Title matches

Study the champions, with a coach

Chess keeps its history whole. A great football or cricket final survives as a film you can watch; a title match survives as a record you can play, every move of it. So you can do more than read about Capablanca or Tal: you can re-enact their games on your own board, stop at any moment, and try your own idea in their position.

Students have always done this with a book and a set, guessing the master's next move. ChessFlex keeps that old method and adds a coach to walk you through it: an engine that sees the best moves and explains them in plain words, and bots that play like people, from a neural network trained on human games, all on your phone.

Five ways to use a title match

1. Replay it, move by moveStep through any game of any title match. The coach draws its three best moves on the board, with arrows, and shows both players' chances by their names.
2. Guess the champion's moveTurn on Predict the moves and decide what Fischer, Kasparov or Gukesh played before you see it: three points for the exact move, one for a move as good as the engine's.
3. Ask the coach whyThe Study Coach says who's better and why, the line it expects, and answers when you ask: best move, the threat, or your own question.
4. Take the champion's seatThink there was a better move? Explore from this position against the bots, with the coach beside you, then Return to Live to see what really happened.
5. Hear it calledTurn on commentary and every move is called out loud, as it would be in the hall.

Where to start

Six matches for a first season of study. Every one of the 53 is in the app.

A way to work through a game

1. Play through it once with Predict the moves on, guessing every move. Don't look at the coach yet.
2. Play it again with the coach on. Where its three best moves differ from the champion's, ask why.
3. At the turning point (each match page shows it), take the seat with Explore from this position and try the coach's move against the bots.
4. Then play your own game against a bot, and let the coach review it the same way.