Best Chess Moves Quick Start

Arrows

• Arrow width shows how likely Maia thinks the move is for players at the selected Elo level. Wider arrows are more likely human choices.
• Arrow number is the Maia rank, with 1 being the most likely human move.
• Thin green arrow marked >5 appears when Stockfish's best move is outside Maia's top five likely moves.
• Small pill labels near arrow heads show Stockfish's classification for that move. Clicking one opens a coaching panel with the move's pros and cons, plus possible follow-up or concrete lines when available.

Colors

Controls

• Elo For Maia Based Likely Moves controls the human-likelihood model used for arrow widths. Chess.com scale values are mapped to Maia's Lichess-trained rating scale before analysis.
• My Side sets which side you are exploring from.
• Hints For chooses whether arrows appear only for your side or for both sides.
• Show controls timing: Pre-move shows ideas before a move is made; Post-move shows the likely alternatives and quality after a move is made.
• Navigation buttons move backward and forward through the move history. If you go back and play a different move from that position, the previous move history from that point forward is erased and replaced by the new line.
• Bot clock rewind preserves the clock state for timed bot games. If you're playing a bot with time controls and step back and replay a move, the clocks will reset to what they were at the time of that original move.
• Reset returns to the starting board and clears the move history.

Playing The Bot

• Use Bot turns the board into a playable training game against Maia or Stockfish.
• Maia plays human-like moves at the selected Elo level. Maia Elo options are shown as Chess.com / Lichess.org values, and the Lichess-side value is used for the Maia engine.
• Stockfish plays from the selected Stockfish level, with approximate Chess.com / Lichess.org Elo labels shown in the dialog.
• Time Control can be left as None for untimed practice, or set to common bullet, blitz, or rapid controls. A pause button appears for timed bot games.
• Min Bot Delay makes the bot wait at least that long before moving, so you have time to inspect the post-move tags and drilldown box.
• Move drilldowns pause timed bot games while the box is open and resume when it is closed, unless you had already paused manually.

Position Inputs

• FEN can be edited and set to jump directly to a position. Setting a FEN treats that board state as move 1 for the explorer.
• Move List can be edited and set using normal chess notation to replay a line from the start. After setting a move history, you can step forward and backward through those moves with the navigation buttons.
• Copy buttons copy the current FEN or move list for sharing or saving.

Stockfish quality and Maia likelihood are different concepts. A move can be very likely for humans at your level while still being a mistake, or hard for humans to find while being Stockfish's best move.

Free-Form Setup

• Adjust Board switches the board into setup mode. Normal move rules, arrows, bot controls, and theme buttons pause while you arrange the position.
• Drag existing pieces from one square to any other square, regardless of chess legality.
• Piece palette appears where the Stockfish meter normally sits. Select or drag a piece from the palette to add it to the board.
• Empty tile clears squares. Select it and click a square, or drag it onto a square.
• To Move chooses whether White or Black is next to move in the generated setup FEN.
• Draft FEN updates automatically for structurally valid setups using no castling rights and the default tail - 0 1.
• Set Board validates the setup before applying it. Invalid setups, such as missing kings, too many pawns, or pawns on the first/eighth rank, show a message instead of being ignored.