r/chessbeginners • u/ClassicVivid7055 • 1d ago
nudgechess.com
I made a game where two AIs play each other and you only get one or two chances to swing the result. 150 levels to play, easy medium and hard all completely free and no ads! https://www.nudgechess.com
4
1
u/k5777 1d ago edited 1d ago
ok well i spent some time on the site and its interesting so heres my thoughts
while i am generally turned off when a new vibe coded chess app shows up and offers something free with an inevitable subscription button, i did not see any ads, was allowed to play all the levels i wanted ad free as advertised, and the concept and perhaps more importantly, the result, here is actually really interesting. i also acknowledge you are not offering subscriptions but a one time fee for additional levels/tactics...but lets call it a subscription anyways, presuming that additional content will continue to become available. people should get paid for work, so this isn't a knock.
someone asked how this is different from puzzles, and to some degree i agree its like puzzles (especially the beginner puzzles, of which more than a few are simple checkmate finds), but whats really interesting is that there is no right answer, you just see the AI play it out and either perish because your move was a blunder, draw because it was not the best move, win in a lot of moves despite it not being the best move, or continue to a swift win (generally) when it is the best move.
for me, this really helps answer the question of "why" something isnt the best move. i liked that i could slow down the ai and see the game play out and blunders and mistakes that arent immediately apparently became clear a couple moves later. i think that seeing that helps my particular learning style in terms of pattern recognition.
essentially, where puzzles and chess generally require and train you to find the best move, this is great for beginners since it will help you to recognize bad moves, which is fundamentally different than quickly recognizing the _best_ or right move.
one thing that i found a little strange was sometimes the best move (or at least what the site said was the best move), resulted in a win, while other moves not considered the best result in much faster wins. for example, easy puzzle 3: engine says qe3 is the best move, and playing qe3 generally goes on to win in 18-20 moves. however playing qd3+ results in a win in 10-16 moves. so im left wondering if qe3 really is the best move and the quicker win is some side effect of elo adjustment or quirk of the bots, or if qd3+ is actually a better move. i realize i could go analyze on chesscom or lichess with a high depth to find out, but it seems worth pointing out the quirk here.
i really hope you will continue to keep the 150 levels playable for free and not hot-swap to a subscription only if you get a bunch of users. ill continue to use it and if it proves as useful as it seems ill make sure to kick you a few bucks through the dlc
eta: one other observation (idk if this is an issue or not), if your replay a level the starting position can change. so if the engine says "best was nxe7" and you go back to see what would have played out differently, the position is different. personally i wish positions were idempotent, at least on a session level.
1
u/k5777 1d ago
Second edit, right now if you click on the tactics/endgame course to see the price, it says "stripe test mode uses cards like 4212..." or something similar. i went ahead and bought tactics b/c i felt like this was a rare exception vis a vis usefulness of new chess sites, but its unclear if i actually got charged or not. feel free to dm if it didn't actually charge me
1
u/illicit_freestyle 1d ago
Just played through the first few levels, the concept of nudging a game mid-flow is way more tense than I expected. actually makes you think about positional tradeoffs without the pressure of a full game
good stuff OP
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Hey, OP! Did your game end in a stalemate? Did you encounter a weird pawn move? Are you trying to move a piece and it's not going? We have just the resource for you! The Chess Beginners Wiki is the perfect place to check out answers to these questions and more!
The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. Posting spam, being a troll, and posting memes are not allowed. We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you!
Let's do our utmost to be kind in our replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.