Feedback and suggestions have been extremely helpful. Thanks to everyone for your time and insights.
Thank you — feedback received! ⚟
Or email blundermindchess@gmail.com — better if you want to attach a screenshot or a PGN, or if you’d like a reply.
About
Most chess games I play are decided on blundered pieces. I created this site in the hopes that I could see what it was like to play a game that was decided by strategy instead of blunders. I still blunder, but at least the number of blunders is reduced a bit when there is a big red circle around the queen when I hover it over my intended square.
Build-A-Bot / Bot Builder
While I most enjoy playing people in person, I find playing strangers online oddly stressful, so I added in the feature to play against bots. The problem with the bots I’ve found is that they don’t feel time pressure, and their behavior is often sporadic in an unsatisfying way. I’ve tried to make the bots customizable in a way so that I have more control over how the bot will play. This became a deeper and more interesting rabbit hole than the initial visualization design.
Blundermind / Visualization Board
I struggle with “getting a grip on the board” (to steal a useful phrase from the Chess Dojo), so while my intent was to blundercheck moves so that I would see if I were hanging my queen, I’m finding that it is showing discovered attacks and potential forks that I didn’t see at all (you can probably infer my rating at this point). I think this site could be a useful learning tool if the visualization aids are set to provide immediate feedback after careful assessment and calculation, not as a blunder avoider that just circles some hanging pieces while potential moves are explored by dragging the pieces around. Admittedly, I have found the latter to be interesting as well.
Also included in my numerous struggles is the ability to predict my opponent’s response, so I added a feature to show two potential responses by making two engine calls. I would caution that this feature should only be turned on if you have already actively calculated your opponent’s likely next move.
The site does not include any engine analysis or indicators to show if a move is “good or bad” during game play or exploration. Each game can be downloaded and analyzed in Lichess or a website of your choice. Similarly, the PGN of any game can be uploaded and explored or played out here.
Privacy
Blundermind / Build-A-Bot uses no cookies or tracking, and there are no accounts. Games in progress and settings are saved on your own device so you can close the tab and pick the game back up — that stays on your device, is never sent anywhere, and clearing your browser data removes it. The board set up/configuration and customized bots can be downloaded and stored, then uploaded for future use. The one thing that does leave your device is a feedback message, if you choose to write one above. This site is open source, available on GitHub. Full details in the privacy policy.
Engine degrades from starting level → this level when clock is low
NoneHigh
Always plays at selected level
1.0
🧠 Real Maia3 — human-like neural network (600–2600 Elo).
Download once (~44MB), runs in your browser. Uses ~150–200MB RAM while active. Falls back to Stockfish if not downloaded.
