Find the best chess move

Set up a position or paste a FEN below to find your next chess move with Stockfish 18. See the recommended move, evaluation and continuation, free in your browser with no account.

  • EngineStockfish 18 · NNUE
  • RuntimeWebAssembly · on your device
  • Library3,174 named openings
  • AccessFree analysis · no account

How to find your next chess move

  1. Set the position

    Paste a FEN in the Position panel, play moves on the board, or drag pieces to set it up. Check whose turn it is: the same pieces with the other side to move can give a different answer.

  2. Read the move and evaluation

    For a legal, unfinished position, analysis starts automatically. The score is in pawns from White’s side: positive favors White, negative favors Black. When the engine finds a forced mate, the bar shows M and the number of moves, and the best move says which side mates. The principal variation is the continuation the engine currently expects.

  3. Try the reply

    Play the suggested move and inspect the opponent’s answer. Use undo to try your own candidate, then compare the evaluation and line. Let the search deepen before deciding that a small score difference matters.

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1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 · Black to move
Try a real position

What should Black play in the Italian Game?

Our stored Stockfish 18 analysis at depth 18 recommends 3… Bc5 after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4, with an evaluation of +0.32 from White’s perspective.

Open the exact position below and compare the reply with your own choice. The live board searches to depth 22 by default, so its recommendation may differ from this saved depth-18 result.

Analyze this position

See the Italian Game’s three stored engine lines →

Guides

Read up, then put it on the board.

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Openings

Every opening, with the best reply.

Browse all 3,174 openings →

Questions

Everything you might reasonably wonder.

Is BestChessMove.xyz really free?
Yes. Engine analysis, best-move arrows, principal variations and unlimited positions are completely free, with no account required, no upload, and no daily limit.
Does the chess engine really run in my browser?
Yes. Stockfish 18 runs in a Web Worker on your device using WebAssembly. Battery mode loads the smaller, single-threaded engine by default. High Perf is an optional larger, multi-threaded engine for browsers that support it. You do not need to install an app.
How do I analyze a specific position or paste a FEN?
Paste any FEN string into the FEN field in the Position panel, or drag pieces on the board to set up a position by hand. The engine re-evaluates immediately, and the opening name is detected automatically when the position is known.
What is the best move in chess?
It depends on the position: no single move is best in every game. In a given position, the best move is the one that leads to the best result against the strongest replies, and an engine like Stockfish estimates it by searching ahead. To check a move you played, set up the position before it, compare the engine’s move and score with your own, then play your move and see how the evaluation changes.
Why can the best move change as the engine searches?
The best move is the engine’s current recommendation, not a proof of perfect play. Deeper searches can reveal a stronger reply and change the recommendation or score. This board starts at depth 22; you can set a target from 10 to 40 in the Engine panel. Reaching it depends on the position and your device.
Can I use it to study openings and endgames?
Absolutely. Step through moves with undo and redo, watch the evaluation bar and principal variation update in real time, and explore alternative lines from any position. Openings are detected against the Lichess opening book.
What happens when I share a position?
Copy share link puts the position’s FEN into a URL, so someone opening it can analyze the same board, shown from the side to move. The link holds only the current position, not the moves that led to it. Anyone with that link can read the position, and opening it sends the URL to the site. Engine calculations run on your device; the optional newsletter signup is separate.
What do the evaluation numbers mean?
The score is measured in pawns from White’s point of view: +1.00 means White is about a pawn better, −0.50 means Black is half a pawn better, and 0.00 is level. M3 on the evaluation bar means a forced mate in three moves, and the best move panel says which side delivers it. Scores can change as the search goes deeper.

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