A personalized chess coach powered by AI?

I've been thinking about the recent advances in AI and wondering if it's possible to create a personalized AI chess coach.

As an adult, I've noticed my progress in chess is much slower compared to kids. Sure, having less time to commit is part of it, but not having a coach to guide me is another big factor. I think a virtual AI chess coach could be really interesting and helpful. Imagine an AI coach that interacts with you like a real one (maybe through something like ChatGPT?), giving tailored lessons on openings, tactics, endgames, and more. It could also analyze your games and point out areas where you need to improve.

While Chess.com offers some great features like opening lessons, tactics lessons, and puzzles, these aren't integrated in a way that provides a cohesive learning experience. You still have to figure out a curriculum for yourself. I've also tried playing chess with ChatGPT, but sometimes it tries to make illegal moves, so it's clear the current version isn't quite up to enforcing chess rules properly. I hope someone can develop a better version that can help people, especially adults like me who want to self-learn and improve their chess skills.

Does this idea sound interesting to anyone? If so, what features would you like to see in a virtual chess coach?

What rating barrier are you trying to reach

I've been stucking at ~1800 for a while.

Hi... in an effort to this;ve built this out -- check the reddit post A New Tool for Chess Growth – Inspired by Danya, Built for the Community

I believe there are a few, but I found one not too long ago called chessvia.ai. Its looks pretty solid to me and is relatively cheap compared to a coach.

In my mind, there are three severe problems with this. AI is prone to the occasional serious mistake, which might mislead a player into serious mistakes. Another, (maybe even bigger) problem is personal experience. Every coach has a unique teaching style influenced by details like their playing style, opening repertoire, down to the very age they learned the rules. And that style just makes them “click” with some. It’s extremely hard to replicate humanity with a machine. A machine can have a fictional backstory, but not a true “life story.” Hardships, challenges, celebrations that brought them closer to the game of chess simply do not exist.

Finally, robots often make very unnatural moves. And it would be a great challenge to make a robot play like a human.

Otherwise, it’s a decent idea.

I'm sure it can you just need to feed it the proper information and ask the right questions.

I've been doing some AI work with chess and photography lately that is spot on and there's is no way I could have managed without AI. Clarification is needed at some points along the way when you suspect something is off or it feels incomplete.

That sounds very promising! It would be great to have an AI coach that adapts to my level and helps me improve specific aspects of my game, rather than just giving general advice. I like the idea of feedback that feels personal and clear. Learning works better when advice matches real habits and mistakes. I recently read about how people make decisions and form patterns in learning at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/15-behavioral-economics-examples-influence-your-choices-edubrain-ai-illfc and it made me think about chess training. An AI coach could use similar ideas. It could guide choices during practice. It could help build better routines over time. That would make training more effective and more motivating.

If ai gets its data from chess.com forums it's not gonna give very good advice

yes but what do you do if your opponent isnt a paid actor?

People overestimate ai accuracy. It can give you many ideas to think about, but it is on you to determine if what it said is actually correct. Not to mention.. it won't necessarily tell you everything you could do that you could benefit from, it doesn't cover all ideas or possibilities. You need to keep challenging its statements and claims until it truly satisfies and convinces you that it is accurate, rather than believing what it tells you on the first response.

If you want the ai to help you with how to get stronger, definitely ask it. But do what I said above. And it wouldn't hurt to run the final conclusion by others to make sure it really is accurate.
A good coach will surpass an AI coach almost always, but to keep things cheap you may as well give it a try.

Anyways, chess is probably least effected by this ai boom, we've had engines helping us to check things and assisting us in training for a long time.