What has changed on The Chess Archive, newest first.
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On the blog: the Opera Game
- A new post on how Paul Morphy beat a duke and a count in 17 moves, in a box at the Paris opera, with a picture of the board for each part of the game.
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A blog, starting with the Immortal Game
- A new Blog, in the menu, with the stories behind the famous games: who played them, why, and what each sacrifice was for.
- The first post is the Immortal Game. Every move it mentions is a link that opens the 3D board at that position.
- Each part of the story has a picture of the board at that moment. Tap it to open that position in 3D.
- Fixed: on every game's page of notes, tapping a move now opens the board at that move. It used to open a different move, or the start of the game.
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Every game, one tap from the home page
- At the foot of the home page, a list of every game in the archive, each one linking straight to its page of notes.
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Black's pieces are black again on the 2D board
- On the 2D board, Black's queen, rooks and bishops are drawn solid black, the way a printed diagram has them. They had come out mostly white and were easy to mistake for White's.
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The best games of the Samarkand Olympiad
- Eight games from the top boards of the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand are in the library, in a new chapter of their own at the end of Study: the games that decided the medals, Yakubboev's knight check against Nihal Sarin, Gukesh's escape against Donchenko, Humpy's win for India's bronze, and the rook ending that won Uzbekistan the gold. Each one watches in 3D with its key moves explained.
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India's games first, in India
- Visiting from India, Today in chess on the front page now starts with India's games — from events held in India, and games with Indian players in them anywhere — marked India, and then the rest of the world's. Each one watches and reviews on our board like any other.
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The account menu opens again
- Signed in, pressing your initial at the top of the page opens the menu again. It had been closing in the same press that opened it.
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The privacy policy, on one page
- What is kept about you, where, for how long, and how to delete your account are now written out in full on one page, the privacy policy. Help links to it.
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Every board page, laid out like the lessons
- The puzzles, your mistakes, the daily game, guess the move, playing the computer, a friend or Lichess, and watching a game now share one layout: 2D / 3D at the top of the page, and the buttons — Next or New game, turn the board, full screen — in one row under the board.
- On a phone the page no longer scrolls: the board and its buttons stay put, and only the panel under them scrolls, with the list of puzzles or games in it rather than in a second scrolling box of its own. The 2D board runs the full width of the screen.
- On a phone, the other ways to play — the computer, a friend, Lichess — are buttons at the top of the panel instead of icons at the top of the page, and your daily streak is in the panel beside the number of the day.
- The card that starts a game against the computer says how strong the level you picked is, from Beginner to Full strength, with a bar that fills as you go up the levels.
- Full screen on a phone, in a game or a lesson, puts the board in the middle of the screen, rather than at the top with an empty gap under it — and on an iPhone it now really covers the page, with the buttons along the bottom.
- On a phone, every page has its title in the bar at the top, beside the back arrow, instead of on a line of its own under it.
- Watching a game on a phone is less crowded: the switch that shows who controls each square is an icon beside 2D / 3D, Install is in the menu under your initial once you are signed in, and search, the camera angles and the speeds are left to a wider screen, so the play buttons, Like and full screen fit in one row.
- The Study page on a phone opens with a search box and a Filters button in one row, and the ten chapters are one row of chips to swipe across instead of a screenful of them.
- On a phone the bar at the top of the front page stays put as you scroll, as it does on every other page.
- Play a game opens on a page of its own that asks who you are playing — the computer, a friend or people online. Pick the computer and it asks how strong and which colour, with the legends of the game underneath. A game you left unfinished waits under the three, as a card with Pick it up and Forget it. New game after a game goes straight back to the levels.
- Playing a friend, the link to send them opens over the board until they arrive, since there is no game without them, and it goes away by itself when they do. If they read you their room code instead, type it in under yours and Join. The Engine and On Lichess buttons are gone from the phone pages; you chose who to play before you got there.
- Play on Lichess works the same way: connecting, finding an opponent and challenging someone sit in a card over the board until a game starts. After a game the last position stays in view, with New game to bring the card back, and a challenge that comes in brings it back by itself.
- The Play pages no longer make you wait for the board. Who are you playing, the link to send a friend and the Lichess card are there at once, and the board gets itself ready behind them, so going between them and back is no longer seconds of Setting up the board. The way back stays in reach while it loads.
- Watching on a phone, the key to who controls each square sits on one line under the board instead of over the far side of it, and Sound, Together and Read aloud share one row, as do Review this game and The moves, annotated.
- Watch this together looks like the Play a friend card now: the link and the code in the middle, who is here under them, your name and the lesson after a line, and Done as the one big button, with Watch on my own quietly under it.
- Nothing floats over the 3D board on the Watch page any more. Who controls each square is an icon beside 2D / 3D at the top, its key sits under the board, and Show the story and the camera angle are in a row under the board too, with the angles opening upward.
- A quieter top bar on every page. Install the app, View and Dark mode are in the menu under the Sign in button (Account, once you have signed in), whether you are signed in or not, and the Watch page has no search box up there any more; press / to search, as before.
- Play a game asks who you are playing in the middle of the screen, and the two orange buttons that said the same thing again in the top bar are gone.
- The 2D board sits in the middle of its frame on every page, not pushed to the left by an empty strip kept for switches that have moved up to the top bar.
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View and light mode, in your account menu
- Once you are signed in, View and the light / dark switch are in the menu under your initial, top right, instead of taking up the top of the page. Every item in that menu has an icon now too.
- The lessons take less room on a phone: the title sits beside the back arrow, 2D / 3D is at the top of the page, and the 2D board runs the full width of the screen. Again, Read aloud, Next, turn the board and full screen fit on one line under it, and only the words of the lesson scroll — the board and the buttons stay where they are.
- The bar across the top of every page — back, the sections, install and your account — now stays put when you scroll, on a phone as well as a computer. In a lesson or a game on a phone the board stays docked just under it.
- The ten lessons are now one row of chips above the lesson, instead of a long list under it: swipe across to pick one, and each one you finish gets a green tick.
- On a phone, the lessons and games against the computer start on the 2D board. Pick 3D once and it stays 3D.
- Read aloud no longer starts the lesson over when you scroll or touch the board. What the board says waits until the lesson has been read; only Again reads it from the top.
- A lesson now waits for you to press Start, so the piece moves and the reading begins when you are ready, and Read aloud works on a phone from the first lesson.
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No more broken pages after an update
- Opening a page for the first time just after a new version went out could mix old and new files and stop the page loading. The app now notices and loads the whole page from the new version.
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Updates that do not get stuck
- When a new version is ready, the notice always has a button to switch to it. With more than one window of the app open, it says Update all windows and reloads each of them. Before, it could ask you to close every window and then stay put after you did.
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A sharper 2D board
- The 2D board is now drawn the way a printed diagram is, so the men and the squares stay crisp at any size, on any screen.
- On the 2D board you can drag a man to his square as well as click him there. On a phone he is held above your finger so you can see where he is going.
- The 2D board uses the classic diagram pieces you know from books and other sites. The drawn Staunton men are still there, under View.
- On most phones the play and step buttons under the 2D board sat on top of the 2D / 3D switch. They sit beside it now.
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Your games, findable, and your account, yours
- Every game in Your games has its opening named. Search by opponent, opening, how it ended or your own note, and filter by starred or rated.
- Star a game or write a note on it. Only you see them, never your public page.
- Download the games the list shows as one PGN, and see how you have done against everybody you have played more than once.
- Under Account settings: change your password or your email address, sign out everywhere else, download everything your account holds, or close the account.
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Usernames, a level and a page of your own
- Signing in now starts with choosing a username.
- Your level shows how well you play, from 0 to 10, with the computer opponents on the same scale. It is under every finished game, in Your games and on your page, with a graph.
- A friend game between two signed-in players is rated. At most ten rated games a day between the same two players.
- A leaderboard, by points and by level. Points come from playing, practising and the likes your games get.
- Every player has a page at /@/username, with their country, a linked Lichess account and its ratings, and, if they choose, a summary of their imported games. Your own page also shows what used to be your private profile.
- The games you play here are kept on your account and follow you to your other devices.
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Today in chess
- The front page opens with the games worth watching from the latest rounds of the big events, each ready to play on the board, reviewed, or opened at the move where it turned.
- A News page keeps every day of them, newest first.
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A warmer look, and picking up where you left off
- A warmer palette, rounder buttons, and a welcome at the top of the front page.
- The front page lists what you were in the middle of, such as a game against the computer or a friend, a game half watched or today’s daily, each a link straight back to it.
- Reading the moves aloud is now on from the start. You can turn it off in the view settings.
- The filter panel on the library no longer slides across the page every time it loads.
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What stays free
- A page at /free/ says what is free and will stay free, and why it can.
- A player who drops out of a friend game has five minutes to come back to their seat, and nobody’s clock runs while a seat is empty.
- Fetching games from the same account again no longer adds the ones you already have.
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Lichess, clocks, lessons and puzzles from your mistakes
- Sign in with Lichess.
- Play on Lichess through our board: rapid and classical games, and challenges to and from other players. A finished game goes to your library to be reviewed.
- Friend games can have a clock, from 3+2 to 30+0.
- Lesson rooms: a coach leads the board and the students follow, and a student can offer one of their own games.
- The moves that cost you in your own games become puzzles, and a missed one comes back until you find it.
- The review rates how hard each best move was to find, and marks the moments to stop and think.
- The legends open the way they really did, playing their own favourite openings before the engine takes over.
- The library opens on today’s famous game and on your own games.
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Your own games, reviewed free
- Import your games from Lichess or Chess.com by typing a username. They come straight into your browser.
- A free review of any game, run in your browser: your winning chances over the whole game, every slip and mistake marked, and a sentence on what was wrong and what was better.
- The review finds where the game turned, and lets you play on from just before it.
- Share the moment your game turned, as a picture or a link.
- Your games are divided into chapters once reviewed, and read aloud chapter by chapter.
- Forces: colour the board by who controls each square. Press c or use the button beside 2D/3D.
- Daily: the same puzzle for everybody each day, from a famous game. Play the next five moves, then guess whose game it was.
- Signed in, your solved puzzles and lessons follow you to another browser.
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What’s new, and views and reactions
- When a new version of the site is ready, the notice links to this page, with what changed since your last version marked New.
- Every game shows how many times it has been watched: in the library, where you can sort by it, and on the watch page.
- React to a game with Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry. Hold or hover the Like button for the others. You need to be signed in.
- Once you are signed in, the Account button at the top right opens a menu, with Sign out in it.
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Accounts
- Create an account with your email and a password, confirm the address from the link we send, and sign in.
- A Sign in button at the top right of every page, showing your initial once you have.
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Study filters, portraits and a puzzle finish
- The Study page has a filter panel: player, opening, chapter, era, result and length.
- Portraits of the players on the Study page.
- Solving a puzzle ends with confetti and a word over the board.
- Starting a game against the computer is a card on the board, with your colour under it and the opponent you picked ticked.
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A Back button, and a steadier board
- A Back button on every page.
- The board always stays inside its box, whatever the size of the window.
- On the Learn page, picking up a piece sends see-through copies of it to every square it can reach, along the path the move takes.
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A 2D board, and new sets
- Watch and play on a flat 2D board with drawn pieces, if you prefer it to 3D.
- The first visit asks how the board should look, with a picture of each choice.
- Knights move in an L instead of sliding, and the watch page plays a little slower.
- The club Staunton set, traced from a real one, is now the default pieces; there is also a padauk and boxwood board.
- Opponents on the Play page show their Elo, and you can export a game as PGN with its notes.
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The games people come for
- The nine most looked-up games are on cards at the top of the library.
- Three new games: Carlsen–Nepomniachtchi and Ding–Gukesh from the World Championships, and the six-move xQc game from PogChamps.
- The new-version notice moved to the top of the page, where it is easier to see.
- The board stays sharp when you maximise it on a large screen.
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Guess the move, and watch together
- Guess: play through a master game by choosing the next move, and see what was wrong with the one you picked.
- Watch a game together with somebody else: whatever either of you does to the playhead, both boards do.
- The first visit asks how much of the app you want on screen: a simple view or the complete one.
- On a phone, scrolling under the board scrolls the page instead of getting stuck in the panel.
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Learn and Study
- A new Learn page for people who are just starting: how every piece moves, on the 3D board.
- The annotated master games are now the Study page.
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Your own games, and many more of ours
- Drop a PGN file on the library, even one with hundreds of games, and watch them on the 3D board. They stay in your browser.
- Fifty more games, back to the oldest recorded one from 1475, and seven more boards to play them on.
- Nameplates at each end of the board say who is playing.
- The library groups its games instead of running as one long list.
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Play a friend
- Play a friend from a link, each on your own device.
- Pinch to zoom the board on a phone.