Question 1

What is Chessiverse?

Accepted Answer

Chessiverse is a chess training platform where you play against 1000+ unique bots with human-like personalities and playing styles. Each bot has its own rating, opening preferences, and quirks, so practising against them feels closer to playing real people than a single tunable engine. You can play chess against computer opponents, train against specific personality types, and review your games afterwards.

Question 2

Will Chessiverse have tournaments and new features?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We have a large backlog and ship regularly. Tournaments are on the roadmap (not yet shipped), and lots of other features are in flight. If you have a feature idea or want to push us to prioritise something, tell us on Discord or via the contact page.

Question 3

How do I report a bug or suggest a feature?

Accepted Answer

The fastest channels are our Discord server and the contact page (bugs go to support@chessiverse.com, feedback to info@chessiverse.com). The more detail (browser, what you were doing, screenshots) the faster we can act on it.

Question 4

Why does Chessiverse have so many bots?

Accepted Answer

Two reasons. First, the way we build bots scales easily — making one or making a hundred isn't very different for us. You can read more in How Chessiverse Bots Are Created. Second, we think a roster of distinct opponents is more fun than a single bot with sliders. Each Chessiverse bot has its own personality, opening preferences, and weaknesses, so practising against the roster feels closer to playing different humans.

Question 5

How can I report a strange bot move?

Accepted Answer

Please do — the more reports we get, the faster we can improve the bots. The most direct channel is the in-game feedback flow (where you can flag playstyle, opening, or chat issues), and you can also reach us in our Discord or via the contact page.

Question 6

Do bots have distinct playstyles and openings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Each bot is placed on four axes: Playstyle: defensive ↔ aggressive, and simplifying ↔ complicating. Openings: solid ↔ sharp, and unprepared ↔ theoretical. Read more in Three Playstyles and Three Opening Books.

Question 7

How do I open a bot's profile page?

Accepted Answer

Tap a bot's name or avatar on a bot card or in the bot list — that opens a quick preview modal with a summary of the bot. To get to the full profile page, click the bot's thumbnail inside the preview modal. The full profile shows the bot's rating (estimated Elo plus current dynamic rating), a playstyle quadrant, opening preferences and analysis, and a carousel of your recent games against that bot.

Question 8

What do the stars on a bot card mean?

Accepted Answer

The star is a "beaten" marker. A gold star means you've defeated that bot at least once; a grey outline means you haven't yet. It's a quick way to see your progress across the roster.

Question 9

Can I favourite bots?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Tap the heart icon on any bot card or profile to favourite a bot — favourited bots are quick to filter back to from the Explore page.

Question 10

How do I filter and sort bots on the Explore page?

Accepted Answer

The Explore page lets you narrow the roster by: Rating (slider or rating-band presets) Playstyle (the defensive ↔ aggressive / simplifying ↔ complicating axes) Opening style, opening name + colour (white/black), and Opening Type: All — every bot Prepared repertoires — only bots with a hand-prepared opening book Statistical — only bots whose openings are derived statistically Country Favourites, Premium (all / premium-only / free-only), Beaten (all / beaten / unbeaten), Played (all / played / unplayed), VIPs, and Course bots (if you own a course) Sort by Rating, Name, Playstyle, Premium, or Added (recency).

Question 11

What game modes are available?

Accepted Answer

Beyond regular games against a bot of your choice, Chessiverse includes: Challenges — curated matchups around a specific position or goal. Daily Matchup, Daily Endgame, and Daily Master — fresh single-game prompts that change every day. Weekly Challenges and Daily Challenges — recurring challenges you can grind for streaks. Speedrun — climb the bot ladder from the bottom up. Guess the Elo — watch a bot play and estimate its rating. Courses — guided opening-focused training against course-specific bots. Custom Position — set up any position and play from there. Tournaments aren't shipped yet but are on the roadmap.

Question 12

What's the difference between Challenges and a normal game?

Accepted Answer

Challenges are structured matchups — you start from a specific position or with a specific goal in mind. Normal games let you pick any bot from the roster and play freely.

Question 13

How does Speedrun work?

Accepted Answer

Speedrun pits you against the bot ladder from the bottom up. The goal is to climb as high as you can. To work properly it needs access to the full bot roster, which is why it's a premium feature — see Premium.

Question 14

What's the difference between a rated and a casual game?

Accepted Answer

Rated games count towards your Chessiverse rating; casual games don't. The toggle lives in the Play box when you pick a bot. Use casual when you just want to play without affecting your number — for experimenting with an opening, warming up, or playing a much-stronger bot just to learn.

Question 15

Can I play multiple games at once?

Accepted Answer

No — you can only have one game in progress at a time. If you try to start a new game while one is ongoing, an ongoing-game banner prompts you to resign or abort the current one first. This keeps your rating and stats clean and avoids fragmented sessions.

Question 16

Where do I find game settings?

Accepted Answer

Game settings live in account settings (the same panel as your profile) and cover several sections: Board & Pieces, Highlights, Piece Animation, Game & Bot Behaviour, Sound Settings, and (for premium accounts) Beta Features. Most changes apply immediately and persist across games and devices.

Question 17

Do Chessiverse bots adjust to different time controls?

Accepted Answer

Bots only make minor adjustments based on time control (things like resignation likelihood). Their actual playing strength is fixed — meaning a bot will feel a lot stronger in a bullet game than in a long one. This is intentional. With fixed bot strength you have a stable benchmark: if you reach 1500 against the roster untimed but only 1000 in blitz, you can see directly how much time pressure costs you.

Question 18

Which time controls are supported?

Accepted Answer

The picker offers Untimed or Timed. Timed gives you Bullet, Blitz, Rapid, or Custom — where you can set your own minutes-per-side and increment. If you want a slow correspondence-style game, pick Untimed.

Question 19

Can I show board coordinates, possible moves, and the last move?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Under Highlights in settings you can toggle: Show Coordinates — file/rank labels around the board. Show possible moves — dots on legal target squares when you pick up a piece. Highlight last move — colour the squares the bot moved from and to.

Question 20

Can I change how fast pieces animate?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Under Piece Animation you can choose None, Fast, Normal, or Slow. None is instant — useful in bullet.

Question 21

What do the Game & Bot Behaviour toggles do?

Accepted Answer

Settings in this group change how a game plays out: Confirm Move — ask to confirm a move before committing it on the board (helps avoid mis-clicks). Allow Resignations — let the bot resign when it feels the game is lost. Instant Bot Moves — bots move with no simulated thinking time, in both timed and untimed games. Bot Backgrounds — show the unique background art tied to the bot you're playing. Hide Speech Bubbles — hide the speech bubbles bots show above the board on certain moves.

Question 22

Can I change the sound pack?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Under Sound Settings pick from six sound packs — Classic, Melodic, Digital, Playful, Mechanical, and Bright — and toggle All Sounds, Move Sounds, and Other Sounds independently.

Question 23

Can I customise the board and pieces?

Accepted Answer

Yes — in account settings under Board & Pieces: Board Look — pick a board texture/colour, or toggle Bot Defaults to let each bot's theme drive the board. Piece Set — swap the piece style. Presets — pre-bundled board + piece themes if you'd rather pick a complete look in one tap. Some theme packs are premium-only. Changes apply immediately and persist across games and devices.

Question 24

How do I flip the board or go fullscreen?

Accepted Answer

The game toolbar under the board has a flip button (swaps which side is at the bottom) and a fullscreen button (expands the board to fill the window). Both are one-tap toggles for the current game.

Question 25

How do I resign or abort a game?

Accepted Answer

Both controls live in the game info box next to the board: Abort (✕ icon) — available only on the very first move. Aborting cancels the game without affecting your rating. Resign (flag icon) — available once the game is underway. Resigning counts as a loss. Both buttons use a two-click confirm pattern: tap once to reveal Confirm/Cancel, then tap Confirm to commit.

Question 26

Can I save and reuse custom positions?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Open Custom Position, set up the board however you like, and tap Save position. Use Load position in the same view to bring back any of your saved positions later — each one can be played, edited, or deleted from the list. Positions are saved to your account, so they're available on any device.

Question 27

Can I load a position from a bot's profile?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every bot profile has a Load Position option that opens a modal where you can pick from a list of openings and start a game against that bot from a chosen position. The list isn't bot-specific — it's the shared opening catalogue — but the bot you started from is the one you'll play. The Continue after opening section in the same modal lets you jump straight into the position reached after a specific opening, so you can practise the middlegame phase directly against that bot.

Question 28

Can I review games after they finish?

Accepted Answer

Yes. After any finished game, the post-game popup has an Analyze & Share button that opens the game in the analysis view, where you can step through it move by move with engine evaluation.

Question 29

Can I analyse a game I played somewhere else?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Go to Analysis and use the FEN/PGN input fields below the board: paste a FEN string to analyse a single position — the board updates as soon as a valid FEN is detected, or paste a full PGN to analyse the whole game. Hit Analyze and you get the same engine review you'd see for one of your own games. Direct URL imports (Chess.com / Lichess links) aren't supported today — copy the PGN from those sites and paste it in.

Question 30

What can I configure in the analysis view?

Accepted Answer

The Engine settings panel in analysis lets you adjust: Engine lines — how many candidate variations the engine shows (1–5). Eval arrows — show coloured move arrows for the engine's top suggestions. Eval boxes — show numeric evaluation labels (depends on eval arrows being on). These controls live in the analysis view only — they're separate from anything during live play.

Question 31

Does Chessiverse have puzzles?

Accepted Answer

Yes — Chessiverse has a puzzle mode with a large library (4000+ puzzles and challenges across the catalogue). Free accounts get puzzles built around the free-tier bots; premium unlocks puzzles built around any of the 1000+ bots.

Question 32

What are Daily Achievements?

Accepted Answer

A set of recurring daily targets you can hit alongside puzzles and games. Useful if you want a short, structured chess session each day rather than open-ended play.

Question 33

Where can I learn about a specific opening?

Accepted Answer

Browse our opening library. Each opening has a guide, key ideas, common variations, and a list of bots that play it — so you can practise against the line you're trying to learn (or learn to refute).

Question 34

Can I see which bots play which openings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Each opening page lists bots known for playing it, and each bot's profile shows their opening preferences. This makes it easy to pick a sparring partner for a specific repertoire.

Question 35

What is the chess personality quiz?

Accepted Answer

It's a ~2-minute quiz at /chess-style-quiz that maps your playing tendencies onto a chess personality type. No signup needed to take it.

Question 36

What is Chess DNA?

Accepted Answer

Chess DNA is a deeper profile of your playing style across eight markers: Conventional ↔ Creative Solid ↔ Sharp Strategic ↔ Tactical Simple ↔ Complex Avoid endgames ↔ Seek endgames Symmetric ↔ Asymmetric Safe ↔ Risky Quiet ↔ Forcing Learn more at /chess-dna.

Question 37

How many personality types are there?

Accepted Answer

31 — see /chess-personality-types for the full set, with a description of each.

Question 38

What is Personaplay?

Accepted Answer

Personaplay lets you adopt a chess personality and play in that style — a fun way to explore an approach that isn't your default.

Question 39

How should I use Chessiverse to actually improve?

Accepted Answer

Pick bots near your current rating and play full games — not just a few moves. Use the post-game analysis to find your biggest mistake, then look for a bot that punishes that specific weakness. Repeating that loop is the fastest path to improvement. On the Explore page, Instant Play suggests a bot near your rating using a distribution so you get variety within the band you should be playing.

Question 40

Where do I start as a beginner?

Accepted Answer

The Learn chess and Chess practice pages explain how Chessiverse helps beginners and link into the right starting points. From there, sign up and play your first few games against bots at the low end of the rating ladder — your rating will start settling within around five games.

Question 41

What stats does Chessiverse track for me?

Accepted Answer

The Stats page shows: Rating chart — your rating over time. Games — total wins, draws, and losses against the roster. Bot Facts — your nemesis (bot you've lost to most), favourite bots, best win (highest-rated bot beaten), worst loss, and an aggregate of the playstyles you've faced.

Question 42

Why did my rating change after a game?

Accepted Answer

Your rating moves based on the result and the rating gap to the bot you played. Beating a higher-rated bot gains more rating than beating a lower-rated one; losing to a lower-rated bot costs more than losing to a higher one.

Question 43

Why is my rating shown as "???"

Accepted Answer

Your rating stays hidden as ??? until you've completed your first 5 rated games. That's enough for the system to lock in a reasonable estimate of your strength. Once you cross that threshold, your rating reveals on your profile, in the header, and on the Stats page — and it'll keep updating after every rated game from there. If you'd rather keep your rating private after it reveals, you can hide it in account settings under Profile Appearance → Show Rating.

Question 44

Can I hide my rating?

Accepted Answer

Yes. In account settings under Profile Appearance, turn off the Show Rating toggle — your rating won't be displayed on your profile. (Your rating still updates in the background, and it remains visible in places where it's structurally needed, like rating-delta after a game.)

Question 45

Can I reset my stats?

Accepted Answer

Yes — account settings has a Reset Progress option. It clears your beaten-bots count and stats like nemesis, favourite bots, best win, worst loss, and playstyle aggregates. Your rating and game history are not affected by reset. If you want to fully reset your rating, please contact us — that isn't currently a self-serve option.

Question 46

Can I export my games?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Open Game History and tap Export all games as PGN to download your full game library as standard PGN — readable by any chess tool (Lichess, Chess.com, ChessBase, SCID, etc.).

Question 47

Why do bots play stronger or weaker than their rating?

Accepted Answer

We do regular rating calibrations and currently aim to mimic Lichess blitz ratings as closely as possible. The full method is in How Chessiverse Ratings Work. Single games are also noisy — bots and humans both over- and under-perform game to game. Even at a 400-point rating gap, the lower-rated side is expected to win around 10% of the time.

Question 48

How does Chessiverse rating compare to Lichess or Chess.com?

Accepted Answer

Chessiverse bot ratings are calibrated to Lichess blitz, so your Chessiverse rating should track that scale fairly closely. Comparison to Chess.com is less clean: for the same player, Lichess ratings are usually higher than Chess.com at lower ratings, the two converge around ~2100, and at the very top Chess.com tends to be higher. There's no single formula that maps between them well at every level. See the ratings article for the full picture.

Question 49

What's the difference between Free and Premium?

Accepted Answer

Both tiers get unlimited games, rated or casual play, all time controls, and Weekly Challenges. The free tier limits you to the free-tier bots for play, practice, and puzzles. Premium adds: Access to all 1000+ bots for play, practice, and puzzles Daily Challenges, Daily Matchup, Speedrun, and Guess the Elo Exclusive videos and premium theme packs Early access to new features Course discounts and the Discord premium group See /premium for the side-by-side comparison.

Question 50

How much does Premium cost?

Accepted Answer

Three plans: Monthly — $9.99/month, cancel anytime. Yearly — $99.99/year (works out to $8.33/month), cancel anytime. Lifetime — $299 one-time, with a money-back guarantee. See /premium#plans for current pricing.

Question 51

Is there a free trial?

Accepted Answer

Yes — a 7-day free trial of Premium. You get full premium access for the trial period and can cancel before it ends if it isn't for you. Trial details and start-now buttons are on the Premium page.

Question 52

Why are some features premium?

Accepted Answer

Hiding features behind premium isn't the goal, but a few have ended up there for specific reasons. Speedrun and Guess the Elo only work well with access to the full bot roster, so they're naturally premium. Other items (theme packs, exclusive videos, early access, Discord premium) are part of the value of the paid tier.

Question 53

Do I need an account to play?

Accepted Answer

You'll need to sign up to play full games, save your rating and history, and sync settings across devices. Sign-up is free and quick.

Question 54

How do I delete my account or export my data?

Accepted Answer

Both are handled by request today — email us via the contact page (or support@chessiverse.com) and we'll take care of it. We follow the practices described in our Privacy Policy. For game data specifically, you can also self-serve a PGN export — see Game History → "Export all games as PGN".

Question 55

Where do I find Chessiverse's articles?

Accepted Answer

Long-form, evergreen pieces (how bots are created, how ratings work, opening guides) live under /articles. The opening library is at /resources/openings.

Question 56

What goes on the blog?

Accepted Answer

The blog is for posts that are more time-sensitive or topical — product updates, opinion pieces, tournament recaps, and similar. Articles are more reference-style.

Frequently Asked Questions

General

Bots

Game modes

Game settings

Playing a game

Analysing a game

Puzzles

Openings

Chess personality

Practice & training

Stats & performance

Ratings

Premium

Account & privacy

Blog & articles