Find the Best Chess Move

How to find the best move

1. 1

   Paste a FEN into the box, or drop in a screenshot of the position. Signed in, you can also upload a photo of a real board.

2. 2

   Check the board. If a square is outlined, the reader was unsure about it; fix it in the board editor if needed.

3. 3

   Choose who is to move: White or Black.

4. 4

   Press Find the best move. The engine is about seven megabytes and is fetched once; the answer and the top three lines appear as it searches.

Frequently asked questions

Is the best move finder free?

Yes. Pasting a FEN or reading a screenshot is free, needs no account and has no daily limit. Photos of real boards, and pictures your browser cannot read, use our server recognizer: free with no credits, but it needs an account with a verified email and has a limit based on attempts in the past 24 hours, including failed reads.

How does it read a position from a screenshot?

A small model running in your browser finds the board, looks at each of the 64 squares and builds the FEN; the picture never leaves your device. If the last move is highlighted, it also tells whose move it is. Squares it was unsure about are outlined on the board. When it cannot read a picture with confidence, such as a photo of a real board, the picture can go to the same recognizer the ScanChess scanner uses. That needs a free account; take board photos from above, with all 64 squares in the frame.

Why do I have to choose whose move it is?

A picture shows where the pieces are, not always whose turn it is. When a screenshot highlights the last move, the reader sets the side to move from it; otherwise it assumes the side at the bottom of the picture is to move. Either way the choice sits right next to the answer, because the best move for the wrong side is a confident wrong answer.

Which engine is this, and how strong is it?

Stockfish 18, the single-threaded WebAssembly build, searching up to depth 18 or four seconds per position. That is far stronger than any human, though a desktop engine given minutes will see further in sharp positions.

How is this different from the Lichess analysis board?

Lichess's analysis board is free and excellent, but you set the position up by hand or paste a FEN. Here a screenshot or photo does that step, and the answer is shown as one clear best move with its alternatives.

Can I use it during a game?

No. Engine help during a game you are playing is cheating under the fair-play rules of Chess.com, Lichess and FIDE, and gets accounts closed. Use it afterwards, to understand what you missed.