Guess the Move Open the trainer

Sit in Botvinnik’s chair.

Play through a master’s game from their side of the board. Guess every move, then see what they actually played.

Start a full game

2,362 winning games from 21 great players, 1848 to 2011. Free, with no account.

Play this game

How a session goes

It’s the old “solitaire chess” exercise: cover the moves, predict the next one, uncover it. The trainer does the covering for you and keeps score.

  1. Pick a game

    Browse the library by player and year, by opening, or by event. You can also paste or drop in any PGN of your own.

  2. Choose your side

    Guess for White, Black, or both. Set a clock per move or per game if you want some pressure, and skip ahead past the opening if you’d rather start where theory ends.

  3. Guess each move

    Move a piece on the board. Right or wrong, you see the move that was really played and the game continues from there.

  4. Review what you missed

    When a guess misses, jot down what you were thinking. Your notes come out as a PDF, a printout, or a PGN with your comments in it.

The library

Every game in a player’s collection is one they won, so you’re always guessing the moves that worked.

The trainer also looks up each position in the Lichess masters database, so it can start you right where the opening book runs out.

Built for studying, not just scoring

The score tells you how you did. These tell you why.

Study notes

A missed guess asks for your reasoning and lets you play out the line you had in mind on a small board.

Analysis board

Open a free board at any point to test ideas and branch variations. It only shows the game up to where you are, so nothing gets spoiled.

Chess clock

Give yourself a fixed time for each move or for the whole game, and pause whenever you need to.

Your own games

Any PGN works. Load a game from a book you’re reading, a club tournament, or your own opponent’s last game.

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Keep Guess the Move free

There are no ads and no accounts here. If the trainer has helped your chess, a donation of any size helps pay for hosting and for adding new game collections.

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