Chessy

Problem

Most chess apps just show you a board — they don't explain why a move was wrong or how to think about the position better next time.

Approach

Built a training platform that runs Stockfish compiled to WASM inside a Web Worker, so every move gets instant engine analysis without blocking the UI.

Tech highlights

Next.js 16 with TypeScript, chess.js for game state and move validation, Stockfish.js (WASM) in a Web Worker for analysis, Zustand for app state, and opening book lookups for move classification and correction.

Results

Shipped a working trainer with instant move feedback and opening book analysis, containerized with Docker.

Challenges

Marshalling positions to and from the Stockfish WASM engine in a Web Worker without blocking the main thread or leaking workers between games, and classifying moves meaningfully by reconciling raw engine evaluations against opening-book theory so feedback explained the 'why', not just a centipawn score.