Hacker News Reader

Comment by grondilu | Hacker News Reader

memchess.com was a neat website to learn chess openings with the spaced repetition method.

It was closed around 2020 for some reason.

I used code gathered from archive.org[1] and built a version that seems to work. It does not require a subscription/login, instead it stores progress through the HTML5 web storage API[2].

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/memchess.com

2. https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_webstorage.asp

View on HN

Have you tried https://listudy.org ?

https://listudy.org is a brilliant open source opening spaced repetition trainer. Another one is https://chessdriller.org, though you need to provide the moves yourself for that one. There's also https://chessmadra.com, but I believe their backend is closed-source.

I haven't really used any of this stuff. I don't even know why. So I wouldn't really know how people actually use it to make most of it, but I tried just now listudy (a couple of studies) and that memchess clone. Seems pretty much the same thing, but listudy is a bit more structured, with notes and stuff.

So I guess my question (to the OP, probably) would be, why memchess (clone)? Is there a reason why I would want to use it instead of/in addition to listudy, or is it just "because why not"?

The short answer is I tried listudy and I didn't like it.

I liked memchess because of how simple it was, and I liked not having to enter my own lines (though I understand this is important for serious study).

Memchess is what helped me defeat the strongest player in my local club, so I was quite frustrated when it shut down.

I can add https://openingtrainer.com/ to the list. Also a great tool to practice openings

>It does not require a subscription/login, instead it stores progress through the HTML5 web storage API

I wish more websites did this.

It is awesome for short-term usage, but has a 5 MB limit, doesn't transfer across browsers or devices, and can simply go away if you clear it, reinstall browsers, etc.

So it is not reliable in the long run.

It's not always going to remain limited to 5MB, which is probably much enough for an opening repertoire anyway.

Also it shouldn't be too hard to create an export/import button.

I'd argue it's more reliable than having your progress stored on a server that can close anytime, as memchess did.

On Safari, it’s also cleared after 7 consecutive days of not visiting a website, I believe.

It seems like the variation displayed at the bottom left of the board is trailing the move played, rather than being displayed beforehand as a challenge. This means that when the board is first displayed, there is no indication at all as to which opening you're expected to be recalling.

Or am I misunderstanding the expected interaction?

It allows you to flow through lines and play best book moves naturally. You can tell it that you want to focus on particular lines or line and it will let you know when you've made an incorrect move.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com