ChessPrint

Generate print-ready chess exercise sheets as PDFs, aimed at children. Paste a list of positions in FEN notation, configure the layout, and download a clean PDF with large diagrams and free space for kids to write or draw their answers by hand.

ChessPrint is 100% frontend: a static web app with no backend, no database, no accounts, and no persistence. Everything runs in your browser.

🔗 Live demo: https://chessprint.nairwolf.net

Features

• FEN input — one exercise per line, format FEN ; title (optional).
• Lichess puzzle import — load random Lichess puzzles by theme (mate in 1/2, fork, pin, …) and rating range (e.g. 800–1200): they are appended to your list as regular FEN lines titled Lichess <id> (<rating>), with links back to each puzzle on lichess.org. Served from a static index rebuilt monthly from the CC0 Lichess puzzle database — no account, no API key, no rate limits.
• Automatic active-color detection — who plays (White/Black) is read from the FEN and shown as a dot outside the board; you never type it in.
• Strict validation — every FEN is validated with chess.js. If any line is invalid, export is blocked and every error is reported with its line number and reason.
• Vector diagrams — pieces render as SVG paths (Lichess caliente set), not Unicode glyphs, so they stay crisp at any print size.
• Configurable layout — 1 to 6 diagrams per page, sizes computed dynamically.
• Compact writing space — a modest strip below each diagram for handwritten answers; the diagram stays the focus.
• A4 PDF — generated entirely in the browser with @react-pdf/renderer, with the document title repeated as a centered header on every page.

Input format

Each line of the exercise textarea:

FEN ; title (optional)

• The separator between the FEN and the title is a semicolon (;).
• The title is optional. If absent, the exercise has no individual title.
• Empty lines are ignored.

Example:

r1bqkbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/1B2p3/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R b KQkq - 3 3 ; Ruy Lopez
8/8/8/8/8/5k2/6q1/7K b - - 0 1 ; Mate in one

How this was built — 100% vibe-coded

In the spirit of honesty, ChessPrint was entirely "vibe-coded" — built by prompting an AI coding assistant rather than by hand-writing the code. I did this for two reasons:

• To experiment with vibe coding — I wanted to try building a real, complete little app this way and see how far it goes.
• To get a tool I actually needed, fast — I wanted printable chess sheets for personal use quickly, without spending my evenings writing every line myself.

So treat it accordingly: it works and I use it, but it wasn't crafted with the scrutiny of a hand-written production codebase. Feedback and improvements are welcome.

Tech stack

• React 18 + TypeScript + Vite (static build)
• Tailwind CSS (UI styling)
• chess.js (FEN parsing and validation)
• @react-pdf/renderer (PDF generation)

Getting started

npm install
npm run dev        # start the dev server

Then open the URL Vite prints (typically http://localhost:5173).

Scripts

npm run dev        # start development server
npm run build      # production static build (outputs to dist/)
npm run preview    # preview the production build locally
npm run typecheck  # TypeScript type check (no emit)
npm run lint       # ESLint

Project structure

src/
├── components/
│   ├── ui/          # ExerciseForm, ExportControls, AppearanceControls, ErrorMessage, Preview, LichessImport
│   ├── diagram/     # ChessBoard (web SVG) + ChessBoardPdf (@react-pdf SVG)
│   └── pdf/         # PdfDocument, PdfPage, PdfExercise
├── lib/             # parser, validator, fen, layout, lichess (puzzle API), pieces/ (SVG path data)
├── types/           # shared types (Exercise, ParseError, ExportConfig)
└── App.tsx          # root component, global state

See docs/SPEC.md and docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the full specification and technical decisions.

License and attribution

ChessPrint is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — see the LICENSE file.

Two chess piece sets are bundled, both obtained via the Lichess (lichess-org/lila) repository:

• caliente by avi — the playful default, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
• cburnett by Colin M.L. Burnett — the classic alternative, licensed under GPLv2+

See NOTICE for details.

⚠️ Because of the caliente set's NonCommercial clause, any distribution of ChessPrint that includes these graphics is restricted to non-commercial use.