AI Now thinks During Your Turn - April 9 Patch!

Hey everyone! Big update today - I've been deep in the AI engine fixing some nasty bugs and making the bots play much smarter. Here's everything that changed.

AI: Smarter and Faster

AI Now Thinks During Your Turn
After improving the AI's strength, one downside was that every move could take up to 10-12 seconds against the harder opponents. To fix that, I added AI Pondering, the AI now starts thinking while you're deciding your move, predicting what you'll play and preparing its response in advance.

• If the AI guessed your move correctly: it responds almost instantly

• If you surprise it: it does a normal search, but still faster than before thanks to its preparation

• New setting: "AI Thinks Ahead" in Gameplay settings (on by default). You can turn it off if you want lower CPU usage while you think

I'm still testing whether these changes affected the AI's overall strength, so if you notice anything off, too easy, too hard, weird moves, please let me know!Stronger Master & Legend Opponents

• Fixed several bugs that caused the top-tier bots to occasionally make bizarre moves (like moving a piece back to where it started, or giving away material for no reason)

• The AI is now much better at finishing games it's winning, no more endless shuffling in endgames that end in a draw

• Master and Legend bots think deeper and longer per move, making them significantly more consistent

Academy / Training Fixes

Drag-and-Drop Now Works in Training

• Fixed an issue where you could only move pieces by clicking in training lessons — dragging now works just like in regular games

Academy No Longer Freezes

• Fixed a bug that caused the training screen to become unresponsive after going through several lessons

Puzzle Randomization

• Themed puzzles now appear in a random order each time you play — no more seeing the same puzzles in the same sequence every session

• Your completion stats are unaffected

Simpler Progression

Mode Unlocks Are Now Level-Based

• Tournament, Elimination, Analysis, and Puzzle modes now unlock based on your player level instead of having to complete specific task checklists

  • Puzzle Practice / Puzzle Rush: Level 2

  • Tournament: Level 4

  • Elimination: Level 7

  • Analysis: Level 8

• Journey milestones are still there as optional bonus goals for extra XP, but they no longer block access to any game mode

UI Fixes

Board Display Fixed

• Fixed the chess board being cut off or invisible at certain window sizes

Quit Button

• Added a Quit button to the navigation bar for quick access

As always, thanks for playing and for all the feedback. If anything feels off after this update, please let me know in the community hub, and as always a review would be extremly helpful!