Next Chess Move Calculator

Yes, from any site or app, and it is the fastest way in. Paste (⌘V), drop or upload a screenshot, book diagram or photo of a chessboard. For angled photos, place the four handles on the board corners and Chess411 corrects the perspective before reading the pieces. It then works out which side was at the bottom of the image, so screenshots taken while playing Black import the right way up, and you confirm who you are playing and whose move it is. Any squares the scanner is unsure about are flagged so you can check them before asking the engine.

It runs Stockfish 18, the strongest chess engine in the world, as WebAssembly in your browser. Set up the position, choose a thinking time of 2, 4 or 8 seconds, and the engine returns the best next move it found along with the evaluation and its main line. Nothing about your position is sent to a server.

It always depends on the position, which is why a calculator beats memorized answers. From the starting position engines rate 1.e4 and 1.d4 almost equally; set up your actual position and you get the next best chess move for the game in front of you, plus the second and third choices so you can compare plans.

Yes. Set "To move" to Black and the engine calculates the best next move from Black's side; flip the board if you want to see the position the way Black does. It works for either color in any legal position.

Used against a live opponent in a rated game, yes: that's a chess cheat, it breaks every platform's fair-play rules, and we don't recommend it. For analysing finished games, training, solving puzzles, or correspondence chess where engines are permitted, it's the same analysis the professionals use.

Stockfish 18 is the strongest chess engine in the world, hundreds of rating points beyond any human world champion. At the default four-second think it reaches depths no player can calculate; give it eight seconds for the sharpest positions.

Yes. Take a screenshot mid-game, open chess411.com/next-chess-move in your phone's browser and upload it from your photos. The board is read and the engine runs on the phone itself, so it works the same on the move as at a desk.

Yes. The engine and the screenshot scanner run on your device, not on our servers, so there is nothing to meter. No account, no move limits, no scan limits.

Chess411 is the free chess toolbox this calculator is part of. The same site reviews whole games move by move, has a live analysis board, unlimited puzzles and a daily puzzle challenge. Everything is free with no account: chess411.com.