fully customizable, data-driven workspace. It introduced subscriptions, flexible layouts, and an documentation Wiki — creating a foundation for long-term scalability and user growth. Alongside these, a new suite of analysis tools and personalization options gave users greater control over how they study, visualize, and refine their repertoires. Altogether, it transformed the Repertoire Builder into a more adaptable, insightful, and professional environment for serious repertoire development.

• + Wiki Documentation — An online Wiki designed to document every feature, module, and workflow within the Repertoire Builder. The Wiki serves as a living knowledge base — offering guides, visuals, and best practices to help users make the most of every tool. It also lays the foundation for a growing support and education ecosystem around the platform.
• + Subscription System — A new subscription model that unlocks higher platform limits and exclusive analytics cards for advanced users. Subscribers gain access to premium features, extended storage, and deeper analytical tools — ensuring scalability while supporting continued platform development.
• + Flexible Layouts — Introduced a fully customizable layout engine, allowing users to arrange, resize, and save their workspace configuration. Whether focusing on analysis, training, or study, you can now tailor your interface to your workflow — making the Repertoire Builder truly your own.
• + TCEC Database Card — Added integration with the Top Chess Engine Championship database, providing access to cutting-edge engine games and evaluations. Perfect for comparing your repertoire against state-of-the-art computer play and exploring the latest developments in engine opening theory.
• + Correspondence Database Card — Explore the deepest levels of opening theory with access to elite correspondence games. These positions often represent the most rigorously tested theoretical lines — offering unique insights beyond traditional master play or engine data.
• + All-New Tools Section — A dedicated workspace bringing together advanced analytical and reference utilities. This modular hub consolidates several key research tools and introduces new integrated components for structured, data-driven study:
  • + Reference Tree — Formerly known as the Opening Tree, this upgraded version allows you to build, import, export, and maintain a standalone reference tree for deeper analysis. It can be used across the Repertoire Builder to cross-reference lines, compare evaluations, and study alternative move paths, making it a powerful research tool for advanced opening preparation.
  • + User Scout — A player-preparation tool that analyzes your opponents’ game collections to identify tendencies, preferred lines, and common weaknesses — ideal for pre-match study and focused preparation.
  • + Time Usage Analyzer — Tracks your time spent across moves, lines, and phases of study — revealing where you invest most effort and highlighting opportunities to optimize your training focus.
  • + Opening Priorities — Automatically ranks lines by importance based on depth, coverage, and success rate — helping you identify which openings deserve more attention or refinement.
• + New Piece Sets — Ten new piece sets added to the platform, allowing users to personalize the look and feel of their chessboard. From classic to modern designs, these sets give every player the chance to match their aesthetic preferences while training or studying.

Release v1.1

Release Date: Aug 26, 2025

This release expanded training possibilities, deepened analytical tools, and refined the overall user experience. It introduced interactive puzzle modes, local engine integration, advanced position management, and new visualization tools — marking a major step toward a more dynamic, intelligent, and personalized training environment.

• + Puzzle Module — A diverse collection of repertoire-based puzzle modes designed to challenge memory, recognition, and understanding:
  • + Play the Opening — Given a variation name from your repertoire, try to play it correctly from memory.
  • + Guess the Opening — A Wordle-style challenge for chess lines drawn from your repertoire.
  • + Memory Trainer — Memorize a position in seconds, then rebuild it from scratch to strengthen recall.
  • + Where Are My Pieces? — A visual recall test showing plain circles for each piece — identify what belongs where. A surprisingly fun way to train visualization and memory.
• + Local Engine (UCI) Integration — Connect your own UCI engine to power analysis inside Repertoire Builder. Tested with Stockfish (15–17), Komodo Free, and Berserk. Run stronger or custom analysis using a lightweight proxy app.
• + Candidate Move Trainer — Select a position—either from your repertoire or manually—and test yourself by finding the best candidate moves. A powerful tool to go beyond memorization and improve true positional understanding.
• + Positions Card — Save and reuse positions across the platform. Perfect for revisiting tricky middlegames or launching them directly into Practice or the Candidate Move Trainer.
• + Position Overview Card — See all your moves in one place. This card consolidates data from the Opening Tree, Repertoires, and Library into a single compact table, showing each move’s availability, total frequency, appearance in your repertoires and imported games, and its occurrence in the wider opening database.
• + Usage Card — Track account limits, progress, and data growth over time.
• + Library Upgrades — Bulk tagging, faster deletion, and smoother item management for improved workflow.
• + Chessboard Sounds — Added four sound themes for move feedback, with more planned in future releases.

Release v1.0

Release Date: Jul 20, 2025

This release established a stable, feature-complete platform ready for the first major public launch. It strengthened the foundation of the Repertoire Builder — refining performance, improving reliability, and expanding functionality beyond the core builder with advanced analytics, practice tools, visual insights, and key quality-of-life enhancements.

• + Practice Module — A major addition to the platform, allowing you to practice against different data sources in realistic conditions. Train using your repertoire positions and play moves against: Stockfish for engine-based evaluation, Masters Database for human precision, Lichess Data for modern online trends, and ChessDB for large-scale aggregated opening data. The module turns your repertoire into a live practice ground for true opening understanding.
• + Opening Tree — Build a full move tree from your repertoire for visual exploration and pattern recognition. Instantly see the most played continuations, move depths, and coverage gaps, giving you an overview of your entire opening system structure.
• + ChessDB Card — Integrated ChessDB access offering instant statistics, top moves, and performance results across millions of games. Perfect for cross-checking your repertoire choices against real-world data and trend analysis.
• + Bookmarks — Easily flag key positions in your repertoire that you want to revisit. Use bookmarks to mark critical decisions, alternative lines, or study targets for future sessions.
• + Transpositions — Displays all transpositions that exist within your repertoire, showing where different move orders lead to the same position. This feature helps you understand structural overlaps between lines and improves repertoire consistency by revealing alternative paths to identical positions.
• + Visualisations — Two dedicated cards that let you view your repertoire from entirely new perspectives. The Sunburst Chart presents your repertoire as a layered, radial diagram based on move evaluations, helping you spot strengths and weaknesses at a glance. The Spaced Visualisation Card shows the relative space taken by both sides, providing a clear sense of positional balance and territory control across your repertoire.
• + Review Card — Analyze your repertoire quality at a glance. This card highlights weak spots, thin lines, and inconsistencies—helping you focus on positions that need further attention and refinement.
• + Library Tagging — Improved organization within your Library with custom tagging. Assign descriptive tags to your imported games, studies, or collections for easier filtering, searching, and thematic grouping.
• + Repertoire Performance Cards — An enhancement to the Manage Library View that visually compares the performance of your library items against your own games. These cards highlight success rates, depth coverage, and alignment with your repertoires, helping you track how well your preparation translates into actual play.
• + Repertoire Match Card — Quickly identify if a position exists across multiple repertoires. This comparison tool makes it easy to find overlaps, shared structures, or conflicting ideas between openings.
• + Repertoire Move Notations — Standardized move notation display across all cards. Copy and reference annotations directly between your repertoire and Library for consistency in study and presentation.
• + Multilingual Support — Introduced full translation and localization across the interface. Users can now navigate Chessboard Magic in multiple languages, making the platform more accessible to players worldwide.

Beta v0.2

Release Date: Apr 21, 2025

The goal of the Beta release was to enhance usability, introduce advanced training modes, and make the Repertoire Builder fully responsive across devices — bringing the platform closer to production readiness. A major data rewrite and infrastructure overhaul were also implemented to ensure scalability, stability, and support for massive future growth.

• + Mobile Responsiveness — Complete redesign of the layout engine to support all screen sizes and orientations. Every module, board, and card now adapts dynamically, enabling seamless use on phones, tablets, and desktops without losing functionality or clarity.
• + Weakness Trainer — A smart training mode that automatically identifies the positions you’ve struggled with most. It presents your lowest-scoring positions across all repertoires, offering targeted practice to turn weaknesses into strengths. Just click and train — every session is data-driven and personalized.
• + Spaced Trainer — A scientifically grounded trainer based on the principles of spaced repetition. Powered by the FSRS memory model, it predicts when you’re most likely to forget a move and schedules a review at precisely the right time. You review less often but retain far more, making it ideal for long-term mastery with minimal effort.
• + Master Game Review — See how top players have handled your repertoire positions through real master games that match your lines. This feature bridges study and practice, allowing you to observe professional move choices and understand deeper strategic plans in familiar positions.
• + Import Master Games — Bring external master games directly into your repertoire for hands-on exploration and study. Integrate instructive examples into your lines and expand your repertoire with real-game references.
• + Move Card Upgrades — Comprehensive usability overhaul with improved annotations, highlighted move context, and new visual styles. Enhanced readability and faster navigation between variations make reviewing lines more intuitive than ever.
• + Folder Groupings — Introduced hierarchical folder organization for repertoires. You can now group related openings, defenses, or training sets for cleaner navigation, improved focus, and better large-scale repertoire management.
• + Dark & Light Mode — Added full theme switching across the entire application, allowing you to tailor the interface to your environment. Whether studying late at night or in bright daylight, the platform now adapts for comfort and accessibility.

Alpha v0.1

Release Date: Mar 28, 2025

The goal of the Alpha release was to establish the core infrastructure and deliver the minimum functional platform — enabling users to build, analyze, and train their repertoires while testing stability and system performance.

• + Builder Module — The core foundation of the platform, designed for building and managing your repertoire move by move. Visualize positions, add variations, and organize your openings with precision and structure.
• + Importing Functionality — Seamlessly import chess data by pasting PGNs, uploading PGN files, or pulling entire repertoires from Lichess Public Studies. Perfect for consolidating your existing materials into one workspace.
• + Import Templates — A collection of over 100 pre-built repertoire trees generated by Stockfish 17.1 at depth 20, offering a ready-made foundation to explore openings or start new repertoires quickly.
• + Repertoire Wizards — Guided tools that help you build out your repertoire from any position, suggesting continuations, responses, and move-order options as you go.
• + Analyze Repertoire — Run your entire repertoire through Stockfish automatically to evaluate move strength, highlight blunders, and identify areas for improvement across all lines.
• + Stockfish Card — Enables real-time Stockfish analysis directly on the board. Adjust depth, multiple PV lines, and see evaluations update dynamically as you explore positions.
• + Masters Games Database — Instantly access thousands of professional master games to see how elite players have handled your repertoire positions in practice.
• + Lichess Player Database — Explore opening trends, win rates, and move popularity using real player data from lichess.org, directly linked to your current position.
• + Repertoire Trainer — Play through the lines in your repertoire interactively, move by move. This feature lets you reinforce your openings through repetition and familiarity, helping you internalize your repertoire in a natural and engaging way.
• + Position Trainer — Practice random positions drawn from your repertoire to improve pattern recognition, positional understanding, and move recall under pressure.
• + Library — Import your own games from pasted PGNs, file uploads, Chess.com, or Lichess. Build a personalized library of instructive examples and training material.
• + Export PGN — Export your full repertoire or selected games in PGN format, allowing you to take your data anywhere — from database programs to other training tools.

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