Learning from mistakes, when they happen, with Lucas Chess

Learning from your mistakes- when they happen

If you’ve seen or read any of my previous blogs on Lichess, you’ll know that the majority of them are about effective ways to learn and improve in chess. https://lichess.org/@/mullerrj/blog

Well, I found a new way to learn and improve in chess. It’s a way you can learn from your mistakes, improve in chess and ultimately win more games. To date, it’s been the most ‘effective’ way- for me. No, it’s not studying openings or endgames, tactics (puzzle) training, studying Masters games, etc. which quite frankly isn’t much fun. It’s by playing real games, with a chess program, that has a real-time tutor that will flag your bad moves when you make them and recommend the best move. That way, you know immediately when you made a mistake and can then ask yourself, why it’s a mistake and why did you make the mistake. Was it an oversight? Was it a calculation error? Were you rushing? Did you just not know a good move? Once you know the why, you can learn from it so you don’t repeat it again.

That game (or chess program) that has a real-time tutor, that flags mistakes when they happen, is a chess program called, "Lucas Chess".

What is Lucas Chess?

Lucas Chess is an open source computer chess program developed by Lucas Mongue. It was released in June of 2020 so it’s relatively new. Lucas Chess is completely free software that makes playing and learning chess incredibly easy- and fun. It includes over 50 different chess engines with strength ranging from beginner to Grandmaster level. It includes my favorite chess engine Maia. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Maia, Maia is a neural network chess model that captures human style. That is, unlike traditional chess engines that play robotically, Maia naturally plays moves that a person would make. When I play Lichess, I play Maia-9 in Classical games with a time control between 30-60 minutes. You can find Maia-9 here on Lichess: https://lichess.org/player/bots When I play Lucas Chess, I play Maia-2200. I wish they had a higher rated Maia on Lichess that plays Classical games. Lucas Chess has Maia-2200 why can’t Lichess have it?

I’ve only been playing with Lucas Chess for 2-3 weeks now so I’ve only scratched the surface of what it can do. There are a bunch of features that Lucas Chess offers such as: customizable training modes, game analysis, interactive tutorials, learn from your mistakes, database for games, train your skills, learn from a tutor, categorize mistakes, and much more. It has everything you need to improve your game. For more on Lucas Chess features, here’s a link: https://chessionate.com/lucaswiki/index.php?title=Features If you have an electronic chess board (e-board), Lucas Chess has drivers that make it easy to connect with.

Lucas Chess even has special beginner engines for kids or newcomers. The interface is user friendly.

But, for me, as an upper intermediate chess player (club player), what I really like about Lucas Chess is its ‘learn from the tutor’ feature. This feature is particularly helpful when I’m learning a new Opening. If I make a bad move during the Opening, Lucas Chess tutor will pop-up on the chess board and ask either: a. Would you like to play the tutor recommended move? (which is always the best move) b. Would you like to takeback your move? or c. Would you like to continue with your current move? Even during the Middlegame or Endgame, the tutor will pop-up if I make a bad move.

Lucas Chess Download

Let me give you an example of how the tutor works. Before I do, you might want to download Lucas Chess so you can follow along. You can download a copy of Lucas Chess (for free) by clicking on this link: https://lucaschess.pythonanywhere.com/downloads I had no problems downloading and running the .exe file on either my Windows 10 or Windows 11 computers. If you do have problems, make sure your anti-virus program or firewall is not blocking the download.

This is what the opening screen looks like once Lucas Chess is installed and opens on your computer. (See above). Now, go to the tabs on the top of the page and click-on the Play tab. Then, select Play>Play against an engine. Once you do that, a new box will appear as shown below:

Click-on the Basic configuration tab. Then, select Opponent button. I selected the Maia-2200 opponent by clicking on Internal engines>2000-2500>Maia 2200. You can select any Internal engine you want. Also, select the side you want to play with. I chose black.

If you want to play a timed game, like I did, click-on the Time tab. I selected a 30 min. time control with 5s increment (add-on). From there, just click on the Accept button and then click on the Continue buttom to start the game.

When I was playing, Maia-2200’s moves were almost instantaneous. I was playing the black pieces. I played the Caro-Kann Defense Opening. It wasn’t until my 11th move that the Lucas Chess Tutor box appeared. (See above) Apparently, my 11th move e5 was a blunder. Really? Am I calculating wrong? Pawn takes pawn, knight takes pawn, knight takes knight, rook takes knight, rook takes rook and finally queen takes rook. All of my trades are equal trades leaving me in better position. At least I thought so.

Lucas Chess is giving me 3 options: 1. Show the Tutor move (+0.85)- which is the best move. 2. Try again (which basically takes back my move and allows me to make a different move) or 3. Select my move (+3.67) the blunder move.

If I accept the Tutor move, Lucas Chess makes the best move and I continue playing at 0.85 pawn disadvantage. If I accept My move, I continue playing with a 3.67 pawn disadvantage. That’s a big advantage for white.

In this example, we’re going to 'Select my move'.

This is what it looks like after selecting my move and white’s pawn captures my pawn on e5.

When I tried to capture the white pawn with my knight, the Lucas tutor box appeared again. Apparently, Rxe5 was the better move. I chose Select my move again.
The game continued on and I was able to reduce white’s advantage down to only +0.10. At this point, we were even. That’s how I planned and hoped things would turn out after the exchange. But, it only turned out that way because white blundered on its 13th move. That’s the beauty of playing Maia. Maia is a neural network chess model that captures human style.

I played a few more moves then I resigned because I wanted to save the game and Import the PGN file into Lichess and perform a Computer Analysis. Lucas Chess asked if I really wanted to resign. I chose Yes. You can perform a Computer Analysis in Lucas Chess but I like Lichess better. I’m more familiar with it.

Go to the Utilities tab at the top of the page and select: Save>PGN Format>Save to a file. When you do that, a dialogue box will appear that lets you choose the path for the file to be saved to.

Once the file is saved on your computer, open the Import game menu from the Tools tab in Lichess. Choose the PGN file on your computer and select Open. When you do, the PGN text will appear in the Import game box/window.

Here's what the PGN text looks like in the PGN file:

[Event "Play against an engine"]
[Site "Lucas Chess R 2.21-FP10"]
[Date "2025.11.22"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Maia-2200"]
[Black "Rob-1810"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B13"]
[TimeControl "1800+5"]
[TimeStart "2025.11.22 08:03:48"]
[Opening "Caro-Kann Defense: Exchange Variation"]
[PlyCount "35"]
[Termination "Resignation"]
[TimeEnd "2025.11.22 08:19:57"]
[HintsUsed "3"]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.c3 e6 6.Bf4 Bd6 7.Bxd6 Qxd6 8.Nf3 O-O 9.O-O Re8 10.Nbd2 Nbd7 11.Re1 e5 12.dxe5 Nxe5 13.Nxe5 Rxe5 14.Nf3 Rxe1+ 15.Qxe1 Be6 16.Nd4 Re8 17.Qd2 Ne4 18.Qc2 1-0 Black resigned

Now, click-on IMPORT GAME. Once open, click-on REQUEST A COMPUTER ANALYSIS. When I did, this is what it looked like. The analysis confirmed (as expected) that I indeed blundered and so did Maia shortly afterwards.

Here’s my game. You'll see my blunder on move 11 (black) and Maia's blunder on move 13 (white):

Had I played these same moves on Lichess against Maia-9, and performed a Computer Analysis afterwards, there’s no doubt in my mind I would have missed how devastating my blunder was. Had Lucas Chess’s Maia-2200 not blundered shortly after my blunder, I would have lost the game. No doubt about it. I honestly believe the real-time feedback from Lucas Chess’s tutor is helping me play better chess. I’m really learning from my mistakes. Currently, I have a 9 game winning streak playing Maia-9 on Lichess. Maia-9s average rating for those games is/was 1774. I attribute this streak to all of my practice playing on Lucas Chess with the tutor help. I’ve never had more than a 4 game winning streak on Lichess playing Maia-9. Coincidence? I don't think so.

You can play Maia-9 on Lichess by clicking here: https://lichess.org/player/bots

Here’s a link for Maia-9 Insights on Lichess- if you’re interested: https://lichess.org/insights/maia9/acpl/variant

To summarize these Insights charts, Maia-9 plays with an average Lichess rating of 1732 for Classical play against opponents with an average rating of 1697. Maia-9 plays with an accuracy of 72% and an ACPL of 48. That’s a lot lower than I had expected. No wonder I’ve been beating Maia-9 recently. In my last 10 games against Maia-9, my accuracy has averaged 91% with an ACPL of 25. Maia had been playing with an average rating of 1774 for those 9 games.

If you play Maia-9 on Lichess, and you're an Intermediate player, let me know how you fair against it? I used to have a win rate of 60%, now I'm closer to 90%. I hope it's not just because I'm getting smarter playing against Maia and I know to exploit its weaknesses. e.g. Maia is susceptible to back rank checkmates.

I highly recommend using Lucas Chess. That’s if you’re like me and want to learn from your mistakes and improve in chess. Other than Lichess, I honestly believe it’s the only chess program you’ll need to run on your computer(s). And, best of all, like Lichess, it’s FREE!

I ‘train’ against Maia-2200 on Lucas Chess and I ‘play’ against Maia-9 on Lichess. Instead of playing on the computer using a mouse to make my moves, I play on a real wooden board with wooden pieces. I set up my laptop computer (with Lucas Chess or Lichess) next to my chess board. I make a move on my wooden chess board, and then I make the move on my computer.

When I play OTB, it almost feels like I’m recording a move (which I am) like I would do if playing OTB and keeping score (chess notation). I’ve been thinking about buying an e-board like Chessnut Pro that would connect to my laptop via Bluetooth. That way, I wouldn’t have to make any moves on the computer with my mouse. Heck, I wouldn’t even have to look at the computer. All the moves would be saved on Lucas Chess or Lichess or some 3rd party software via Bluetooth. But, e-boards are still kind of pricey. Who knows, maybe Santa will bring me one this year. I think I’ve been a good boy. Ha. I’m also looking into buying a lazy-suzan turntable for the chess board. That way, it’s not such a PITA to constantly rotate the board (without pieces falling off) when I play random black/white pieces.

Here’s what I believe are the advantages of playing OTB (with real pieces):

1. You calculate more deeply and blunder less over time.
2. It forces you to sit up straight and focus longer.
3. It teaches you to think deliberately and visualize your moves rather than clicking a mouse.
4. Real pieces create a different kind of pattern recognition than pieces in 2D on a computer screen.
5. Makes you think harder/longer. I know my OTB games run MUCH longer than on the computer.
6. Stronger emotional learning. Mistakes ‘hurt’ more. Wins feel better than on a computer.

I suppose playing OTB with real pieces just seems more formal to me. Because of that, I play more seriously (and carefully) and I don't rush. I don't blunder as much either. Having said all that, I still prefer to train tactics (puzzles) exclusively on the computer because it takes too much time to set them up with real pieces on a real board.
Try Lucas Chess out and let me know if you like it- like I do. Or, maybe you're already using it and I'm just late to the party.