The Story Behind Clocked

I teach chess to a few kids part-time. Nothing formal, just sessions here and there. After a while I started noticing the same thing happening over and over, they'd lose to the exact same kind of trap or pattern, week after week, and not really clock why. So I started keeping notes on each kid. What openings kept catching them out, what they did when the clock got low, that sort of thing. Then I'd use that to actually coach them on the specific stuff instead of just generic "study openings" advice.

I had this idea to turn it into an app for kids to track their own weaknesses. Started building it, never finished it, it's still sitting in a folder somewhere. But the core idea stuck with me. At some point I flipped it, instead of analysing your own game, what if you could analyse your opponent's before you even sat down to play? Pull up their last however many games and see exactly what they're good at, what they're bad at, how they play when they're losing on time.

So I built that instead. Started using it before my own games to see if it actually held up, and it did, better than I expected honestly. Now it's Clocked. Still early, still rough in places, but the core of it works: enter a username, get a real breakdown of how to beat them.

♟ Come prepared. Or don't come at all.