Game What is Game Dojo?
Game Dojo is a free online dojo for thinking games like chess and Othello, where you learn by playing. No signup, no install — open it and start a game in seconds.
After each move, a game engine analyzes the position so you can see whether the move was good and what other options you had. Rather than just being told the strong move, you compare candidates, take a move back, try again, and notice why. Game Dojo is a place to enjoy that loop.
Play, check, learn
The student is the playing, trying, thinking side — the same side you are on. The sensei is the side that explains what the analysis found, and every figure it brings is something Game Dojo actually computed.
Between them they describe how the site is meant to be used: play a game, check the move that puzzled you in the Analysis Lab, read the background in a guide, then go back to the board.
Play
Chess Dojo
The classic game of deep thinking. Every move is rated — Best, Good, Inaccuracy, Mistake, Blunder — so you can see where the game turned. Sharpen your play from the opening to the endgame.
Othello Dojo
Simple rules, but every move hides many branches. Use position evaluation and hints to learn corner play and build your sense for reading ahead.
Daily Puzzles
The home page features a fresh Daily Tactics Quiz (chess) and Daily Othello Puzzle every day. Pick the best move on the board, then check the answer and the reason behind it — a short, focused way to practice your reading.
Learn
Beyond playing, we offer chess guides and Othello guides covering rules, tactics, openings, the middlegame, and the endgame. We care that what you read can be tried in a real game right away.
Verify
Game Dojo is built and run by one person. Because we make the games and the analysis ourselves, our articles do more than summarise general advice — we analyse real positions and check what actually happens. Those write-ups live in the Analysis Lab.
- Chess — we run each candidate move in a concrete position through an engine and compare the evaluations. Chess Analysis Lab
- Othello — endgames can be read to the very last move, so our own solver computes the exact final disc margin. Othello Analysis Lab
Every number in those articles is a real analysis result. We do not publish estimated figures. The method is written up in our editorial policy.
How the analysis is set up
So you can see where our figures come from, here is the setup behind them.
- Chess
- Stockfish 18 Lite WASM, searching to depth 20. Each candidate move is played, then the resulting position is searched.
- Othello
- Our own solver (negamax with alpha-beta), doing an exact endgame solve: the true final disc margin with best play from both sides, not an estimate from an evaluation function.
- Statistical study
- 400 positions and 2617 moves solved exactly, counting how often each rule of thumb was actually best.
If the setup changes, the figures in the articles are regenerated with it. See our editorial policy as well.
Who writes this
Tools we use
The analysis relies on open-source software. We name it, with its licence, so it is clear where the figures come from.
- Stockfish (GPL-3.0) — used to analyse chess positions. The engine runs on our own machine; the articles carry only the resulting numbers, and the engine itself is not part of this site.
- chess.js (BSD-2-Clause) — used to convert between moves and positions.
- Lichess open puzzle database (CC0) — the source of the daily tactics quiz on the home page.
- The Othello endgame solver is our own, with no external libraries.
What We Stand For
- Keep it simple — open it and start a game without fuss.
- Think — not just receiving the answer, but comparing candidates yourself.
- Look back — a mistake isn't the end; carry it into your next move.
- Open to everyone — free to start, no signup or install.
Get in Touch
Have a question, spotted a bug, or want to share feedback? We'd love to hear from you.