Quick start
This app is built to answer one practical question: how should you prepare for this player? The fastest workflow is to import PGNs, confirm the target player, run analysis, then read the report in this order: Overview → Repertoire → Tendencies → Weaknesses → Games → Export.
1Load PGNs. Paste games into the PGN box, import one or more .pgn files, or fetch public games directly from Lichess.org or Chess.com by username. The app works best when the sample includes recent games and enough games from both colors.
2Resolve the subject player. Use the manual name field or the detected target list. The app tries to suggest the player with the most games in the loaded database.
3Choose weighting and window. Recency weighting gives more importance to current habits. The analysis window lets you study only the latest batch of games, which is often better for tournament prep than mixing five-year-old habits with last week’s openings.
4Click Analyze PGNs. The report updates across all tabs. Use narration cards for the coach-style summary and the tables/cards for the evidence.
5Finish with the export tab. That tab converts the whole report into a printable one-page scouting brief or JSON export.
How to read this report correctly
Think in tendencies, not destiny
A 62% win rate in one line does not mean the opening is objectively best. It means this player has scored well with it in the imported sample. Use it as a scouting clue, not as absolute chess truth.
Sample size matters
Three games can be noise. Thirty games can reveal a habit. One hundred games usually reveals a real pattern. Always read counts next to percentages before drawing strong conclusions.
Recent games matter more
If a player used to play the French but switched to the Caro-Kann recently, recency weighting helps the app emphasize the newer behavior. For practical prep, current habits are usually more valuable than old history.
PGN quality matters
Some sections become much stronger only when the PGNs include extra annotations. Clock analysis needs %clk comments. Blunder and conversion logic becomes sharper when engine eval tags such as %eval are present.
Good prep is about stacking small edges. A report like this is strongest when you combine what they play, how they score, where they crack, and how they manage time. One clue alone can mislead you. Four clues together start sounding like a real opponent profile.
Overview dashboard
The Overview tab is your executive summary. It answers: who is the target, how many games were analyzed, what their broad style looks like, and what the first practical prep idea should be.
- Player narration — Overview: Read this first. It compresses the whole dataset into a short scouting voice. Treat it like a coach briefing before a round.
- Games analyzed: This tells you how wide the sample is and how many games came from White or Black. A color imbalance can make one side of the report much stronger than the other.
- Confidence / top prep angle: This is the app’s current confidence in the profile and the highest-value practical insight to exploit.
- Recent activity / timeline: Use this to see whether the database is fresh. Old games can still teach style, but recent games are better for opening prep.
Best use: read the Overview, then immediately decide your default match plan. Do you want complications, simplification, structure fights, or time-pressure battles? The next tabs tell you whether that instinct is supported by evidence.
White Repertoire and Black Repertoire
These tabs tell you what the player chooses by color, how often they choose it, and how well the subject player scores with those choices.
- Top lines / families: These show the opening branches the player reaches most often. High frequency means high practical importance.
- Win rate percentage: This is the subject player’s score from the imported sample. Read it together with the game count. A 75% score in four games is interesting; a 58% score in forty games is more reliable.
- W-D-L record: Use this to see whether the score comes from clean wins, safe draws, or wild inconsistency.
- Main line summaries: These help you recognize recurring move-order preferences and the kinds of middlegames they are steering toward.
How to use White repertoire
If the player is predictable with White, you can prepare a narrow but deep response. If they switch first moves often, prepare by structure and middlegame type instead of memorizing one line only.
How to use Black repertoire
This is usually the most valuable prep tab because it tells you what you are likely to face. Look for both their most common defenses and the ones that score best for them.
Do not blindly attack the line with the lowest win rate unless the sample is large. Sometimes a low-scoring line appears only because the player used it against much stronger opposition.
Tendencies dashboard
This tab describes style. It tries to answer whether the player prefers initiative, simplification, open fights, maneuvering, or certain strategic rhythms.
- Style profile: A broad summary of how the player typically approaches games.
- Common first-8 move signals: These reveal repeated development habits and setup preferences.
- Recommendations: These are actionable prep lines translated from the observed tendencies.
Practical reading rule: if the player likes forcing play and sharp positions, do not assume a quiet system will automatically frustrate them. The stronger question is whether their actual mistakes happen in sharp positions or in calmer ones. That is why the Tendencies tab should be read together with Blunders and Tactical.
Blunders dashboard
This tab looks for where the player’s decision-making tends to break down. It is especially useful for choosing whether to increase or reduce complexity.
- Hotspots: These indicate the phases or position types where mistakes cluster.
- Frequencies: These show whether the issue is occasional noise or a repeating weakness.
- Interpretation: If the player blunders more in tactical chaos, keep tension and force concrete calculation. If they blunder in quieter positions, a solid, patient strategy may be better because they may overpress out of impatience.
Important limit: without engine annotations in the PGN, this section uses offline heuristics rather than full engine truth. Treat it as strong scouting guidance, not as courtroom evidence from Stockfish.
Tactical dashboard
This tab tracks recurring tactical blind spots and recurring motifs the player either misses or falls victim to.
- Missed motifs: Forks, pins, skewers, back-rank patterns, mating nets, discovered attacks, and other repeated ideas that the player does not handle well.
- Weapon motifs: Tactics the player uses successfully. These are not just strengths; they are warning signs for what you must not allow.
- How to use it: If the player repeatedly misses knight forks or back-rank themes, steer the game toward piece placement where those tactical patterns can arise naturally.
Read Tactical together with Games. The tab tells you what motifs recur; the Games tab lets you inspect how they appeared in real positions.
Endgames dashboard
This tab focuses on games that reach deep move counts and asks whether the player converts advantages cleanly or leaks points in technical phases.
- Conversion rate: If the player often fails to convert better endings, simplification may become a practical weapon for you.
- Held / thrown endings: This helps identify whether they defend resiliently or let equal positions collapse.
- Endgame themes: Repeated problems in rook endings, pawn races, opposite-color bishop endings, and similar structures can shape your whole match plan.
Strong prep insight: if the report says they misplay endings often, you do not need a winning middlegame to outplay them. You may only need a stable path to a technical phase where their accuracy historically drops.
Time dashboard
This tab becomes active when the PGN contains clock comments. It tells you whether the player is smooth, erratic, or chronically in time trouble.
- Opening speed: Fast early moves can mean deep familiarity—or autopilot. If the quality drops later, it may mean the player relies heavily on memory.
- Think spikes: Large time burns at specific move ranges often reveal discomfort zones.
- Time trouble games: If this number is high, provocative middlegame decisions may be practical because they force the opponent to solve problems over the board.
No %clk tags, no honest clock story. If the source PGNs do not include clock comments, the app will say so. That is a data limitation, not a bug.
Structures dashboard
This tab groups recurring pawn skeletons and strategic board shapes. Structures matter because many players are less loyal to exact openings than to familiar middlegame landscapes.
- Recurring structures: Isolated pawn positions, closed centers, kingside fianchetto shells, French/Caro structures, Sicilian-type imbalances, and similar recurring patterns.
- Interpretation: If the player repeatedly lands in one structure type, prepare plans, piece placements, and endgames for that structure rather than memorizing every move order.
This tab is especially useful when the opponent changes openings often but still lands in the same kinds of middlegames. In that case, structure prep beats opening trivia.
Weaknesses dashboard
This is the exploitation tab. It rolls the other findings into practical vulnerabilities and concrete prep angles.
- Likely weaknesses: Repeated strategic or tactical problems that seem exploitable.
- Prep targets: The most direct areas to aim for in your own preparation.
- Coach-style recommendations: These convert observations into a plan: what to aim for, what to avoid, and how to steer the game.
This is the tab to trust last, not first. It becomes strongest only after the earlier tabs agree with each other. When Overview, Repertoire, Tactical, and Time all point in the same direction, the Weaknesses tab becomes very actionable.
Games dashboard
The Games tab is the evidence room. Use it to inspect individual games, not just summary statistics.
- Filter and inspect: Use the list to find representative wins, losses, or suspicious games that illustrate a pattern.
- Open Game Inspector: This reveals extra detail about one specific game, including opening family, tactical motifs, clock clues, and the raw PGN.
- Why this matters: Summaries tell you what trends exist; individual games tell you whether those trends are strategically meaningful or just statistical decoration.
Report Export dashboard
This tab turns analysis into something you can carry into preparation, print, or archive.
- Text export: Best for quick sharing, pasting into notes, or building a personalized prep document.
- JSON export: Best for preserving the full data structure for future processing or later app imports.
- One-page scouting report: Best when you want the practical essentials in a tight format before a game.
Strong workflow: run one broad database, export the report, then run a second analysis using only the latest game batch. Compare the two. That often reveals which habits are long-term and which ones are brand new.
Troubleshooting and support notes
PGN does not load
Check that the PGN is valid and uses standard headers like [White], [Black], and [Result]. If the file came from a website export, try opening it in a text editor first to confirm it is plain PGN text.
No target is detected
Use the manual target field. Detection works best when the same player name appears repeatedly with consistent spelling. Mixed spellings produce weaker suggestions.
Time tab looks empty
That usually means the PGN does not contain clock comments. The app cannot infer real clock use from move order alone.
Blunder section feels cautious
That is intentional. Without engine annotations, the app avoids pretending it knows exact evaluation swings.
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