Turn your phone upright01 · The climb
From 1,500 to 2,000
Ratings from Lichess
When I started, I played a lot of games, and I grew. But after a while that growth levels off. You get better, but so do your opponents, and whoever makes the first mistake is the one who generally loses.
Everyone told me the same thing: play slower games, review them, write it down. You know the advice is right, but developing the habits to do it consistently… that’s the challenge. So I built this.
When I started, I wanted to be a master-level player, maybe even earn a title. My approach was volume play. That’s fine for a beginner, and I grew fast early on.
Then that growth levels off. You get better, but so do your opponents. Eventually you meet people at your level, and it could go either way. You end up in a loop where whoever makes the first mistake is the one who generally loses.
Every coach and titled player I’ve talked to says the same thing: play slower games, review them, look at what better players did in your position, write it down, and have a training plan. It’s “eat right and exercise.” You know the advice is right, but developing the habits to do it consistently, in a way that works for you and your life… that’s the challenge.
It falls into what I talked about in my course, the rule of three: adults have to fail at something at least three times before they move forward. What if I could speed up that process in every phase?
There’s joy in analyzing your games, but it isn’t frictionless, and adults have other responsibilities. Adults who enjoy it usually started as kids and built the habit young. For an adult who never did, building it is as hard as building pattern recognition.
When I went back to grad school, I didn’t have time. I still wanted to play, so I played bullet, and that’s how you get 30,000 bullet games. Volume reps aren’t wasted, but they only take you so far.
This tool builds the habit. It’s so frictionless I want to use it for my blitz games too. I set goals for each time control, tap a button, record my plan, and see it take shape. I’m testing it on myself and journaling it here in public, because if it works for me, it may work for you.
That’s the vision of tap to chess: make the habits that help an adult improver grow as accessible as play already is, because our phones are always with us. Chess.com and Lichess already make play easy to reach, and they have study tools. This isn’t a knock on either. But for me, and how I like to train, that part was cumbersome. This way, I want to do it.
I don’t know an adult who wants to accept “maybe it just wasn’t meant for me.” What if something gave you back some of your time, so you don’t have to give up time to do the things you know will make you better? What if it were frictionless?
That’s tap to chess in a nutshell, and that’s why I built it.
I don’t care if you use our tool. I care if you get better at chess.
Omar