Opening explorer
Find the opening, then find out whether it is any good
chessKish answers two different opening questions. What is this opening called, and what are the main moves? comes from a book bundled with the app. How does this position actually score? comes from lichess's database of real games.
Names and move orders, offline
The opening book ships inside the app and covers the standard ECO range from A00 to E99. Because it is local, you get the opening name, its ECO code and the main move order instantly, with no request and no sign-in — including on a plane.
- Look up the name of any position reached by a known move order.
- Walk the main line move by move and see the name change as the opening takes shape.
- Compare a transposition against the move order you actually played.
Statistics from real games
For any position you can see how often it has been played, and how those games ended — White wins, draws, Black wins — along with the moves that were actually chosen most often and how they scored. That is the difference between knowing an opening's name and knowing whether it suits you.
Sign-in is required for the statistics, and that is lichess's rule, not ours. In March 2026 lichess stopped serving the opening explorer to anonymous requests and now requires an authenticated token on every call. chessKish deliberately uses your own signed-in lichess session instead of embedding a shared key, so the request is yours. Names, move orders and the tablebase continue to work without an account.
Endgames get an exact answer
Near the end of a game an engine can only estimate. Once the material is down to a handful of pieces, the tablebase knows the result outright: a definite win, a definite draw, or a definite loss, with the number of moves it takes to get there. That is how you settle an endgame argument instead of arguing about an evaluation bar.
Questions
Do I need an account to look up opening names?
No. Opening names, ECO codes and move orders come from a book bundled with the app, so that part works without signing in. The win, draw and loss statistics for a position come from lichess and now require an authenticated request.
Why do the opening statistics need a lichess account?
In March 2026 lichess stopped serving its opening explorer to anonymous callers, after a period of abuse. Every request must now carry an authenticated token. chessKish uses your own signed-in session rather than shipping a shared key, so the data is fetched with your account and not someone else's.
What is the endgame tablebase for?
When only a few pieces remain, an engine is estimating but a tablebase knows the answer exactly. Positions with a small enough number of pieces are resolved as a definite win, draw or loss, with the number of moves to the result.
Which opening book does chessKish use?
The bundled book is built from the open source chess-openings dataset maintained by lichess, which covers the standard ECO codes from A00 to E99. It is shipped with the app, so names are available immediately and offline.