How do I create an account?
You can sign in with either Apple or Google right from the welcome screen — there's no separate password or email signup to create or remember. Whichever one you choose becomes your account here, so pick whichever you're most comfortable using.

Why does this app require an account?
An account is what lets your Elo, puzzle history, and settings follow you across devices — so if you play on your phone tonight and pick up a tablet tomorrow, everything's right where you left it. It's also a requirement from both the App Store and Play Store for any app that saves personal progress.

How do I delete my account?
We're sorry to see you go! You can delete your account anytime from Account Settings → Delete Account. This permanently removes your profile, puzzle history, and insights from our servers, so please be sure — there's no way to undo it or get that data back once it's gone.

Does deleting my account also revoke Apple's or Google's sign-in permission?
Not quite, and it's worth understanding why. When you delete your account here, we remove everything we store on our side — your profile, history, all of it. But Apple and Google separately keep their own record that you once authorized this app, and that's outside our control — it lives in your Apple ID or Google Account settings, not in this app. So if you sign up again with the same account, you might notice it skips their usual picker or consent screen and takes you straight into a brand-new account here. That's expected — it just means they still remember you'd said yes before. If you want to fully revoke access on their end too, you can do that anytime from your Apple ID or Google Account security settings.

Can I change my username later?
Of course — head to Account Settings → Edit Profile whenever you like. It's yours to change as often as you want, no restrictions.

How do I connect my Lichess account?
From Account Settings → Lichess, tap Connect Lichess Account. You'll be sent over to Lichess's own sign-in page to approve the connection, then land right back here once it's done.

What exactly gets imported from Lichess?
Just your current Lichess puzzle rating and username — used to seed your starting rating here. We don't import your individual puzzle attempts or history from Lichess; your Insights stats here reflect puzzles solved in this app.

Why does connecting take a moment?
Behind the scenes we're making a couple of separate requests to Lichess's servers one after another — confirming your identity, then fetching your rating — which normally only takes a few seconds. We show a loading screen the whole time specifically so it's clear it's actively working, not stuck.

Will syncing reset my Elo?
Only the very first time you connect — that initial sync uses your Lichess rating as your starting point here. After that, Refresh Rating just re-checks your current Lichess rating and username without touching the rating you've built up in the app. You won't lose progress by syncing again.

What's the difference between Refresh Rating and Unlink?
Refresh Rating is the safe, repeatable option — it just re-checks your username and current Lichess rating. Unlink is more final: it ends the connection entirely. The good news is that even if you unlink, your Elo and puzzle history stay exactly as they are — nothing gets erased. You're always free to reconnect later, whether that's the same account or a different one.

Is my Lichess password ever shared with this app?
Never. The connection uses Lichess's own secure sign-in process (OAuth), so your password only ever gets typed into Lichess's own site — we don't see it, store it, or have any way to access it.

How is my puzzle Elo calculated?
Solving or missing a rated puzzle moves your Elo by an amount scaled to how surprising the result is, given the puzzle's own difficulty versus your current rating — beating a puzzle well above your level earns more than an easy win, and missing an easy one costs more than missing a hard one, floored at 100 so it never goes negative. New accounts start at 600 (roughly where our easiest puzzles begin) and build up from there; linking Lichess seeds it from your real Lichess puzzle rating instead.

What's the difference between Rated and Unrated play?
Rated puzzles are matched specifically to your current Elo and count toward your rating — this is the mode that tracks your real progress over time, and the only mode that updates the Insights screen's motif/game-phase breakdown. Unrated play (through the Filters screen) lets you practice whatever you want — a specific Elo range, particular tactical motifs, or a certain game phase — without any pressure on your rating or those stats either way. It's a great way to deliberately work on a weakness.

Do hints affect my rating?
Tapping Get Hint takes that specific puzzle out of the rated pool for you — so even if you go on to solve it, you won't gain Elo, but you won't lose any either. The same goes if you've already missed that particular puzzle once before — only a genuine first-try solve moves your rating. Think of hints as a safe way to learn without risking your rating.

What are tactical motifs?
Motifs are the recurring tactical patterns chess puzzles are built around — things like forks, pins, skewers, and discovered checks. Every motif, game phase, and other tag you can filter by is computed automatically by replaying each puzzle's real solution move-by-move with a chess engine (python-chess) and inspecting the resulting position — it isn't pulled from Lichess's crowd-sourced puzzle themes. We tag every puzzle with whichever motifs its solution actually uses, and track your accuracy on each one on your Insights screen, so you can see exactly which patterns come naturally to you and which ones could use more practice.

What does the Insights screen show me?
A fuller picture than just one number. You'll find your current day streak and your longest streak ever, total puzzles solved, overall accuracy, and — probably the most useful part — a solve-accuracy breakdown by tactical motif and by game phase (opening/middlegame, endgame).

Why is my motif accuracy shown as a percentage instead of an Elo?
Your overall Elo is difficulty-calibrated — it accounts for how hard each puzzle was relative to your rating — but a flat per-motif delta never was, so a separate "Elo" there would have been misleading. Plain solve accuracy (attempts vs. solved) is the honest version: it shows the texture underneath your overall Elo — maybe you're excellent with forks but pins still give you trouble — without pretending to be a calibrated rating.

How do I add a profile photo?
You can add one right during onboarding when you first set up your account, or anytime afterward from Account Settings → Edit Profile — just tap the avatar circle to choose a photo from your device.

Can I remove my photo?
Yes, anytime — once you've set a photo, a Remove Photo option appears right next to it in Account Settings.

How do I change the app's theme?
Head to Settings → Theme, where you'll find four different beige palettes to choose from. Pick whichever shade of beige speaks to you.

Puzzles won't load
Sorry for the hiccup — that's frustrating when you're just trying to get a quick puzzle in. The most common cause is a shaky or dropped connection, since every puzzle is fetched live rather than stored on your device, so it's worth double-checking your connection and giving it another try. If it's still not loading after that, please reach out to support — let us know roughly when it happened and we'll dig into it.

My stats look wrong
That's definitely worth sorting out, and it's usually a quick fix. Try signing out and back in — that forces a fresh pull of your stats straight from our servers, which resolves most cases where something looks out of sync. If your numbers still don't look right afterward, get in touch with support and we'll take a closer look.

I connected Lichess but don't see my rating
Totally understandable concern, but this is usually just a timing thing. A Lichess sync normally finishes in a few seconds — give it a moment and watch for the loading screen confirming it's still working. Once that's done, check Account Settings to confirm Lichess shows as connected. If it says connected but your rating still isn't showing up, reach out to support and we'll investigate.

Is this app free?
Yes! The app is currently completely free to use, with no ads and nothing to buy. We may explore monetization down the road, but there's no timeline for that, and nothing about your experience today is designed to nudge you toward a future purchase.