Turn a chess image into a playable board

fenshot reads the position out of any chess picture and gives you a live, analyzable board. Paste a screenshot from chess.com or Lichess, a photo of a chess book diagram, or a position someone posted on Reddit or sent you in a chat. One click later you have the FEN string and a board you can actually move pieces on, with a free Stockfish engine.

Everything runs in your browser. The image is never uploaded anywhere: a small neural network reads the board locally, which is why the scan finishes in about a second. The whole tool is free and open source.

How to convert a chess screenshot to FEN

1. Copy any chess image: press Ctrl+V right on this page, drag a file in, or click the box to choose one.
2. fenshot finds the board in the image and reads every piece, in your browser.
3. Copy the FEN string, or open the position on a playable analysis board with an engine.

If you analyze positions often, the browser extension reads the board straight off any webpage without screenshots: chess.com games, Lichess studies, YouTube videos, articles.

Common questions

What is a FEN?

FEN (Forsyth–Edwards Notation) is the standard one-line text format for a chess position. Every chess site and engine understands it: paste a FEN into Lichess, chess.com or any analysis tool and the exact position appears. fenshot creates the FEN for you so you never have to type a position square by square.

Does it work with photos of a real chess board?

It works best with top-down 2D boards: screenshots, book diagrams, app captures. Photos of physical boards taken at an angle are hit and miss; a straight-overhead photo has the best chance. When a scan is imperfect you can fix individual squares by hand before analyzing.

Can it read chess book diagrams?

Yes. Printed diagrams are one of the main uses: photograph or scan the page, paste the image, and the position becomes a live board. Reading a gambit book with a phone next to it stops being a memory exercise.

Is my image uploaded to a server?

No. The recognition model runs entirely in your browser via WebAssembly. Nothing is transmitted, which you can verify in the network tab or the source code.

How do I analyze the position after scanning?

Click "Analyze" and the position opens on a free analysis board with Stockfish running locally: best moves, evaluation, and full piece movement. You can also copy the FEN and take it to any site you prefer.

Which sites and formats does it recognize?

chess.com and Lichess screenshots in any theme, most chess apps, book and PDF diagrams, and the common piece sets used by chess websites and publications. If a particular set fails, the manual editor lets you correct it in seconds.

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