Spicy Chess - Spice up your chess life by getting really good at tactics

Spicy Chess is a Chess tactics training app that leverages spaced repetition combined with strict time constraint to greatly enhance your ability to spot tactical motifs on the Chess Board.

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I built Spicy Chess() because I wanted a tactics training app that would have the following features: - Spaced Repetition. - Countdown time to simulate blitz Chess where you have to find the best move quickly. - The ability to save puzzles for later review. - Log completed puzzles so I can see how I'm progressing. The mechanism behind Spicy Chess is as follows: 1. You will start off by having 10 minutes to solve a puzzle for a given level 2. Once you've finished all the puzzles in a level you can progress to the next level or redo the level 3. If you choose to redo the level, the countdown time will halve (you will have 5 minutes instead of 10) 4. The end goal is to finish every level 6 times. On your 6th attempt you will have just 15 seconds to finish a puzzle. Repetition combined with strict time constraint will greatly enhance your calculation skills, your ability to think under pressure, and your intuition for spotting tactical motifs, leading to a much higher chance of winning. Spicy Chess was inspired by the following two books: The Woodpecker Method and - both books assert that repeatedly solving high quality puzzles leads to massive improvement in your Chess game. On a personal note, I'v noticed that my Chess games have a marked improvements (and I'm having a lot more fun) because I'm able to spot tactical motifs much more often and a lot quicker.
As a chess player, I'm always looking for more tactics practice! My favorite feature is the countdown time to simulate blitz—one issue with practicing tactics is you *know* there is some trick/good move, and it's hard to simulate time pressure. Congrats on the launch! Will definitely be using SpicyChess!
Thank you! This was one of my main reasons why I built this app. Once you finish all the puzzles in a given level, the countdown time is halved; that's when things really start to get a little spicy ;)
I have to confess that even though I started playing chess at 9 with my dad, I don't do it regularly and still consider myself a beginner. That being said, I felt a little overwhelmed? Maybe I'm not the intended market but I'm still drawn to the app. At first I thought it moved too fast but then I realized you can click through the moves one by one after it plays out - love that! I found myself having to reverse engineer what the abbreviations mean. I thought chess boards included a letter too? I'd love a little key that explains what the abbreviations mean. I'm assuming since the letter isn't included that + just means advance in the same row. Like I said I'm a casual player just wanting to get better so a lot of this the pros probably already know. Edit: I take back my comment on the letters. I had to scroll my screen. What does + and # mean though? I know it's probably a newbie question. Edit2: + check, # checkmate....nm :)
Thank you so much for your detailed response! I do understand that at first glance the tactic page can be quite intimidating - I've thought of adding an "on-boarding" section that would guide the user through the user interface, but figured it's more of a nice-to-have than a must. Glad to see you figured out the abbreviations; you'll make a great chess player ;)
well done! have passed this on to a friend who is chess crazy!
Thank you! I’m looking forward to hearing what they think!
Very cool, nice to see chess on PH. Any plans to make it multilingual?
Thank you! At the moment, no (: