ChessPath.Pro is a powerful tool for chess enthusiasts to analyze, train, and manage their opening repertoire. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced player, you can explore statistics, practice lines, and share your work with others. This guide will help you get started and make the most of the features available. Note: In addition to this guide, many objects can be moused over for descriptions.
When you first use ChessPath.Pro, you'll automatically receive an API key—no email required! Your API key starts with zero credits (unless you registered your email/discord), which you can earn by leaving the helper running in the background. Credits are required to fetch new positions and statistics from the server.
Credits: Earned by idling with the helper active. Required for new queries.
Helper: The background helper automatically collects credits for you by assisting other ChessPath users with their queries. Earn rate is typically in excess of 150 credits/hour
API Key Expiry: Run out of credits, idle to earn more. Accumulating large amounts of credits unlocks additional features including increased throughput to the server.
Sorting and Color Customization
You can customize how moves are sorted and how arrow colors are assigned using the RGB dropdowns. Each color channel (Red, Green, Blue) can be mapped to a different move metric, allowing you to visually interpret move quality and style at a glance.
White stats: Higher values are always better.
Black stats: Lower/negative values are always better.
RGB Sorting: Assign metrics like Tricky, Forceful, or popWR to each color channel.
Dropdowns: Use the dropdown menus above the board to change sorting and color mapping.
Visual Feedback: The blended arrow colors reflect the chosen metrics, helping you spot strategic patterns quickly.
User/Opponent: Chosen RGB metric is specific to the user/opponent. The visible settings are for whoever's turn it is.
Hard Gambit Filter (HGF): Excludes user moves that sacrifice more than HGF centipawns from your current position.
Rarity Filter (X%): Excludes user moves played by less than X% of humans.
Examples:
If you set red to represent a metric like Tricky and a move scores high in that category, the red component of the arrow's color will be high.
If green is assigned to Forceful and a move has a moderate forceful score, it may blend with red to create an orange hue.
If blue is assigned to popWR, moves will appear in varying shades of blue based on their popWR score.
White means top scores in all selected metrics.
Red means top score in Red metric but lower scores in other chosen metrics.
Cyan means top scores in Green and Blue metrics but lower scores in Red metric and etc...
Tip: When looking at move colors, considering what components of white are missing is very informative. Example: A red arrow indicates that there are other options that score better on the Green and Blue metrics.
Navigation
Keyboard Shortcuts: Use arrow keys or j/k to move forward/backward, Up arrow to jump to the start, SPACE to execute the top ranked move by your primary metric and "f" to flip the board.
Click Navigation: Click on moves in the movelist, repertoire, PGN, or gamelist to jump directly to that position.
Mouse Wheel(over the board): undo/redo moves, and scroll through moves using your mouse wheel.
Import/Export & Share
PGN Loading: Load PGN files to analyze strings of moves or games.
Share Button/Window: The share window provides many options for exporting IMGs, positions, PGN, and branching PGNs representing your repertoire that can be piped into other chess apps.
Importing Games: Import individual/bulk games via the User Games button and game link area
Gamelists
Loading Games: Download bulk games for specific users from Chess.com and Lichess, or add individual games by URL/ID.
Deleting/Clearing: Remove individual games or clear the entire gamelist or clear all games inconsistent with current position.
Autopopulation: If fewer than 2 games are in the gamelist, new pro games are automatically added when available.
Filtering: Optionally, Only load games consistent with current position.
Repertoire Calculation
You can generate a custom opening repertoire for a position of upto 30 lines using filters and sorting options.
Number of Lines: Choose how many lines to include in your repertoire.
Calc Button: Calculate a repertoire driven by your chosen primary metric, filters, and any forces/bans you have in place.
Hard Gambit Filter (HGF): Excludes user moves that sacrifice more than HGF centipawns from your current position.
Rarity Filter (X%): Excludes user moves played by less than X% of humans.
Recalc Button: Appears if the repertoire doesn't use all possible lines, allowing you to recalculate.
Training Mode
Training mode helps you train your opening repertoire by restricting you to moves with arrows (the "frontier"). Arrows and move stats are hidden (until you diverge from your repertoire). Opponent moves are chosen probabilistically from the allowed responses. If you attempt a move outside your repertoire, the board will snap back and provide feedback.
Arrows and Stats Hidden: In training mode, arrows and move statistics are hidden to simulate real-game conditions until you deviate from your repertoire.
Allowed Moves: Only moves with arrows in explore mode are permitted. Force/Ban: Right-click on moves in movelist to force or ban them from your repertoire.
Opponent's Turn: The system selects moves based on popularity and your repertoire settings. Opponent will show you the moves they are considering while they calculate.
Queue Management: Training mode is a great way to streamline your practice sessions.
Default Repertoire: The default repertoire is based on your chosen metrics and is ready to go whether you have constructed a repertoire or not.
Stats & Metrics
Our opening trainer analyzes moves using data from 1800+ rated games (excluding bullet) and 300 artificial games (monte-carlo) played by 3000-rated bots. Below is an explanation of each stat displayed in the trainer.
White stats: Higher values are better.
Black stats: Lower values are better (since they are inverted).
Eval (Evaluation)
Based on ChessDB.CN’s top-tier engine evaluation.
Expressed in centipawns (100 = 1 pawn).
WinrateΔ (Winrate Delta)
Difference in win rate between this move and the average for the position.
Popularity (pop%)
The percentage of games in the database where this move was played.
popWR (Popularity-Weighted Winrate)
Formula: WinrateΔ × Popularity
Indicates how impactful a move is relative to its popularity.
Favors moves that are both popular and have high winrates.
Tricky (Trik)
Centipawn expectation vs. humans.
Favors moves where human players frequently diverge from the top engine responses.
Timid WR (WRt)
Win rate after the opponent responds with the move that maximize's their popWR
Helps determine how safe or reliable the move is for the average player (who may not have prepped this line yet).
Favors moves with a high win rate that are unlikely to be countered within one move.
Forceful (Forc)
Measures how aggressively the move forces the opponent to respond.
A high forceful score indicates that the move leaves the opponent with fewer viable options.
The Forceful metric is computed using the following formula:
Forceful = c × ln( Σ exp[(eval of each response) / c] )
with
c = 0.5625
Patient (Pati)
The inverse of Forceful, useful for investigating moves that are strong but might have been excluded for not being forceful.