Quickstart

This walkthrough covers the complete pawnbook loop from first start to first drill session.

Step 1 — Start the server

bash

docker compose up

Or for a native install:

bash

npm start

Open http://localhost:3000. The dashboard appears.

Step 2 — The dashboard

On a fresh install the dashboard shows:

Elo tile: 1200 — the starting rating before any ranked games
Puzzles due tile: 0 — no games played yet, no drill cards
Streak tile: 0 days
Suggested opponent: appears once the engine availability check completes (a few seconds after startup)
Recent games: empty table

The suggested opponent is chosen based on your current Elo. On first launch it defaults to Maia-1500.

Step 3 — Pick an opponent and start a game

Click Play in the navigation. The play page shows the board and an opponent selector.

Choose an opponent from the grid:

Maia-1500 is a reasonable starting point for most casual players. It plays like a 1500-rated human — it will blunder, miss tactics, and play somewhat inaccurately, producing a realistic game.
Stockfish at calibrated depth plays more precisely at the same rating but with different error patterns. Use it if you want cleaner, more consistent opposition.

Leave the defaults as-is for your first game: White, Ranked, no time control, Coach on.

Coach toggle

The coach is silent until you have 20 confirmed opening book nodes. For a first game it will not intervene even if coach is enabled.

Step 4 — Play a game

Click the pieces to move. The engine responds after a short pause.

After the game ends:

A result card appears on the board — win, loss, or draw. Elo shows — while analysis runs.
An analysis progress bar fills in three segments. Pass 1 (the largest segment) evaluates every position; pass 2 re-examines mistakes; pass 3 runs Maia policy probes.
When analysis finishes, game_over is re-sent with the final Elo delta. The Elo tile on the board updates.

The full analysis of a 40-move game takes under 5 minutes on modern hardware if no pre-evaluation was cached. Subsequent games are faster because positions are pre-evaluated during play.

Step 5 — Review and drill

Two buttons appear after the game:

Review — opens the annotated game. You will see:

A win-percentage chart across the game
Each move colour-coded by classification (blunder, mistake, inaccuracy, good, great, best)
A mistake list with findability scores and best-move alternatives

Quiz — opens immediate practice on the mistakes from this game. The quiz does not schedule FSRS cards; it creates cards that enter the normal drill queue from tomorrow.

To drill your queue: click Drill in the navigation. Due cards appear one at a time. Find the best move in each position. The server infers a rating from your response time and correctness — you do not rate yourself.

That's the loop

Every game feeds the analyser. Every mistake feeds the queue. The queue gets shorter as you drill.

The dashboard Elo and strength-estimate tiles update after each analysed game. The due-count tile tracks how many cards are waiting. The streak tile marks days with any activity.

Continue from here:

Playing Games — game options, coach alerts, clock controls
Post-game Analysis — reading the review page in detail
The Drill System — how FSRS scheduling works
The Repertoire Coach — how the opening book builds over time

Quickstart ​

Step 1 — Start the server ​

Step 2 — The dashboard ​

Step 3 — Pick an opponent and start a game ​

Step 4 — Play a game ​

Step 5 — Review and drill ​

That's the loop ​