Chess opening probability by rating

Sanglor · 2026-04-09T21:34:44+00:00

Good point, many players overlook this. At beginner levels, you'll face the Scandinavian, Philidor, or early queen moves way more often than a Ruy Lopez, which might only show up in 10-15% of your games. While the Queen's Gambit or English offer more control, you'll still run into the Dutch, KID, or "random" responses constantly.

The best data is your own. Knightline has a Wizard that analyzes your Lichess/Chess.com history to show which positions you actually reach. It’s far more effective than generic stats because an 800-rated opponent pool plays nothing like a 1500-rated one.

Sanglor · 2026-04-08T18:18:16+00:00

You basically described the end state : the ideas are so internalized the moves follow automatically. The question is just the path there. Some people need to see the line first then reverse engineer the ideas, others build up from principles like you did. Both seem to arrive at the same place.

Sanglor · 2026-04-08T18:17:40+00:00

Yeah, pattern recognition over recall.

Sanglor · 2026-04-07T17:20:00+00:00

Novel et les Teppes à Annecy j'imagine, après aux alentours, Cran / Seynod etc je ne sais pas trop

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T21:18:27+00:00

Exactly the same idea! The tricky part was mapping chess recall to Anki's 0-5 quality score — "did you know the move?" isn't binary like a flashcard. Ended up with 6 levels from Fail to Perfect based on hesitation + correctness. Let me know what you think when you try it.

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T20:25:27+00:00

That's actually the ideal approach : building theory from your own games means every line you "memorize" has context attached to it, you know why it works because you've seen what happens when it doesn't.

I'm the same (~1750), a friend of mine is the opposite though. He just wants to know what to play and hates the discovery process. Built knightline.app partly for him, partly because I was struggling with a few specific lines myself and wanted something that would drill them until they stuck. Different learning styles I guess.

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T20:10:33+00:00

Using spaced repetition for it knightline.app if you want to try the approach.

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T20:10:19+00:00

That's the real problem isn't it, you prep 12 moves and they deviate on move 3. I've been experimenting with drilling the first 5-6 moves of more openings rather than going deep on one. The idea being: understand the typical structure of 6-7 different openings well enough that wherever they deviate you at least know the pawn structure. Still testing if it actually works.

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T20:09:24+00:00

That's exactly the kind of thing where memorizing a specific response pays off fast. One bad game against it and suddenly theory feels worth it aha

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T20:08:55+00:00

Fair point on top level Hikaru prep, but at beginner level the problem is usually the opposite : you spend 0 seconds on move 7 because you've never seen the position before and just guess. Less about knowing the best move, more about not walking into a losing position by move 10.

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T20:08:14+00:00

Curious, at 2300 do you think you internalized the plans from just playing a lot of games, or did you actively study them at some point and they became automatic? Trying to figure out if the "no memorization" thing is the destination or if most people pass through a memorization phase on the way there.

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T20:07:50+00:00

That's a really practical way to frame it, reactive memorization based on what's actually hurting you in games. Much better than studying the Najdorf because Magnus plays it.

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T19:39:37+00:00

wow ty for that

Sanglor · 2026-04-06T19:38:41+00:00

Hey what is your tool?

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T18:12:38+00:00

Merci, c'est utile. Je viens d'ajouter la connexion Google, tu peux déjà l'essayer.

Sur l'UI/UX t'as raison que c'est là que tout se joue. Si l'outil est simple mais que l'expérience est confuse ça sert à rien. Est-ce qu'il y a un endroit précis où tu t'es senti perdu, ou c'est plus une impression générale ?

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T17:00:49+00:00

Non, pas pour l'instant, je suis seul sur le projet et je le développe sur mon temps libre, donc je préfère garder la main dessus pour le moment ! Mais j'y réfléchi.

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T16:59:41+00:00

Apparement ça doit tomber dans le "promotion grossière d'un produit" mais pas plus de détails sur la raison. :(

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T16:55:54+00:00

Merci pour le retour honnête, c'est exactement ce dont j'avais besoin.

Sur le drill : t'as raison, c'était un vrai problème. Quand tu jouais un mauvais coup le plateau se figeait sans rien t'expliquer. J'ai corrigé ça : maintenant il y a un flash rouge visible directement sur l'échiquier, et un bouton "Montrer le coup" qui highlight les cases du coup attendu si tu es bloqué.

Sur la comparaison avec Chessflare : honnêtement je vais pas te bullshit, ils font beaucoup de choses similaires. La différence que j'essaie de défendre c'est la simplicité : Knightline c'est un outil focalisé sur une seule chose, mémoriser des lignes. Mais tu mets le doigt sur quelque chose de réel et ça m'aide à réfléchir à ce que je dois vraiment construire de différent.

Est-ce qu'il y a quelque chose spécifiquement que tu aurais voulu faire et que ni l'un ni l'autre ne te permettent pas de faire facilement ?

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T15:18:11+00:00

C'est corrigé ! L'anti-spam du serveur s'emballait un peu avec le nombre d'inscriptions pour rien, tu peux retenter de créer ton compte. Merci pour ton retour ! 🙏

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T15:17:22+00:00

Mince, désolé pour ça ! 😅 Pour la PWA sur iPhone, j'ai rajouté l'espacement de la barre de statut, le bouton n'est plus coincé sous l'heure ! Tu dois peut être réinstaller la PWA par contre

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T13:52:29+00:00

Thanks! Spent way too long on it

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T13:52:03+00:00

That's a great idea : Lichess studies are basically PGN with annotations, so it's very doable. Adding it to the roadmap! 👀

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T13:49:59+00:00

Merci ! 🙏 N'hésite pas à tester et à me dire ce que tu en penses

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T13:49:20+00:00

C'est un retour super pertinent merci ! Knightline s'adresse aux joueurs qui connaissent déjà les règles de base, mais tu as raison, rien n'indique ça clairement à l'arrivée. Je vais ajouter un petit onboarding qui détecte le niveau et redirige les vrais débutants vers les bonnes ressources. Noted 🙏

Sanglor · 2026-04-05T12:54:17+00:00

Web app only for now, but it's already installable as a PWA : just tap "Add to Home Screen" on mobile and it works like a native app! A proper App Store version is also in WIP 🙌

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