Who Are We? Why We're Building Chessiro

I'm Rakshit. I'm around 1600 rated on Chess.com, I play a lot of rapid and blitz, and I wanted a chess analysis tool that actually tells me what I need to work on — not just an eval bar going up and down. That's how Chessiro started.

The idea was simple: build a game analysis platform where you review your chess game and come away knowing what to improve, and then actually have a way to improve it. Not just “this was a blunder” — but why it was a blunder, what you should have been thinking about, and then practice finding the right move in that exact position.

It started with just game analysis. But over time the idea has expanded. We want Chessiro to be the place you come to improve at chess — review your games, practice your mistakes as puzzles, train openings, solve tactical positions, and actually have fun doing it. A hub for chess improvement, not just another engine wrapper.

Why existing chess analysis tools weren't enough

I'd play 5-6 rapid games in a session, then try to review them. Every tool I used gave me the same experience: engine eval bars, centipawn loss numbers, and best-move arrows. Useful if you're already a strong player, but for someone at 1600 trying to understand why their knight move was bad, it's just noise.

Chess.com limits free game reviews to one per day. Lichess gives you free Stockfish analysis, which is great, but there's no explanation — just numbers. I didn't need to know my move was -1.3. I needed to know I missed a pawn break that would have given me a strong passed pawn on the queenside.

That gap — between engine evaluation and actual chess understanding — is what Chessiro is built to fill. We use Stockfish 18 for the analysis (it's the strongest engine in the world and it's open source), and then layer AI coaching on top that translates those evaluations into explanations a human can learn from.

The team

My co-founder is Arya. He's a designer and he's new to chess. That's actually one of his biggest strengths — he gives us the absolute beginner perspective on everything we build. If something doesn't make sense to Arya, it probably doesn't make sense to someone picking up chess for the first time.

Everything visual you see on Chessiro — the logo, the animated loader, the UI design, the color palette, the feel of the product — that's Arya. He's the reason Chessiro doesn't look like every other chess tool out there. Most chess software looks like it was designed in 2005. We wanted something that feels modern, clean, and actually enjoyable to use.

Between the two of us, we cover the range: I bring the chess knowledge and the player's perspective on what's actually useful for improvement, and Arya brings the design eye and the beginner's perspective on what's actually understandable. If a feature makes sense to both of us, it'll probably make sense to most players.

What makes Chessiro different

There are a lot of chess tools out there. Here's what we think makes Chessiro worth trying:

• Free game reviews with no daily limit. Connect your Chess.com or Lichess account, review as many games as you want. Full Stockfish 18 analysis with move classifications, accuracy scores, and opening detection.
• AI coaching that explains the “why.” Not just “this was a blunder” but what you should have been thinking about in that position. The kind of explanation a coach would give you, available after every game.
• Replay Mistakes. This is something we haven't seen anywhere else. After your game review, Chessiro takes the positions where you blundered and turns them into puzzles. You get to retry the position and find the right move. It's targeted practice from your own games — not random puzzles.
• Design that doesn't look like it's from 2008. We care about the experience. Chess software has been ugly for too long. We think a chess app should feel as good to use as any other modern product.

What we're building towards

Our vision is a learning-focused chess app that works for everyone — from absolute beginners to high-rated amateurs. Whether you're 600 or 2000, you should be able to open Chessiro, understand your games, practice your weaknesses, and get better. That's it.

There's a lot on our roadmap — opening training that adapts to your actual repertoire, endgame practice, a coach that remembers your patterns across games and creates personalized training plans. We want to build the chess improvement tool we wish existed when we were trying to climb the rating ladder ourselves.

We're still early and there's a lot to build. But the core is there — game review with AI coaching and Replay Mistakes puzzles — and we're adding more every week. If you want to follow along or say hi, find us on X.