Tactics
Over six million Lichess puzzles, tagged by theme. Difficulty follows your estimated rating, and puzzles you get wrong return on a review schedule.
Chess improvement for Mac
Serious chess training software for Mac. One purchase. No subscription.
Tactics, the Woodpecker Method, opening repertoire training, endgames and the analysis of your own games — together in one Mac app, powered by Stockfish. No account, no cloud, no recurring fee. Your training history stays on your own machine.
We'll only email you when it's ready to buy — no spam, unsubscribe any time.
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Tactics White to move — find the fork.
6M+theme-tagged Lichess puzzles
Stockfish + Maiaengine and human-style opponents
Syzygytablebase-graded endgames
0subscriptions, accounts or cloud sync
Train
Drill what actually wins games.
Four ways to build pattern recognition, all feeding one spaced-repetition review queue — so what you miss comes back on schedule until it sticks, and your home screen always shows what's due today.
The Woodpecker Method
Build a puzzle set from the themes you choose, then cycle it again and again, faster each time. The named training method, built the way it's meant to be done.
Endgames
A curriculum of endgame positions, graded move by move against Syzygy tablebases wherever the position is in range — so "correct" means provably correct.
Rush
Score-attack puzzle runs to sharpen your speed under pressure, with your results tracked alongside everything else.
Study
Build a repertoire you can actually remember.
Prepare lines, write your own coaching notes, learn them properly, then test them against a live opponent.
Opening repertoire
Build your own lines with side variations and attach written coaching notes — Markdown-formatted, on any move. Learn each line in stages, from shown, to assisted, to played from memory, then drill it with random branches.
Spar from here
Reach any position in a drill and jump straight into a live game from it — against Stockfish at the strength you choose, or a human-style opponent once your preparation runs out.
Master games
Search Lichess's master-game database from inside your line editor, link the games that matter to a line, and step through them alongside your preparation.
Needs a free Lichess tokenRelated tactics
The editor surfaces puzzles that test the exact positions in your lines, so you can practise the tactics your openings actually produce.
Free analysis board
Set up any position piece by piece or paste a FEN, play both sides with the engine at full strength, take moves back, or jump straight to where you started.
Coach packs
Bundle repertoire lines with their annotations, Woodpecker sets and endgame positions into one pack file, and import someone else's in a click. Paid packs unlock with an offline licence key.
Your own games
Turn the games you lose into the puzzles you need.
The most useful training material is the position where you went wrong. Chess Mastery Trainer finds those moments in your games — and leaves you in charge of what becomes a puzzle.
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Import
Bring in your games from Lichess or Chess.com — or simply play in the app; finished games are saved for review.
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Analyse
Stockfish walks the whole game and flags every mistake and blunder, sorted into opening, middlegame and endgame.
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Choose
Up to three clear, forcing tactics you missed are suggested per game. Nothing becomes a puzzle unless you add it — and you can take it back out.
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Train
Added positions join your tactics training, and your serious mistakes enter a spaced-repetition drill of their own.
More on analysing your own games →
Analyse it yourself first
An always-on evaluation bar sits beside the board, but the engine never volunteers the answer. Click through the game, ask for the best move only when you want it, and try your own ideas in a scratch variation that is never saved.
See it from a human's side
Optional human-rating context shows whether a player rated around 1100, 1500 or 1900 would have been likely to find the move you missed — an estimate for that position, not a verdict.
Play & track
Play real games. See real progress.
Practice sticks when it's tested — and when you can see it working.
Stockfish, at your strength
Play a full game against a bundled Stockfish, from a gentle beginner setting right up to full strength. Choose your colour, and switch on the engine after the game to see where it turned.
A human-style opponent
Optional. Maia plays like a person rated around 1100, 1500 or 1900 — with human-looking mistakes rather than an engine's cold perfection. The network weights are downloaded only if you ask for them.
Daily review
Your home screen shows what's due across tactics, Woodpecker, openings, endgames and your own middlegame mistakes, plus your current streak and where you left off.
Stats and weak spots
An activity heatmap and a breakdown by theme show what you're actually bad at — so the next session can go straight at it.
Own it
Buy it once. Keep it.
One purchase
No subscription and no account. Download it, own it. Price to be announced at launch — waitlist members hear first.
Runs on your Mac
Training, analysis and play all run locally. The internet is only used when you ask it to: importing games, searching master games, updating the puzzle database, or downloading Maia weights.
Your data stays yours
Your repertoire, your games and your training history live in a database on your own machine — nothing is uploaded, and there's no cloud sync to switch off.
Beta testing
Looking for 4 beta testers
Try it for free before it's for sale.
0 of 4 spots taken
Beta testers get the app itself, two packs — an opening repertoire pack and a Woodpecker Method pack — and every update after that, no charge, ever, in exchange for actually using it and telling us what's broken or missing. Mac only for now; download links go out by email once you're in.
Questions
Good to know
Is this a subscription?
No. It's a one-time purchase, with no account and no recurring fee. The price will be announced at launch.
Which computers does it run on?
Mac only for now. It installs like any other Mac app.
Where do the puzzles come from?
From the open Lichess puzzle database — over six million puzzles. You import them once from the app's Setup page; the import runs in the background with a progress bar, and the same page can check for a newer database later.
Do I need an internet connection?
Not to train, analyse or play — all of that runs on your Mac. You need one to import games from Lichess or Chess.com, to search master games, to update the puzzle database, and to download the optional Maia weights.
What engines does it use?
A bundled Stockfish for analysis, play and grading, with Syzygy tablebases for endgames within range. The human-style opponent is optional and uses Maia weights through Leela Chess Zero.
Does it upload my games or training data?
No. There's no account and no cloud sync. Games are only fetched from Lichess or Chess.com when you ask, and they're stored on your own machine.
What happens to the tactics it finds in my games?
They're only suggestions. Each game shows up to three, and a position joins your puzzles only when you add it. Change your mind and you can remove it again, or dismiss the ones you don't want.
Want to know when it's ready?
Leave your email and we'll tell you the moment it's available to buy — nothing else, no spam.
Single opt-in. We store your email and the date you signed up, nothing more.