How chess works on Waddle

Start here

You can start without an account. Practice games against the computer and the first chapter of lessons, The pieces, are open to everyone. A free account adds rated games, challenging friends, your own puzzles, the rest of the lessons and a rating that is kept.

• Home is where you play. Everything else is a tab along the top.
• Your mistakes turns the moments you missed in your own games into puzzles.
• Learn is the course, from how the pieces move to openings.
• Review is where your finished games and their analysis live.
• Leaderboard shows the top rated players. Players introduces the characters you play against.

Do I need an account to play?

No. Practice against the computer and the first lessons are free for anyone. You need an account for rated games, friends, puzzles from your games, and for your results to be saved.

Is it free?

Yes. The free plan has everything described here, with daily limits on game analyses and hints. Plus and Pro raise those limits.

Making a move

Click a piece to pick it up. Dots show every square it can go to. Click one of them, or drag the piece there. If you pick the wrong piece, click it again to put it down.

• Dots mark where a piece can go, and a ring marks a piece it can take.
• A pawn that reaches the last row opens a picker: queen, rook, bishop or knight. Press Q, R, B or N, or click one.
• Castling is a king move: pick the king and click the square two steps over. The rook follows by itself.
• En passant happens by itself when you take a pawn that has just moved two squares past yours.

Can I take a move back?

In Practice, yes. In rated games and games with friends, no: a move is final once you make it.

Why can't I pick a piece?

It is not your turn, or the piece has no legal move. A piece pinned to your king cannot move away from it.

Does the board make sounds?

Yes, and you can change or switch off the sounds in Settings. There is a page that plays every sound so you can choose.

Rated games

Rated games are against one of fourteen characters, chosen to match your rating. Colours are drawn at random. Win and your rating goes up, lose and it goes down, by more when you beat someone stronger than you.

• The clock is 15 minutes with 10 seconds added after every move. Only your clock is shown.
• If your time runs out you lose on time. If you leave a game you have moved in, it counts as a loss.
• Your rating is marked as still settling until you have finished ten rated games.
• Nothing starts by itself. When you have no game going you are asked if you are ready.
• A character plays its own opening style for its first move, then plays at its own strength.

How is the opponent chosen?

The character nearest your rating. As your rating changes, so does who you face. The same rating always means the same character.

What if I close the tab?

The game is still there when you come back, and your clock has kept running. Leaving it too long ends the game on time.

Why 15 | 10?

It is a standard rapid control: long enough to think, short enough to finish in about half an hour, and the 10 second increment means a move is never lost to a scramble.

Practice

Practice is the same board with no rating at stake. Pick your side, choose whether the computer should be easier, about your level or harder, and take moves back whenever you like. The coach notes explain what the other side did.

• Take moves back, flip the board, start again.
• When a move is something a lesson teaches, a note points at it.
• There is no clock and nothing is counted.

Does Practice change my rating?

No. Nothing in Practice is counted, saved or rated.

Challenge a friend

Choose a friend from your list, or make a link and send it to anyone. Pick the time for each side and who may watch, and send it.

• A friend gets a notification and a page opens for you while you wait.
• A link works on any app. The first person to open it plays you, and they can join as a guest without an account.
• A guest plays one game that is not saved: no history, no chat, nobody watching. They are invited to sign up afterwards.
• Who can watch: no one, your friends, or anyone with the link. Your chat stays between the two of you.
• After a link game between two accounts you can add each other as friends.

Can someone join without an account?

Yes, through a link you made. You need an account to make the link, and the person joining can play as a guest.

Are games with friends saved?

Yes, for accounts. They appear on both profiles and can be analysed. Games with a guest are the exception: they are not kept.

How long does an unanswered challenge stay open?

Half an hour. After that it closes and you can send a new one.

Your games

Everything waiting on you sits at the top of Home: a game where it is your move, a challenge to answer, an invite link you sent that nobody has opened yet, and friends' games you can watch. Press a card to jump in.

• Games where it is your move come first, then challenges, then the rest.
• On a computer the cards scroll sideways with arrows. On a phone you see the most urgent one, and a line that opens the rest.

How many games can I have at once?

A few, depending on your plan. You are told when you reach the limit.

Your mistakes

The engine looks through your finished games and finds the moves where you missed something, such as a fork, a hanging piece or a mate. Each becomes a puzzle from your own game: find the move you should have played.

• You see the position, not the answer. You get three tries.
• A hint tells you the kind of idea to look for, such as a fork. Show me gives up and shows the move.
• At the end you see the best move, what you actually played, and how much it cost.
• A puzzle you miss comes back in about twenty minutes. One you solve first try comes back after a day, then three, seven, twenty one and sixty days, until you know it.

When are new puzzles made?

When you open Your mistakes and nothing is due. It reads your latest finished games that it has not looked at yet, a few at a time.

Why is it empty?

Puzzles come from finished games of at least eight moves each. Play a few and come back.

Does it show games against friends too?

Yes, any finished game of yours counts.

Learn

The course teaches in order: how the pieces move, the special moves, check and checkmate, tactics, endings and openings. Each lesson is a short puzzle you solve on a real board, and it tells you at once if a move is right.

• The first chapter, The pieces, is free for everyone and needs no account.
• Lessons open one after another. Gems unlock one early, a chapter, or a whole track, and Pro opens every lesson.
• When a game has a move that a lesson teaches, it points at the lesson. A locked one shows its price.
• Hints show which piece to move. You get a few free each day.

What are gems?

The currency for hints, for asking the coach, and for opening lessons early. You earn them by finishing lessons and can get more from the shop.

Can I skip ahead?

Yes. Nothing forces the order, but one lesson is marked as the place to continue from.

Game analysis

After a game, press Analysis. Every move gets a grade, from best to blunder, there is a graph of who was ahead, and the key moments are listed. The coach can explain any move and show it on the board.

• You get 5 analyses a day on Free, 10 on Plus and 20 on Pro. The number left is next to the hint count at the top.
• Opening an analysis you have already done is free, and stays open for 30 days.
• It opens in a new tab so the game you are in is not lost.
• Moves in the list are colour coded, and you can step through with the arrow keys.

Where do I find an old analysis?

On your profile. Games you have analysed show a tick and Analysis. Games you have not show Analyse.

What does the coach cost?

One gem a question, and it is closed during a rated game so it cannot help you win.

Profile, ratings and the leaderboard

Your profile shows your rating and your best, your record against the characters, how many of them you have beaten, and every game you have played. Filter it by result or by who you played, and analyse any game from it.

• The leaderboard shows the top rated players, and where you are.
• Your profile can be private. A private profile and its games are hidden from everyone else, and you are left off the leaderboard.
• Games against friends are not rated yet. Your rating comes from rated games against the characters.

How is my rating worked out?

It moves after each rated game by how likely you were to win. Beating a stronger character earns more than beating a weaker one.

Why is my rating still settling?

The first ten rated games move it more, so it finds your level quickly.

The characters

Fourteen characters, from a beginner who has just learned the rules to a player who almost never slips. Each has a name, a face and a way of playing. The Players tab introduces them and shows how you have done against each.

• Each opens in its own style, such as the king's pawn or a knight first, but not always the same one.
• On Home you can watch two characters play a live game, with commentary on what each did well or badly.
• That game is the same for everyone and nothing in it affects any rating.

Can I choose who I play?

Not in rated games, which match you to your rating. In Practice you choose how strong the computer is.

Is the live game real?

Yes, two characters play it move by move, and a strong engine comments on it. It is not a recording.