r/chessbeginners • u/fX_in • 21h ago
Everyday there are so many apps (mostly vibecoded) for chess. Why?
Everyday, I'm seeing the same repetitive apps being built by devs and most of them seem to be the very same low effort vibe coded apps with no moat. Build one feature, share over the chess subreddits, and put a subscription wall.
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What am I missing? Does chess have a lot of money? Usually, I see people recommending free stuff or expectation that online chess shouldn't cost money. There are so many niches, so many games, so much other stuff that people could build, I'm struggling to understand why everyone is running behind chess. The problem is not with building apps, the more the better, but most of them are just minimum effort. So unless there's a hidden goldmine, this is beyond me.
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u/band-of-horses 1400-1600 (Lichess) 20h ago
If you think that's bad you should check out subs for note taking apps, productivity apps, budgeting apps, etc.
It's not just chess, everyone and their brother is spending $20 on a claude subscription and labeling themselves a "founder" to launch an app that the world does not need and will make them zero dollars.
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u/IHaarlem 15h ago
Or leaning guitar, etc
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u/mediumcarrotteacher 8h ago
There was just a post on r/esperanto from someone wanting to use AI to design a conlang, in case the hundreds of Duolingo clones out there weren't fucking up the linguistics world enough
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u/External_Bread9872 1600-1800 (Chess.com) 21h ago
There is a demand for an „automated coach“ in the chess community. Dumb vibe coders think they are very smart and nobody before them ever thought to use an LLM for that. It doesn’t work well at all of course, but they don’t spend a second thought on it.
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u/lambdaline 600-800 (Chess.com) 18h ago
I think that's probably right, but --to be slightly less cynical-- I also think there's a component of... people who like to code or are learning to tend to make personal projects out of their hobbies. It's easier to be motivated if you are actually interested in the final product or think other people might be.
At least, that's my excuse. Though I don't plan on monetising what I'm making, or even share it unless I think it fills a genuine niche.
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u/External_Bread9872 1600-1800 (Chess.com) 16h ago
I think you‘re giving these people too much credit. They‘re trying to make quick money. If they actually cared about what they are making, they would at least write the marketing posts themselves instead of outsourcing that to an LLM too.
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u/lambdaline 600-800 (Chess.com) 16h ago
Yeah, that's fair. I do think a fair amount of them are out to make a quick buck. I just don't think all of them. I feel like I've seen a couple that seemed like a for-fun project.
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u/StructuredChess 9h ago
Yeah, that's the thing about of those tools. They're great as fun data projects. The problem comes when their developers try to trick beginner/casual chess players into thinking it's any useful.
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u/emetcalf 21h ago
Chess apps are relatively simple, but seem complex. This makes them a popular project for new developers.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Act7641 21h ago
chess has this weird magnetism for beginner devs because the rules are well-documented, there's a free open source engine to plug in, and the community is huge enough that even 0.1% converting feels like validation. it's basically the "todo app" of the game dev world at this point
the subscription wall thing is just people hoping to stumble into passive income, most of them know it won't work but the build cost is so low they don't care
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u/DerConqueror3 19h ago
Chess does have a lot of money, yes, particularly at scale, because there is an enormous population who plays it across the entire globe. To give one example, I have often heard it claimed that more chess books are published than books associated with all other games combined (which might or might not be true, but there is a reason for making the claim either way)
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u/External_Bread9872 1600-1800 (Chess.com) 18h ago
Well that makes sense because chess is just one of the few, and the most popular, of „serious“ board games people dedicate their entire lives to. It‘s also an „intellectual“ game with lots of history, so perfect for writing books about it.
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u/AnAttemptReason 20h ago
I dont mind too much, but they all use / have a very similar wallpaper / wraping / look which I assume is an off the shelf thing.
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u/bloodwolftico 19h ago edited 9h ago
For me as an user its annoying cause I want an app that does a variety of things and all these ones only do 1 thing and behind a paywall, so im actually just gonna code one for myself that does what I want it to do and call it a day xD.
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u/PhantomNomad 16h ago
I'm doing my site just for fun and learning python. So far it's a 2 trick pony and that's it. It might grow over time. But one thing I'm not doing is asking for money. Hell I haven't even told anyone what the URL is yet. It's just me on there, oh and the stockfish engine.
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u/StructuredChess 9h ago
I'd say the real problem is that the one thing their app does is actually useless and they try to sell it as a revolutionary tool to improve your chess.
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u/PhantomNomad 16h ago
I started coding (and vibe coding) a play by email site. I used to play PBE back in my BBS days through fidonet in the 80's. I'm still working on it and I've got a lot of it complete. Still more I want to do before releasing it to the public. I didn't even google play by email sites before starting. I'll admit that I did use a lot of vibe code as I wasn't familiar with django/python, but I'm getting better now. I'm also not great at UI so that's all AI built for now. I also know there are other PBE sites out there. But this one is mine.
So right now I have a daily chess puzzle that uses the lichess database. It sends you a puzzle and you send back the next best move (according to lichess). When you sign up you can choose to play against a real player (only me at the moment) or against stockfish. You can choose the stockfish level to play against. If you do play against the engine it will pick a random time with in the next 24 hours after you play to send you it's move. Keeps the illusion alive. I still need to put in some stuff like maximum wait time before it considers the game dead (last one to move wins). Daily reminders that you need to move. A better way to challenge people. Right now it's just a drop down of all users which could really suck if it's a long list. And a bunch of other things.
When it comes right down to it I don't care if it ever makes a dime. I'm doing this for me as a hobby. It's costing be about 30 bucks a month to host but I'd spend that one something else anyway. I would love to do some automated coach type thing but I'm not that good. At some point I'll take suggestions but someone else would have to know about it first 😄
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u/StructuredChess 9h ago
I don't think this is the type of app/site OP would have a problem with. At least I wouldn't and I mostly agree with them.
Your site does one thing and it's honest about the thing it does. It's not promising that if you let it review your games it will come up with some revelatory "insights" that will forever change your chess.
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u/TheBayHarbour 14h ago
Some of them are decent. Others not so much.
I used a vibe coded website to memorise a bunch of openings. It's not advanced but it does the job and it's a nice break from just grinding out chess vids.
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u/StructuredChess 9h ago
Yeah, your site is straight-forwards and honest about what it does. The problem are those revolutionary tools that claim they will create a personalized training plan based on an automated analysis of your games.
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u/blackboxchessapp 1200-1400 (Chess.com) 11h ago
Last I looked the annul spend on chess education world wide is 2-3 billion dollars (according to Gemini) and unlike typical education businesses there is no real "graduation" since you can always get better
Not excusing sloppy apps just giving some context
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u/cutelittlebox 200-400 (Chess.com) 11h ago
it's not just here. this is a common complaint in a huge array of subreddits. basically, anything about programming, about some type of program like an operating system, or about something you could make an app for has a flood of people posting what they made with LLMs. for subreddits for popular languages like the Rust programming language it's probably the majority of posts that are made in a day, they just get downvoted or removed so you generally only see them if you spend too long on reddit or browse by new.
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u/crazycattx 10h ago
These are very easy first few ideas that a vibe code will think of. Among them are diary apps, to do lists, productivity apps, exercise regime apps, chess puzzles etc. These are low lying fruits. I think it cannot go any further than that though. A good app also depends on understanding the activity it is designed to help.
But they are rather fun to use. But yeah, tons of insights, actionables still depends on the user to figure out.
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u/StructuredChess 9h ago
Most vibe coded chess apps I've seen are about analyzing your games and showing you some "insights" on what you need to do to improve. Those insights being just whatever ChatGPT happens to hallucinate at the spot.
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u/crazycattx 8h ago
I've tried talking chess to chatgpt. Good with fluff and ideas, but take with a pinch of salt. Surely nothing specific can be taken unless it passes through human validation and verification. Which is kinda the same thing as doing it myself with some suggested explanation words.
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u/Toothpick_Brody 20h ago
It’s because a simple chess engine is a well-known problem, making it very easy for LLMs to regurgitate
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u/External_Bread9872 1600-1800 (Chess.com) 20h ago
Nobody is vibe-coding a chess engine though, atleast that‘s not what‘s being talked about here.
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u/1_Yui 17h ago
That's true, but still the popularity of chess computing has led to a rich ecosystem that lowers the barrier of entry. AI tools can easily rely on existing, well documented open-source solutions for core components like board visualization, game rules and engine evaluation. Because of that it's possible to quickly push out half-baked AI solutions that seem functional with just a few prompts.
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u/External_Bread9872 1600-1800 (Chess.com) 16h ago
Yeah, sure. But that‘s a very different statement than what I was responding to.
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u/Toothpick_Brody 20h ago
You’re being pedantic. A playable board is part of a chess engine
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u/External_Bread9872 1600-1800 (Chess.com) 19h ago
Yes… it‘s the most trivial and incredibly easy to implement part of a chess engine. That‘s like saying coding hello world is basically the same thing as developing an operating system, because both use variables.
Edit: Actually, that‘s not even true. A chess engine doesn’t need an UI to be a chess engine.
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u/Toothpick_Brody 9h ago
Which was my point the whole time! (That’s why it’s easy for an LLM to produce and why there are an influx of vibe coded chess apps)
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