Google Play Beta

Chessnut Next Is Ready for Beta Testing

For years, Chessnut users have told us what they want the app to become: smoother connected-board play, clearer game review, better training paths, stronger engine support, easier OTB recording, and less friction when moving between playing, analyzing, and improving.

Chessnut Next is our answer to that feedback. We rebuilt the experience around the real pain points players shared with us, then added new training systems and some of the most advanced chess analysis technology available today, including Stockfish 18, Maia3, and Chessnut's Grandeur AI review service.

This beta is open to Android users first through Google Play. iOS testing will follow soon. Because Google Play limits this early test to 100 users, beta seats are limited.

Chessnut Next home screen with Play, Career, Analysis, Practice, Records, Engine, Daily Tasks, and board connection controls
Chessnut Next brings play, training, review, engine tools, and connected-board workflows into one app.

Daily Practice

Train Like Playing a Game

Chess improvement is easier when practice becomes a habit. Chessnut Next introduces Daily Tasks and Career Mode to make training feel more structured, rewarding, and game-like.

Daily Tasks guide useful chess activities such as checking in, completing games, reviewing games, and solving puzzles. Career Mode gives the training path a longer shape: clear stages, boss challenges, and rating-style progress.

Daily Tasks screen showing check-in, bot or online game task, puzzle task, and game sharing task
Daily Tasks turn practice into a compact daily loop.

Wallet Points

Earn Points Through Daily Tasks

Chessnut Next also introduces wallet points. Players can earn points by completing Daily Tasks, then spend those points on features that require server resources and AI tokens, including Personal Model Build (ChessMind) and Grandeur AI Review.

These are services that would traditionally need paid credits because they run cloud AI workflows. For players who want unrestricted access, Chessnut Next also supports membership subscriptions through in-app purchase, making it easier to use Personal Model Build and Grandeur AI Review without worrying about point limits.

Earn by Practicing Complete Daily Tasks to build up points through normal chess activity.
Spend on AI Services Use points for Personal Model Build and Grandeur reports, both of which consume cloud resources.
Subscribe for Unlimited Use Membership gives frequent users a simpler way to access these premium AI services without point limits.

Career Mode

Build Progress You Can See

Career Mode is designed for players who want more direction than a simple game list. It connects games, puzzle practice, review, and Maia-style analysis into a journey that feels easier to return to every day.

Instead of asking "what should I do next?", players can follow the next challenge and use training tools when a stage gets difficult.

Career Mode screen showing Rookie IV, career ELO, upcoming boss, and training steps
Career Mode gives players a longer path through challenges, training, and reviews.

AI Review

Multiple Reports, More Ways to Understand a Game

Chessnut Next includes several review styles because one kind of analysis cannot answer every learning question.

Standard Game Review Uses Stockfish 18 to highlight strong moves, mistakes, critical moments, and turning points.
Grandeur Review Explains the full game in a coach-like written style, with clearer narrative guidance.
Maia3 Human Review Uses human-style AI analysis to compare choices with likely human decisions near a selected level.
Real Chessnut Next Analysis board screenshot showing a chessboard, Stockfish 18 report status, move list, and best continuation
A real Chessnut Next analysis board: Stockfish 18 evaluates the position, shows the move list, and surfaces the best continuation after a finished game is opened for review.

Chessnut AI Review Service

Grandeur Turns Analysis Into a Coach-Style Report

Grandeur is Chessnut's latest AI review service built specifically for chess game analysis. It is not a chess engine. Instead, it is powered by large language models that we have optimized for chess-game understanding, so it can read the game record, engine signals, move context, and report structure together rather than only listing engine evaluations.

The current version supports full-game analysis after a game has finished. In future versions, we plan to add step-by-step guidance that helps players improve during bot games, plus AI commentary for live game watching.

Before starting a Grandeur report, players can choose the style that fits the moment: a deeper and more detailed report, a faster focused review, or a friendly beginner-oriented guide. This makes the same game useful for different learning situations, from serious study to quick post-game feedback.

Grandeur AI Review style picker showing Deep analyst, Rapid coach, and Friendly guide options
Grandeur lets players choose the report style before the AI review starts.

Human-AI Engine

Maia3 Helps Explain Human Decisions

Maia is described by the official Maia Chess project as a human-like chess AI: a neural network chess model that captures human style and is designed to play like a human instead of simply choosing the strongest move.

That matters for training. Traditional engines are excellent at judging objective move quality, but real players also need to understand what humans at different levels are likely to notice, miss, or choose. Maia3 brings this human-AI perspective into Chessnut Next, helping reviews feel more practical for real players instead of only showing computer-perfect answers.

Learn more at Maia Chess and the CSSLab Maia open-source project.

Chessnut Next Bot game setup screen with Maia 3 selected as the cloud human model
Maia3 can be selected directly in Bot game, giving players a human-style opponent model across a wide Elo range.

Latest Engine Core

Stockfish 18 Brings Stronger Objective Analysis

Chessnut Next also uses Stockfish 18 for objective engine review. Stockfish is one of the strongest open-source chess engines in the world, and version 18 brings stronger play and more accurate analysis compared with Stockfish 17.

Stockfish is the most widely used general-purpose chess engine in the chess world, and Chessnut Next upgrades our standard analysis from Stockfish 17 to Stockfish 18. It helps answer "what was objectively strong or weak?" while Maia3 adds a human-style AI perspective. Grandeur then uses Chessnut's chess-optimized LLM service to turn those signals and the game context into a coach-style report that is easier to read and remember.

Reference: Stockfish 18 was announced by the official Stockfish project, which describes the release as improving chess play quality and gaining up to 46 Elo in tests against Stockfish 17. Stockfish is released under the GPL license. Learn more at the Stockfish 18 release note and the official download page.

Training Tools

Mistake Book, Puzzle Themes, Lessons, and More

Chessnut Next adds more ways to practice after a review. Mistake Book collects important positions from your games. Puzzle Themes help focus tactical work. Puzzle Storm trains fast pattern recognition. Interactive Lessons use board checkpoints to guide learning.

The idea is simple: play, review, save the important mistakes, then train the patterns that will help in the next game.

Chessnut Next Practice screen showing Interactive Courses, Board Analyzer, Puzzle Storm, Puzzle Themes, Mistake Book, and practice flow
Practice brings interactive courses, puzzle themes, Puzzle Storm, Mistake Book, and free analysis into one training hub.

Focused Practice

Practice With a Board, a Clock, or a Puzzle

The app continues to support connected Chessnut board experiences, including bot games, OTB game recording, chess clock workflows, FEN/PGN import, board editing, and game history.

Our goal is to make the physical board and the app feel like one training system, whether you are playing, recording, reviewing, or studying.

Puzzle Storm screen with chessboard, timer, solved count, combo, and rating band
Puzzle Storm and other practice tools support fast, focused training sessions.

Coming Soon

Chessnut Agent Will Make the App Voice-Interactive

In a later update planned within the next one to two months, Chessnut Next will introduce Chessnut Agent: an interactive voice assistant built specifically for chess workflows.

You will be able to say things like "help me create a Bot Game," and Chessnut Agent can follow up by asking which engine you want to play, what Elo range you prefer, whether you want White or Black, and how the time control should be set. From there, it can help start the game directly.

Start Games by Voice Ask for a Bot Game, a Lichess game, or another supported play mode without digging through settings first.
Launch Practice Faster Say "start a Puzzle Storm" or choose other training flows through a natural conversation.
Better Voice Moves for Move Chessnut Move's voice-controlled move input will also benefit from the Agent layer, helping recognition become faster and more accurate.

Open Source

Why We Are Opening More of Chessnut Next

Chessnut Next is built with important open-source chess technology, including Stockfish, LC0, dartchess, chessground, and Maia-related services. To respect that ecosystem and give users more confidence, we are preparing to open source the relevant Chessnut Next client and engine-service code.

For users, this is not just a legal or developer detail. Open source means the community can inspect how engine analysis is integrated, understand what runs locally and what uses cloud services, verify privacy-sensitive flows, report issues with better evidence, and help us improve support for more devices and board workflows.

More Transparency Users and developers can see how analysis, board workflows, and engine integrations are designed.
More Trust Open code makes it easier to review privacy, security, and engine behavior instead of relying only on promises.
Better Community Feedback Advanced users can report bugs, suggest improvements, and help us make Chessnut Next better for more players.

Beta Test Invitation

We Need Testers Who Will Report and Share Feedback

This Google Play beta is meant for users who are willing to test carefully and help us improve the app before the wider release. You do not need to be a professional tester, but we ask every participant to complete two things.

1. Submit a Test Report

Please report bugs, confusing flows, layout problems, and anything that prevents you from using the app normally.

  • Phone or tablet model
  • Android version
  • Chessnut board model, if used
  • App version
  • Steps to reproduce the issue
  • Screenshots or video, if possible

2. Post Feedback in the Community

Please also share your feedback publicly so other users can discuss it with us.

  • Your overall impression
  • Features you like most
  • Parts that feel confusing
  • Missing features you care about
  • Suggestions for old-app users upgrading

How to Join

  1. Apply for beta access with your Android Google account:
  2. After approval, opt in and install Chessnut Next from Google Play.
  3. Test core workflows: Home, Play, Review, Daily Tasks, Career Mode, Engine Lab, Mistake Book, Puzzle Themes, OTB recording, and connected-board features.
  4. Submit your test report:
  5. You’re also welcome to share your feedback in the community. :)

Some features may require sign-in, network access, compatible Chessnut hardware, or wallet points. Since this is a beta build, you may still encounter bugs, unfinished text, layout issues, or features that change before public release.