A chess self-diagnostic

Every player is on one of eleven rungs.

Twelve questions will tell you which one — and the sentence you currently use to explain your losses.

90 seconds · no email needed

Paris, 1858 Morphy against the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard, after 17.Rd8#. Two amateurs, one opera box, and the most famous mate in chess.

The ladder

Eleven rungs, and only one of them is yours.

Each is a way of playing, not a number. The rating band beside it is where that way of playing usually lands you.

11 The Professional 2200 and above 10 The Candidate Master 2000–2200 09 The Expert 1800–2000 08 The Club Killer 1600–1800 07 The Technician 1400–1600 06 The Planner 1200–1400 05 The Memoriser 1000–1200 04 The Spotter 800–1000 03 The Hunter 600–800 02 The Piece Feeder 400–600 01 The Rule Knower under 400

Not a rating test

Half the questions are about how you lose, because that is the honest measure of a player and the number beside your name is not.

It will be blunt

You get the rung you are on, the way you actually lose, and the one thing standing between you and the next rung.

Then the work

If you want it laid out — six weeks of it — there is a guide written for your level and no other.

The guide

Thirty pages about you, and nobody a rung above.

Advice written for everyone is advice written for no one. Each guide starts where your level actually breaks down and stops before the problems you do not have yet.

The five ways your level shows up in your own games, with the position each one comes from
Six weeks of work, laid out week by week, tickable
The one drill that moves this rung, and why the obvious one does not
Every diagram replayed move by move and checked — no position in it never happened

$9.99 – $17.99 · priced by level · PDF, yours to keep

The Memoriser — the level 5 guide, cover page

So which rung are you standing on?

Twelve questions, answered honestly, and the scoring never leaves your device.

Free · no email needed