Adaptive tactics training

Turn the tactics you miss into the tactics you see.

Skill Compass identifies the tactical idea holding you back, builds a short practice ladder around it, and checks that you can solve a fresh position without help.

Free and unlimited · No credit card · Start immediately

  • 26,000 puzzles, rated 800 to 2400
  • 8 tactical skills, tracked separately
  • Free unlimited sessions
A Skill Compass position in progress: a four-stage track reading Puzzles, Checking, Practice, Prove above the board, and the prompt "Black to play" below it.
  • Weakness found →
  • Targeted practice →
  • Passed on a new position

One Missed Puzzle Becomes a Focused Lesson

  1. Discover

    Solve mixed puzzles at your level, with nothing labeled.

  2. Identify

    Skill Compass narrows down what actually stopped you.

  3. Rebuild

    Practice that idea, from plain recognition up to full complexity.

  4. Prove

    Solve an unseen version of it with no help at all.

Random Puzzle Feeds Adapt the Rating. Skill Compass Adapts the Lesson.

The session header: a four-stage track reading Puzzles, Checking, Practice, Prove, with Puzzles active, and the line "Tactics around your level, nothing labeled."
  • The track always says which of the four you are in, so a session never feels like a random feed.
  • Nothing about a position is named before you answer it.

Know Exactly What to Practice Next

Stop training what you already know

Spend the session on the patterns and obstacles that actually stop you, instead of the ones you would have solved anyway.

Build recognition that transfers

See the same idea with different pieces, in a different part of the board, at rising levels of complexity — until it is the idea you know and not the picture.

Watch weaknesses become strengths

Every tactical pattern gets its own reading, based on what you can solve unaided. You can see which ones are moving.

See the Moment a Weakness Becomes a Strength

The Skill Compass progress chart: a rising blue line showing the rating solved with no help, with green triangles where a tactic improved and a red one where a tactic slipped.
  • The line is the rating you solve at with no help at all.
  • Green marks a tactic that moved up in a session; red marks one that slipped. Hover for which tactic, and by how much.
The tactical strengths panel, weakest first: attraction, deflection and discovered attacks reading "Getting there"; pins, X-rays, skewers, removing the defender and forks reading "Solid".
  • Eight patterns, weakest first, each with the number of puzzles behind the reading.
  • This is the list your next session works down.

What a Finding Looks Like

An example of the kind of thing a session turns up, and what it does about it.

The finding
You recognize direct discovered attacks, but you keep missing the quiet move that creates one.
Where it stopped you
A discovered attack rated 1510.
Targeted practice
9 positions, rebuilding the idea from its plainest form upward.
Unseen test passed
A position you had never seen, rated 1640, solved with no help.

An illustrative example. Your own findings are named the same way, in the same plain terms.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from normal puzzle training?

A puzzle feed adapts the rating: miss one and the next is easier. Skill Compass adapts the lesson. When a puzzle stops you it follows up with a few closely matched positions — the same tactic on a quieter board, then the move that sets it up — to work out which part actually broke, and then builds a short practice ladder around that one thing.

Is it free?

Yes, and unlimited. Skill Compass sessions cost nothing and use no credits, on any account including a free one. Every position is chosen from a prepared bank the moment you need it, so a session never pauses and never bills.

Do I need to import my games?

No. Skill Compass works from a bank of 26,000 puzzles, so you can start a session immediately. Importing your games unlocks the rest of ChessLogix — game analysis, opening work, and puzzles built from your own critical positions — but nothing here needs it.

Which tactical patterns are covered?

Eight, each tracked separately: forks, discovered attacks, pins, skewers, X-rays, deflection, removing the defender, and attraction or decoy. Each one is stocked evenly from 800 to 2400, so a matched comparison exists at whatever rating stopped you.

Do I need an account?

Yes, a free one. Your sessions and the picture Skill Compass builds of your tactics belong to your account, so there is nowhere to keep them without signing in. No card, no credits.

How does it decide my rating for a tactic?

Only puzzles you solved with no theme shown and no hint taken move it. Practice positions are chosen to be solvable — that is what makes them practice — so letting them push the number up would just mean it rose because the puzzles got easier. Hints and coached solves are recorded, and kept out of that number.

Find Your Next Tactical Breakthrough

Start with a few mixed puzzles. The moment Skill Compass spots something worth training, it builds your first focused practice ladder around it.

Start Training Free

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