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Show HN: OffChess – Offline chess puzzles app

(offchess.com)
342 points avadhesh18 | 6 comments | 08 Jul 25 08:57 UTC | HN request time: 1.063s | source | bottom

Hi HN!

I'm the developer of rdx, a mildly popular ad-free, privacy and user friendly Reddit client. This time, I made something for a very specific use case: solving chess puzzles with no internet.

Why? Well, my Wi-Fi is terrible in the bathroom—and that's where I do some of my best thinking. I tried printing out “mate in X” puzzles to solve offline, but they weren’t fun without interaction. So I built OffChess.

OffChess is an iPhone/Android app that contains over 100,000 chess puzzles, fully offline and completely ad-free. You can solve puzzles by category (Mate in 1/2/3/4/5, tactics like pins/forks/skewers, or openings like Sicilian/French, etc). You gain or lose points based on how you perform, so there's a light rating system to keep things engaging.

No accounts, no tracking, no monthly subscriptions, no internet required. Just pure, old-school tactical chess training, wherever you are.

You can check out the iPhone/iPad app at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chess-puzzles-offchess/id67447... or the Android app at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.offchess

Would love feedback, bug reports, or suggestions.

Thanks!

1. dan_can_code ◴[08 Jul 25 12:22 UTC] No.44499308[source]▶
great app, I like the adaptive style, but one piece of feedback is that, sometimes it is not clear what the goal is. For example, the language "Brilliant queen win ahead!" tells me, right, I am going to checkmate for the win with the queen in this game. But, actually the puzzle is to instead win the queen piece. "win" in chess to me always means checkmate.

Overall great app.

replies(2): >>44499335 #>>44505357 #
2. avadhesh18 ◴[08 Jul 25 12:28 UTC] No.44499335[source]▶
I will change the confusing wording like this but for now I can tell you this, if it mentions a piece by name then the puzzle is about winning that piece and not the game. Thank you for trying the app out.
replies(1): >>44505368 #
3. bongodongobob ◴[09 Jul 25 00:56 UTC] No.44505357[source]▶
The goal is always the best move. You shouldn't think of "what is my goal?", you should be finding the best move. This is something I struggled with as a beginner. There is always a best move, find it. Don't search for "the goal".
4. bongodongobob ◴[09 Jul 25 00:58 UTC] No.44505368[source]▶
Wait, are you saying that you have puzzles where the "winning" moves aren't the best moves? If so, that is not good.
replies(2): >>44505611 #>>44506076 #
5. spagettnet ◴[09 Jul 25 01:46 UTC] No.44505611{3}[source]▶
Subtext is that the solution is always the best possible move sequence. OP’s comment is clarifying that sometimes after executing the best move sequence, the puzzle ends with a capture, and sometimes ends with a checkmate (“winning”).
6. avadhesh18 ◴[09 Jul 25 03:20 UTC] No.44506076{3}[source]▶
No, the winning moves are always the best moves.