I've been working on a new concept for chess matchmaking, and it's pretty simple: instead of just pairing players based on rating, we also match them based on their knowledge of the game. Right now, the target audience is mostly beginners who want to improve. So, for example, if you're strong with openings but still figuring out the midgame, you'll be paired with someone at your level for openings. We’ve got it working for openings, midgames, and endgames (that's all we've coded so far ).

The idea came from noticing that a lot of players—especially beginners—might have a good grasp of one part of the game but struggle in others. Traditional matchmaking based on rating can be frustrating because it doesn’t account for these imbalances. By focusing on specific phases of the game, we hope to make matches feel more balanced and fun.

We’re still early in development, but I think this could be a useful option for beginners who want to improve their chess game in a more structured way. What do you think? Does this kind of matchmaking sound like something you’d try?

Website : https://aftw.pages.dev/