Introducing Move Review 2.0: Smarter Chess Move Feedback in Noctie

We’ve rebuilt Noctie’s instant move feedback and game review system from the ground up. We call it Move Review 2.0.

In Noctie, every move you play gets a grade from Blunder to Excellent, instantly while you play or afterwards in game review. Move Review 2.0 judges each move using both Stockfish and Noctie’s humanlike evaluation. It doesn’t only ask whether a move is objectively best, but also how hard it was for a human to find.

We had four goals with the new system:

1. More accurate and reliable move grades
2. Less harsh feedback for suboptimal moves and for beginners
3. Richer explanations in game review
4. Better feedback in endgames

1. More accurate and reliable move grades

You can now trust that moves graded Good, Great or Excellent are truly among the top moves, according to both Stockfish and Noctie’s humanlike evaluation. Great and Excellent are reserved for top moves that are hard to find or that show good chess understanding.

Stockfish’s best move is now never graded as an Inaccuracy or worse.

In game review, we now show more information about Noctie’s and Stockfish’s choices and how the evaluation changed, so you can see why a move got the grade it did.

2. Less harsh feedback for suboptimal moves and beginners

Moves that are neither the best move nor a clear mistake are now more often graded Good or OK. The old Dubious grade has been replaced by Inaccuracy.

Moves that are objectively equal to the best move are never graded as an Inaccuracy or worse.

Newer players now get less negative feedback and slightly more positive feedback than before. We may adjust this further based on feedback and testing.

3. Richer explanations in game review

For mistakes, game review now shows a list of preferred moves, with labels like “Noctie’s choice” or “Most natural”, and how hard each move is to find for a human.

Mistakes and good moves also come with a short explanation in plain language, such as:

• “A tempting move, but not accurate”
• “The opponent can exploit this move”
• “The best move, and hard to find”

There are also two new mistake categories:

• Understandable Mistake: an easy mistake for a human to make
• Concrete Mistake: a good idea that is refuted tactically

4. Better feedback in endgames

The old system often rewarded odd, non-critical endgame moves with Great or Excellent. Those moves are now more likely to be graded Good or OK.

Conversely, the key moves in an endgame, such as correct defence to hold a drawn position or correct technique to convert a won one, are now more likely to earn Great or Excellent instead of Good.

Tell us what you think

The explanations in Move Review 2.0 are generated without an LLM. This is an experiment, so sometimes the text might sound funny or not quite fit the position and evaluation.

We welcome feedback on Move Review 2.0 in general, and especially on corner cases where the tone or wording sounds off. Let us know on Discord.

Play a game against Noctie and try Move Review 2.0 for yourself.