Torre

torre.sh: learn chess step by step, play, replay and explore.

Torre is a local Python web app for playing Stockfish, replaying games, exploring positions, and reviewing your chess history. Its interface is a React app (in web/), served ready-built by the Python server.

Install

pip install torre              # or: pip install "torre[coach]" for the AI coach
torre serve --open-browser

Torre needs Stockfish for play and analysis: put it on your PATH or set STOCKFISH_PATH. Your games and progress live in ~/.torre (set TORRE_HOME to move them). torre doctor checks everything.

Run from source

Start it from this folder after setup:

Double-click start-studio.cmd to start the server and open your browser, or run:

.\dev.ps1 serve        # builds the interface if it changed, then starts the studio

Open http://127.0.0.1:1886 (the year of the first World Championship). If the port is occupied, pass --port 1887.

• Home: the default landing screen shows archive statistics, a chart of the latest 20 analyzed games, a position to revisit, and five recent games. Continue restores your saved Stockfish game only when selected. Review and Explore open actual archived games and positions. Statistics label their sample sizes; missing analysis has an empty state or a retry action. The featured position is the most recent blunder among the archive's twelve largest recorded mistakes.

• Every screen has its own address, so reloading, bookmarking and the browser's Back button all work:

  Address	Screen
  /	Home
  /play, /play/bots	your game against Stockfish; choosing a bot
  /games/<id>/<move>	a saved game, at a move (/games opens the latest)
  /explore?moves=e2e4,e7e5	a free board; the whole line is in the address
  /train	drills from your mistakes
  /puzzles/<theme>/<id>	rated puzzles by theme (mixed, missed); /puzzles is the overview
  /coach	saved practice plan, task progress, and daily XP
  /coach/progress/<section>	overview, openings, learn, blunders
  /coach/learn	links to the app's learning centers
  /insights/<section>	legacy direct access to the same stats

• Puzzles: about 4,500 puzzles from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0) in 20 themes: checkmates (mate in 1–3, back-rank, smothered), tactics (forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, deflection, sacrifices and more) and endgames. Your opponent's move sets each puzzle up, then you find the line. A wrong move, a hint or showing the solution counts as a miss; only the first try at a puzzle moves your puzzle rating, and new puzzles are picked near it. Every attempt is kept with the wrong moves you tried, per-theme first-try rates show your weakest themes, and missed puzzles wait in a retry list until you solve them cleanly. Progress is saved in data/puzzles.json. To rebuild the packs from a newer database: pip install zstandard, then python -m torre.tools.import_puzzles (downloads ~300 MB once into data/).

• Game library: search and filter your saved games, click a game to replay it, step through its moves, or use autoplay. Moves in analyzed games are marked with eight ratings: !! Brilliant, ! Great, Best, Good, Book, ?! Inaccuracy, ? Mistake and ?? Blunder. Arena, saved and interactive reviews, exports and Insights use the same classification. Each move counts once in Your moves; older analyses show their update coverage until reanalysis finishes. Excellent is included in Good in this eight-rating release. Moving a piece in a replay opens Explore with that move played. Reviews recognize openings and variations from the actual board positions using a bundled Lichess opening index (CC0), including transpositions. The opening name, played move order and a jump to its position work offline without an AI model. The optional AI review also receives that opening context and general family ideas to discuss the player's choices before the turning points. Unrecognized positions are left unnamed; recognition alone never labels a move good, bad or a theoretical novelty. Rebuild the pinned index with .venv/Scripts/python -m torre.tools.build_opening_book. Export PGN downloads the game annotated in the format Lichess and chess.com import: a [%eval] comment on every move, ?! / ? / ?? / !! marks, and the engine's move as a variation for each mistake. Clock comments are kept. Export game data downloads a versioned .torre.json file with three categories: game context, timing, and decision quality. It includes per-move positions, available clock/elapsed times, saved evaluations, and summaries by player and phase. Play also offers this export and records active human thinking time from now on. Missing data stays unknown; interrupted observations are marked partial. See the format reference for timing definitions, analytics fields, and current limits.

• Analyze all: Home, Insights and Train show how many archived games are not analyzed yet (or use older scoring) and run torre/analysis/analyze.py on them in the background, with progress and a Stop button. Insights refresh when it finishes.

• Train: every mistake and blunder from your analyzed games becomes a drill: the position before your move, to answer with a better one. The engine's move or any move it judges no worse than an inaccuracy counts as solved. Reviews are scheduled with FSRS (the open algorithm Anki uses): missed positions return within minutes, solved ones after growing intervals. Ten new positions are added a day. Progress is saved in drills.json beside your analysis.

• Play: the bot lobby matches the supplied “Torre New Game” design, with searchable cards, category/rating filters, and a game setup panel. Choose Stockfish, White/Black/Random, and a skill level, then start an untimed game. Click or drag pieces; legal moves, check, promotion, and game endings are handled by python-chess. Back to game preserves your current session. The reference's personal, seasonal, and character bots (and other engines) are labelled design previews. Training, clocks, opening setup, and ladder results are not connected; the interface does not simulate those features or records.

• Explore this position: open a separate copy of your current board and try moves for both sides. Your live game pauses and its saved moves stay intact. Back to game (or Back to replay) restores the source board; Reset line restarts just the exploration.

• Plan on the board: right-drag to draw legal move arrows, with L-shaped knight paths. Each arrow describes this position independently, including possible moves for either side; it does not simulate a sequence. Illegal paths, blocked moves, and moves exposing the mover's king are rejected. Freeform allows dashed notes from empty squares; it never permits illegal piece moves. Right-click for circles, repeat a drawing to remove it, or use Clear / Esc. Draw arrows supports two taps on mobile. Drawings rotate with the board.

• Square control: Explore can tint squares by White's attacks (green), Black's attacks (coral), or both (striped gold). Uncolored squares are unattacked. Hover or focus a square for its attackers. This includes pinned attackers and defended friendly pieces: control is not a guarantee that a move is safe.

• Automatic analysis: in Games and Explore, Stockfish analyzes every position as you step through it: the evaluation bar, its top three lines and an arrow for its best move update on their own. Analysis on/off and Show/Hide best move are remembered. Pending analysis is striped, never shown as an even position. Positive scores favor White. Play has no engine help.

• Castle: move the king two squares, drop the king onto its rook, or drop the rook onto its king. Only legal castles are accepted; available partner squares are highlighted when selected.

• Import PGN: paste game notation, including games with a custom starting FEN.

• Use left/right arrows to navigate, F to flip the board, and FEN to copy the current position.

• Insights: Overview includes progress, results, phase analysis, and opponent/color breakdowns; Openings, Learn, and Blunders retain the existing analysis. Replay and Explore links open games and positions on Studio's board.

torre/server/studio.py is a loopback-only Python HTTP server using the existing virtual environment and Stockfish installation. It serves the built interface from studio/ui/, which dev.ps1 builds from web/ (it is not committed). Games and analysis stay local. Google Fonts are optional; local fallback fonts work offline. Your latest game against Stockfish is saved in this browser automatically; select Play → Back to game to resume it after returning. Start game replaces this saved session. Imported PGNs and exploration branches are temporary. None of these modify the archive. The app automatically treats claimable repetition and fifty-move draws as drawn.

Command line (torre)

Use .\torre.cmd from PowerShell after setup. The launcher selects this project's virtual environment automatically. With that environment activated, you can also run python -m torre from the project folder on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

.\torre.cmd doctor
.\torre.cmd import "games.pgn" --username YourPlayerName
.\torre.cmd analyze --limit 20
.\torre.cmd report
.\torre.cmd coach
.\torre.cmd serve --open-browser

Every command accepts --data-dir PATH before or after its name. The default is CHESS_STUDIO_DATA when set, otherwise this project's data/, matching the standalone web app. Input files, report output paths, and explicit relative data paths resolve from your terminal's current directory. Stockfish uses the app's existing discovery, including STOCKFISH_PATH. Coaching uses the same settings.json, CHESS_COACH_MODEL, and local-model fallback as the app.

.\torre.cmd import "games.pgn" --username YourPlayerName --dry-run
.\torre.cmd analyze --data-dir "D:\Chess Archive" --depth 14 --no-mine
.\torre.cmd coach --ask --lang es
.\torre.cmd analyze --help

Exit codes are 0 for success (including an empty archive or nothing pending), 1 for an operation failure or failed required doctor check, 2 for invalid command syntax, and 130 for Ctrl+C. Partial imports keep valid games and return 1 with failures on stderr. --dry-run writes nothing. The original Python scripts and dev.ps1 remain available for existing workflows.

Development (dev.ps1)

The interface is React + TypeScript, built with Vite, in web/. Everything runs through dev.ps1; nothing needs building or restarting by hand:

Options: -Port 1886, -UiPort 5173.

Run it in Vela

Torre also ships as a Vela app, the first in the games category. Build the package:

.\dev.ps1 release

This writes dist/chess-<version>.zip and its .sha256. Import the ZIP from Vela's Library. The package bundles python-chess (GPL-3.0, license included), so Vela needs only Python on the server computer, not pip. Vela serves the app at /apps/chess/ and strips that prefix before forwarding. Every page the studio serves carries a relative <base href> pointing at the app root, so clean addresses such as /apps/chess/games/12/30 work there with no configuration. release runs every check and builds the interface before packaging.

• Data: in Vela, games and analysis are read from ~/.vela-games/chess (games.jsonl, analysis.jsonl). Standalone runs keep using data/. Use --data-dir or CHESS_STUDIO_DATA to point either one elsewhere.
• Stockfish: it isn't bundled by default because it is ~110 MB. The app checks STOCKFISH_PATH, then a packaged engine/ folder, then stockfish_dist/, then stockfish on PATH. To bundle it, run python -m torre.tools.release_vela --stockfish PATH-TO-BINARY.
• Manifest: vela-app/app.json and vela-app/icon.svg. Bump version there for each release.

Downloads your chess.com games (including bot games, which the official API doesn't expose), analyzes every one of your moves with Stockfish, and reports what's actually costing you games.

Setup

You need Python 3.11 or newer, Node.js 20 or newer, and Stockfish for engine play and analysis. Clone the repository and open a terminal in it.

Windows (PowerShell):

winget install --id Stockfish.Stockfish   # or download it from stockfishchess.org
.\dev.ps1 setup
.\dev.ps1 serve -Open                     # or double-click start-studio.cmd

macOS / Linux, with PowerShell 7 so dev.ps1 works the same:

brew install stockfish        # or: sudo apt install stockfish
pwsh ./dev.ps1 setup
pwsh ./dev.ps1 serve -Open

setup creates .venv, installs the Python and Node dependencies, downloads the app's images from the art release, builds the interface and downloads the legends' games the historical bots play from. Then open http://127.0.0.1:1886/.

Without PowerShell, the same steps by hand:

python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
npm --prefix web ci && npm --prefix web run build
# the images: unzip art-built.zip from the art release into web/public/
.venv/bin/python -m torre.games.download_masters
.venv/bin/python -m torre.server.studio --open-browser

The app finds Stockfish through STOCKFISH_PATH, then stockfish_dist/stockfish/, then stockfish on your PATH; . orre.cmd doctor (or python -m torre doctor) shows what it found. Replay, PGN import, lessons and board exploration work without it; engine play and analysis need it.

A fresh clone has an empty game library. Import a PGN in Games, or follow the export workflow below to add your own history. The AI coach is optional: it uses a local Ollama model, or a hosted model you pick on the coach card (such as openai/gpt-4o-mini) with your own API key.

The optional literature downloader uses requirements-books.txt; install it with pip install -r requirements-books.txt inside your environment before running torre/tools/download_books.py.

What is kept local

.gitignore excludes personal game data and reports, browser profiles and cookies, downloaded books, Stockfish binaries, virtual environments, environment secrets, and local investigation scripts. These files remain on your computer. The repository contains the application, scripts, and tests.

Bot cards marked as previews contain illustrative data, not trained models.

GitHub hosts the source code. Running the app requires the Python server; GitHub Pages alone cannot run its chess and Stockfish APIs.

Layout

Inside torre/:

The images are not in git: .\dev.ps1 art fetch downloads them from the art release.

Full run

1. Import your games: on the Import page, give your chess.com or Lichess username (public games), or drop PGN files. From the command line:

   .\torre.cmd import my-games.pgn --username YourPlayerName
   .\torre.cmd analyze --depth 12   # ~1-2 min per 20 games
   .\torre.cmd report
   

2. Read data/report.md.

What the report tells you

• ACPL (average centipawn loss per move): lower is better; ~50 is solid at club level
• Blunders / mistakes / inaccuracies per game, judged as Lichess does by the drop in winning chances (a drop of ≥0.3 / ≥0.2 / ≥0.1 on its −1…1 scale), plus Best (engine move) and Brilliant (a sound sacrifice, see torre/analysis/scoring.py)
• Accuracy per game with Lichess's formula (accuracy; chess.com's own figure stays in user_accuracy)
• Which game phase leaks points (opening / middlegame / endgame)
• Per-opponent and per-color breakdowns, monthly trend
• Your 15 biggest blunders with replay links

Notes

• Everything is resume-safe: re-running skips games already downloaded/analyzed.
• Be polite: the scripts use ~0.35s delays between requests.

Curated chess reading library

content/chess-library.json is a starter catalog of 25 books, grouped by topic and suggested reading level. Each entry includes a recommendation, a reading exercise, the inspected edition and notation, scan notes, an Archive link, and the local PDF path. start_here.pdf_page is a one-based PDF page number, not the printed page number.

The suggested first path is Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals, Emanuel Lasker's Common Sense in Chess, Edward Lasker's Chess Strategy, Sergeant's Morphy's Games of Chess, and Znosko-Borovsky's The Middle Game in Chess. Separate paths cover planning, endgames, and learning through complete games. Topic mappings are editorial recommendations for future coach integration, not an active app feature.

All 25 local PDFs were opened and sampled. Ten Archive item pages showed PDF downloads; the other fifteen online checks were inconclusive. The catalog distinguishes this from local availability. It is not a complete Archive index, and sampled inspection does not establish that every page of a scan is present. Downloaded files remain in the ignored books/ folder.

License

Torre is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0, the license of Stockfish and python-chess, which it builds on. The puzzles and the opening index come from the Lichess databases (CC0).