Threat Finder
White to move
3:00
0 pts
← → step PGN ↓ start ↑ end Z undo last F flip
No moves yet.
Blundervision
See the threat. Stop the idea. Start the fun!
See the threat. Stop the idea. Start the fun!
See the threat. Stop the idea. Start the fun.
Most chess websites are built around solving tactics. A position appears, you guess a move, and the computer tells you if you were right. That trains tactical vision, but it doesn’t focus on your ability to notice. Notice threats, find ways to stop them, notice your opponent’s future ideas and prevent those too.
After teaching thousands of kids for over 15 years, I realized that up to at least 1200 level, most games aren’t won because of tactical ability, they’re lost because of oversights. Not noticing that your rook was attacked from far away. That your opponent opened his bishop which allowed for a skewer on your queen. Taking material when it’s not safe.
BlunderVision was built so students practice the missing skill: looking at what the opponent wants before looking at your own ideas. The opponent’s ideas are more important.
Every puzzle is hand-curated by International Master Mike Ivanov, chosen because it teaches something a young player needs to see.
This site is meant to supplement chess lessons, such as the ones at our school, Canada Chess Youth Club. If interested in more details, check us out at www.canadachess.ca
Seeing comes before solving. If a child can draw the opponent’s idea with an arrow, they will at least consider different ways to stop it. Most beginners don’t see the problem, so they can’t solve it.
Board vision is developed through seeing thousands of positions, and noticing what’s safe now, what’s safe later. Direct threats, hidden threats, ghost threats. It’s the foundation for all advanced chess knowledge, whether it’s tactics, strategy, or positional play.
Practice should feel like play. Arrows, cars on a road, moles that pop up, stickers after homework — those are not decorations. They keep attention long enough for the habit to stick.
Teachers should be able to send one week of work without creating accounts. A parent should open a link and the child should know what to do.
Threat Finder. Watch the opponent’s last move. Draw arrows that show the real threat — a piece that can be taken, or mate that is coming. Not every attack counts. Only the ones that win something.
Threat Stopper. See the threat, then play the move that stops it.
Blunder Punisher. Someone just made a mistake. Find the move that wins material or checkmate.
Mind Reader. The idea is bigger than one capture. Show what they have in mind, then get in the way.
Solving Difficult Problems. Now you’re the one in trouble. Your king is under attack, your opponent just sacrificed, or a passed pawn is running for the last rank. Find the only way out, then keep finding the right moves until the danger is gone. Try a tempting move that doesn’t work, and the board shows you why.
Tactical Vision. One piece has been lifted off the board. Drop it back on the square where it creates a tactic: a fork, a pin, a skewer.
Future Vision. The obvious move doesn’t work yet. Find the quiet move that prepares it, so the tempting move works next turn. This trains thinking one step further than the opponent.
Forcing Moves First. Strong players look at checks, captures and threats first. Sort moves into baskets, find every forcing move, then keep the initiative with forcing move after forcing move.
Red Light, Green Light. Which squares are safe for a piece to travel? Mark the green lights. The piece drives the road and learns what “safe” feels like.
Whack-a-Mole. Legal captures under time pressure. Speed without sloppiness. Evil Whack-a-Mole adds poisoned moles: pieces that are protected, so grabbing them costs you.
The Maze. Find your way to the enemy king, while going through a maze of attacked squares.
Is It Safe? Before you move, ask the most important question in chess. In Level 1 it’s thumbs up or thumbs down against the clock. In Levels 2 and 3, pick out every safe move from several choices. Three lives, and a score to beat.
SpeedVision. Threat Finder against the clock. Three or five minutes to spot as many threats as you can. Fast eyes, careful eyes.
Famous Games. Watch the greatest games ever played, from Morphy’s Opera Game to Gukesh, move by move. The game stops whenever a move creates new threats, and you find them. Stuck? Press Reveal and keep watching. Tap a player’s photo to read their story.
Cookie Crunch. A Pac-Man style chess game. Your king munches cookie pawns while enemy pieces patrol the board. Get checked too long or checkmated, and you lose a life. Five maps, combos, and a record board.
Chess Trivia. Over 200 questions about world champions, famous dates, chess history, openings and the basics. Play a quick 10-question quiz, or a Jeopardy board where Artemis the owl reads each question aloud and the hardest ones are worth 500 points.
Chess Variants. Nine ways to play chess with a twist. Try classic variants like Antichess and Crazyhouse, or see original variants that are super fun and instructive: Secret Square Chess, Refuse Chess, and a BlunderVision specialty, Loose Pieces Drop Off Chess. These variants teach habits that students will need in their real chess games.
Play a Friend. Send a link and play a friend in normal chess or any variant, or post an open challenge anyone can accept. No accounts, just a name, and emojis instead of chat. Teachers can watch their students’ games live.
Vision Race. A live puzzle race for a whole class of up to 20 players. Everyone races through Blunder Punisher puzzles at the same time.
Play a Bot. Nine bots, from Bumbling Bob, who just learned how the horsey moves, to Mighty Mike. Two special bots train board vision: Absent-minded Archie leaves pieces hanging, and Greedy Gary grabs everything and makes threats.
Homework. Weekly sets of puzzles, from Newbie rules of chess to Expert puzzles aimed at advanced players up to 1800 rating. Students in our school’s classes can join their class, so their teacher sees the homework they’ve finished.
Analysis. A quiet board for setting up positions, playing through a game, and talking about it. Taking a puzzle from your homework and playing it out to understand the solution. It comes with an opening explorer (Lichess, Masters and 213,000 Canadian tournament games), a computer engine you can switch on, and a board editor for building your own positions.
Records and stickers. Beat your own best score, and if you want, add a nickname to the record board for everyone to see. Finish your homework and collect stickers for your sticker book.
Special features. From Advanced 2 and up, Artemis the owl gives friendly hints on homework puzzles without giving the answer away. In the Puzzle Contest, kids create their own puzzles, and the best three win prizes. And every time you finish a level, a game or a round of trivia, you earn Mastery XP. Points only come from finishing, never from guessing.
Children who have learned how the pieces move and are ready to stop giving them away.
Stronger players too. Mind Reader, Solving Difficult Problems and Future Vision are built for players up to 2000 rating.
Coaches who want to make sure their students are responsible players, and want an easy/fun way to do so outside of class time.
Parents who want their kids to enjoy chess, without tears after grave blunders.
Finally, for myself, my wife and daughter, who will hopefully stop blundering in the future :)
We are not trying to replace a teacher. We are not an engine that shouts the best move. We are not a rating factory. The goal is a student who is cautious, takes their time, and looks for threats. The good news is, if they can see their own threats, they will also punish their opponent’s careless blunders, which are plenty at the beginner level.
This started as a training idea for students who kept walking into the same punches. The site is still growing — more weeks, clearer examples, better phone and iPad versions — but the vision does not change:
Help kids see the threat before the blunder happens and ruins their day. Do so in a way that’s enjoyable, and keeps their love for chess.
— IM Mike Ivanov
International Master Mike Ivanov is a Toronto-based full-time chess coach. He’s been playing chess since he was 4, and teaching groups and private class since 15. His peak Fide rating was 2421, and he spent a decade traveling around Europe, playing tournaments. He also wrote “Best Stories in Chess” a compendium of the most interesting chess players, and stories from their lives. You can find his group classes at canadachess.ca and his summer camp at masterchess.ca
Time's up!
The car is the piece at the start of the yellow road.
Green light: right-click a safe square (a stop where nobody can take the car).
Red light: leave a dangerous square empty. The car jumps over it.
When you are done, click Drive! and watch the car go.
Wrong moves will get zapped. Right moves will get the car through!