Free Chess Board Editor
Place the pieces, pick who moves, copy the FEN.
How to build a position
- Tap a piece in the tray, then tap the squares you want it on. It keeps placing until you tap the same piece again, so a row of pawns is one tap per pawn.
- To move a piece already on the board, tap it and then tap its new square. To take one off, use the eraser.
- Clear empties the board, Reset puts the starting position back, Flip turns it around so Black is at the bottom.
- Set the side to move. This is the one setting people forget, and the same pieces with the other player to move is usually a completely different position.
On a laptop you can also drag a piece from the tray onto a square. Tap and tap works everywhere, so nothing depends on having a mouse.
What the FEN line means
The box below the board holds the position as a FEN, the one line of text every chess site understands. It updates as you place pieces, and you can paste one in from anywhere to load it.
A FEN has six fields separated by spaces. The first is the pieces, rank by rank from Black's side down, with capitals for White and digits for runs of empty squares. Then the side to move, w or b. Then the castling rights, then the en passant square, then the halfmove clock and the move number. So the starting position is rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1.
You almost never need to write one by hand. Set the pieces, press Copy FEN, and paste it wherever you need it.
Castling, en passant and the counters
Castling rights are behind a disclosure because most positions do not need them touched. When you do open it, only rights the pieces actually allow can be switched on: a king off e1 or a rook off h1 means White cannot castle short, and the toggle stays disabled to say so. Move a rook away after switching a right on and the editor takes the right back for you, silently, so the FEN can never claim something the board contradicts.
The en passant square and the two counters are left out of the controls on purpose. They matter in a handful of positions and confuse every other one. If you need them, paste a FEN that already has them and the editor will keep them.
What to do with the position
An editor on its own only records a position. The two buttons under the board are the point of it: Analyze this position opens it on the analysis board with the engine ready, and Best move instead sends it to the move finder, which answers the narrower question of what to play right now.
Both stay in your browser. Stockfish runs as WebAssembly on your own device, so a position you are embarrassed about never leaves it.
One caution worth stating. A position you set up from memory is a guess about what went wrong, and memory edits the evidence. Your real games do not. Chess DNA reads your last 25 games from Chess.com or Lichess and sorts the mistakes into nine weakness themes, so the thing that keeps costing you rating shows up on its own instead of being reconstructed one board at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set up a chess position?
Tap a piece in the tray above, then tap the square you want it on. It keeps placing that piece until you tap it again, so a full rank of pawns takes one tap per square. Use the eraser to remove a piece and Clear to empty the board completely.
Is this chess board editor free?
Yes. There is no account, no sign in and no limit. The editor loads no chess engine at all, so it opens instantly even on a slow connection.
What is a FEN string?
A FEN is a single line of text that describes a complete chess position: the pieces, the side to move, the castling rights, the en passant square and the two move counters. Every major chess site can read one, so it is the normal way to move a position between them.
Why can I not switch a castling right on?
Because the pieces do not allow it. Castling rights need the king on its home square and the matching rook on its own, so the toggle is disabled whenever the position contradicts it. Put the pieces back and the toggle becomes available again.
Can I analyze the position I built?
Yes. Analyze this position opens it on the free analysis board with Stockfish, and Best move instead sends it to the move finder. Both run the engine in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
