Chess Repertoire Builder Beta Update

When I released the Repertoire Builder Alpha on March 28th, I had no idea what to expect. I was genuinely surprised when over 700 users logged in to explore the platform, and even more so by the thoughtful feedback and encouragement from the community. The comments, suggestions, and bug reports have been incredibly helpful in refining the experience, and thanks to that support, I’m excited to announce the launch of the Beta version.

Start Building Your Repertoire Today!
https://chessboardmagic.com/repertoirebuilder

Since this is still a new platform and I’m carefully monitoring performance, feedback, and usage, the Beta will be limited to 3,000 total users

Alpha Recap & Usage Stats – Thank You for the Incredible Support

Before we dive into what’s new in the Beta, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how far things have come since the initial release. The Alpha launch wasn’t just about testing infrastructure — it was about seeing whether this platform could genuinely help players study, build, and improve their openings.
Here’s a quick recap of what the Alpha version included:

• A clean and intuitive Repertoire Builder for creating and organizing multiple repertoires
• Support for importing PGNs and Lichess Studies
• A library of pre-built repertoire templates
• The Repertoire Wizard to generate lines from any position
• Stockfish move suggestions and full repertoire analysis
• A Master Games Database for model study
• Interactive Position and Repertoire Trainers
• Game import & comparison against your repertoire
• Seamless PGN export to give you full control over your data

With just a Lichess blog post and a few mentions elsewhere, I figured a handful of curious players might give it a try. Instead, I was blown away — not just by how many of you showed up, but by the thoughtful feedback, encouragement, and ideas that followed.
Here’s what came out of the Alpha release:

• 720 total users (yes, my user limiting system had a bug — so we accidentally sailed past the 500-user cap)
• 998 repertoires created
• 207,203 moves added
• 7,864 user games imported

When I launched the Alpha, my goals were simple: to validate the infrastructure and to see if this could actually become a useful tool for real chess players. I’m genuinely thrilled that so many of you not only gave it a shot — but kept coming back, building repertoires, training, and sharing feedback.
Based on that momentum — and all the valuable feedback — here’s what’s new in the Beta release.

Just a peek behind the curtain for the curious: the Repertoire Builder and its features – from building to training and analysis – are the result of over 40,000 lines of code and more than 300 hours of evening work.

New Features

I had a roadmap in mind when I first launched the Repertoire Builder, but honestly, many of the most impactful features came directly from your suggestions. So before anything else — a big thank you to everyone who took the time to share feedback, report bugs, and request features. Here are some of the key updates in the Beta version:

Mobile-Friendly Experience – Train Anywhere

The Repertoire Builder is now fully optimized for mobile devices. Whether you're building lines on your phone or reviewing a variation during a tournament break, the layout adjusts seamlessly to smaller screens. Navigation, editing, and training have all been redesigned to ensure a smooth experience, no matter the device.

Massive Training Update – Smarter Practice, Deeper Learning

Training just got a major upgrade. The new Training Home gives you a central hub to track your progress with detailed stats like accuracy, average response time, daily activity, and training memory scores. These metrics help you stay on top of your improvement journey by showing not just how much you're training, but how well you're retaining what you've learned.
We've also introduced a powerful new system called Training Memory, a scoring model that evaluates every move you make — factoring in correctness, the number of mistakes, and how quickly you responded. This score is used to dynamically prioritize positions in both the Position Trainer and Repertoire Trainer, gently surfacing weak spots without making them feel repetitive or predictable. Over time, the system naturally adjusts to your strengths and weaknesses, helping you improve with focused, efficient practice.
On top of that, we’re launching two brand new training modes:

• Weakness Trainer: This mode targets the positions you’ve consistently gotten wrong, offering laser-focused practice to help you convert those problem areas into solid strengths. You’ll see your lowest-scoring positions from across all repertoires — just click and train.
• Spaced Trainer: Based on the principles of spaced repetition, this trainer schedules positions for review at just the right time — not too soon, not too late. It uses a memory model (FSRS) to estimate when you're most likely to forget a move and brings it up just before that happens. The result? You review less often but retain far more. This mode is ideal for long-term mastery — perfect for locking in your repertoire with minimal effort over time.
• Master Game Review: Want to see how top players handle the positions in your repertoire? This mode selects real master games that match positions from your lines, letting you explore how elite players continued. It’s a great way to deepen your understanding and see your repertoire in action — played out on the biggest stage.

A big thank you for Marcus Buffett of Chessbook for pointing me to the technology to implement Spaced Training.

And inside the Repertoire Builder, you can now view your openings by Training Accuracy, making it incredibly easy to identify which lines need more work — or celebrate the ones you've mastered.
This update is all about making your training smarter, more personalized, and more effective — whether you're prepping for tournaments or just aiming to play better moves more often.

Quality of Life Enhancements – Small Touches, Big Impact

Alongside the major features, I’ve added a number of smaller improvements to make the overall experience smoother, more organized, and easier to navigate. Here are some of the key updates:

• Repertoire Organization with Folders
  The Repertoire Card has been upgraded to support folders and nested repertoires. Whether you're prepping for specific opponents or organizing by color or theme, your workspace can now match how you think about your openings.
• Split Annotations into Categories
  Annotations are now more structured and meaningful. You can assign a single Move Category (like !! or ?!), a Position Evaluation (such as "White is better"), and multiple Observations (e.g. "Novelty", "Counterplay") — allowing for cleaner, more informative notes.
• Improved Move Highlighting
  The selected move now has a clearer visual indicator, helping you stay oriented in complex lines or when moving quickly through variations.
• Master Database Game Imports
  You can now bring in games from the Master Database directly into your repertoire, making it easier to learn from high-level play and integrate instructive examples into your study lines.
• Recreated the Repertoire Templates with Stockfish Depth 20
  Repertoire templates were rebuilt from scratch using engine depth 20 for more accurate and better suggestions. The number of templates have been increased to 118.
• Cosmetic Changes
  Made numerous small cosmetic tweaks across the platform to improve visual consistency, layout spacing, and overall polish.
• Increased Limits
  Based on usage patterns and costs, I have increased the limits of the free tier to 5,000 moves, 10 repertoires and 100 imported games.

Bug Fixes – Thank You for Helping Improve the Platform

A huge thank you to everyone who used the platform and reported bugs or areas for improvement. Your feedback has been invaluable in making the app more stable and reliable. Here's a breakdown of the fixes included in this Beta release:

• Limited PGN import file size to 1MB to prevent issues caused by unusually large files — and to be fair, that’s already a pretty huge PGN.
• Fixed an issue where editing user-imported games didn’t save correctly.
• Fixed an issue where the rendering of arrows and square highlights was always from White’s perspective; they now correctly reflect the board orientation.
• Fixed an issue where using the left and right arrow keys while typing in the comment box would navigate the board, which was disruptive; navigation is now disabled while entering comments.
• Fixed connection stability issues — if a tab is left open for too long and becomes disconnected, the app now informs you so you’re not unknowingly working in an inactive session.

Additionally, I’ve implemented various backend performance and infrastructure improvements for better reliability, and added internal monitoring tools to help track performance and diagnose issues more accurately.

What’s Coming Next

With the Beta now live, I’m shifting focus to the next wave of features and improvements. Some of these are already in motion, and others are part of the bigger roadmap for the full release. Here’s a preview of what’s ahead:

• Redesign and Implement a Clean Transposition System
  I'm planning a deeper look into how the transposition system can be improved to make it more intuitive and give you greater control over how transpositions are represented. This new system will also be integrated into the wizard generators and templates for a more consistent and powerful repertoire-building experience.
• Opponent Preparation Module
  One of the most exciting features in development. I already have tools for opponent prep on Chessboard Magic that compare two user accounts to find overlapping weaknesses. The goal now is to bring that functionality into the Repertoire Builder as a new module — allowing you to enter your opponent’s Lichess or Chess.com profile and instantly identify lines in your repertoire where you’re strong and they’re weak.
• Search by Move, PGN, or FEN with Highlighting
  Quickly find specific positions or lines by typing a move sequence, pasting a PGN, or entering a FEN — with matches clearly highlighted.
• Repertoire Management
  I am working on a powerful set of tools to give you full control over your repertoire structure. You’ll be able to import PGNs or individual games directly into existing repertoires. In addition, merge and split functionality will let you combine related repertoires or break them into smaller, more focused sections — making it easier than ever to manage and refine your openings as your preparation evolves.
• Localisation and Multi-language Support
  I plan to bring full localisation to the Repertoire Builder — just like Chessboard Magic, which already supports 12 languages.
• Enhance the User Game Import Experience
  Now that the Builder and Training systems have matured, I’ll be focusing on improving the user game import flow, adding smarter tools to connect your games and repertoire more meaningfully.
• Update to Stockfish 17 – Upgrade the engine used for analysis and repertoire generation to leverage the latest evaluation improvements and strength enhancements from Stockfish 17.

Your feedback will also heavily drive the next steps, so if there's something you’d love to see or improve, don’t hesitate to reach out — this platform is being built with you, and for you.

I didn’t plan on making this many updates so soon — as a parent of a two-year-old with multiple work commitments, I honestly wasn’t sure how much time I’d be able to dedicate. But your support, feedback, and encouragement have been incredibly energizing. It’s been amazing to see the community engage with something I’ve built, and I’m genuinely excited about where this platform is heading.

If you haven’t tried the Repertoire Builder yet, now’s a great time to dive in and explore everything that’s new in Beta. And if you’ve already been using it — thank you. Your feedback and continued support have been the driving force behind this update.

Start exploring here:
https://chessboardmagic.com/repertoirebuilder

Beta is currently limited to 3,000 total users, so if you're interested, don’t wait too long to jump in. I’d love to hear your thoughts — feel free to send me a DM or join the conversation on Discord

Kind regards,
Toan Hoang (@HollowLeaf)