Drag the pieces onto the board, build any position you like and get a ready-made FEN string. It all runs in the browser - nothing to install.
Drag a piece onto the board, or click a piece and then click the squares. The cross beside the pieces sweeps every piece of that colour off the board, and a single piece can be dragged off the edge.
The pieces will be arranged into the chosen pattern.
It is the mating side to move. Find mate in one.
Openings, endgame positions and breakthrough studies - the set-up appears on the board.
If it is a standard teaching position you want rather than one of your own, open it straight onto the board. Each link loads the board in the right set-up - from there you can move the pieces, change the arrangement and copy the FEN.
Drag the pieces from the palette onto the board, or click a piece and then click the squares. Remove a spare piece with the cross, or drag it off the edge of the board.
Choose whose move it is, tick the castling rights available and, if you need it, the en passant square. The board can be flipped to look at the position from Black's side.
The finished FEN string updates below the board straight away. Copy it with one button, or share a link to the position - it opens the board in exactly the same set-up.
FEN is a compact record of a whole position. With it you can save a set-up, send it to a friend, load it into an engine for analysis or paste it into teaching material. Arrange the pieces here, copy the string, and the position is ready to use anywhere. If you are not sure how the starting position looks and where the king and queen stand, that is covered separately, with diagrams - how to set up a chess board.
The online board doubles as a demonstration board: put it on a screen or a projector, show the position to a group and work through it move by move. It flips, so the position can be seen through either player's eyes, and the link with the set-up ready goes to your pupils in a single message.
For training it is a working tool too: set up an endgame from a book, try a few plans, restore the original position from the link and try again. There is nothing to save - the whole position is encoded in the page address. Useful reading alongside it - the rules of chess, chess notation and analysing your games with an engine.
Positions with a full walkthrough: mates, puzzles, openings, endgames, techniques and pawn breakthrough studies.
The complete walkthrough: the tree of variations, traps, sometimes video
Pawn studies with the lines worked through on the board
Mating patterns with the position explained
Mate-in-one puzzles
The idea of the opening, its FEN and an interactive board
The key endings, explained
The standard techniques and rules of pawn endings
FEN (Forsyth-Edwards Notation) is a short string that describes a position completely: where the pieces stand, whose move it is, the castling rights, the en passant square and the move counters. From that one line any position can be restored in another program.
The board opens empty. Drag the pieces you need out of the palette, or click a piece once and place it with clicks on the squares - handy when you need several of the same kind.
Drag it off the edge of the board. The cross beside the pieces sweeps every piece of that colour off, and the «Clear the board» button empties it all at once.
Yes. Paste the string into the «Load FEN» field and press the button - the position and all its parameters appear on the board. That is a convenient way to edit somebody else's position or continue from a saved one.
No, this is a free constructor: you can put nine pawns or two kings on the board. That is deliberate - it is what puzzles, studies and teaching positions need.
Yes, dragging works on a touch screen too. If dragging is awkward, use the click mode: tap a piece in the palette, then tap a square.
Yes. Put it on a screen or a projector, flip it to show the position from either player's side, and send pupils a link with the set-up ready - it opens exactly the same position for them.
Built a position? Run a tournament on it. Take a look at Swiss pairings, reading a crosstable, the online chess clock and the openings catalogue.
The Vibe Chess app opens from a link and needs no installation. Setting up a tournament takes a minute: pick the system, set the date, the venue and the time control - the app handles the rest.
