I am not especially good at chess.
I enjoy chess a lot, which is different. I play often, I watch videos. I review games sometimes. I have spent the last year and a half, maybe closer to two years, playing mostly rapid or blitz: some principles, some vibes, a lot of “surely this move is fine,” followed shortly by discovering that it was not fine.
Recently, though, I have been trying to study a little more deliberately. For the first time, I have been learning a couple of openings properly instead of just hoping I can improvise after move four. I will watch a video on an opening, learn a few variations, feel briefly enlightened, and then immediately forget what I am supposed to do once the position gets even slightly deep.
That is when I noticed a feature I really wish chess platforms already had: position bookmarks.
I would love it if Chess.com or Lichess.org let me tap a button during a game and save the current position for later review. Not analyze it or suggest a move. Just bookmark the position, maybe with a note or tag, so I could come back after the game and study it properly. Honestly, this would be much better as a native feature, especially across browser and mobile.
If anyone from Chess.com ever reads this: I would like this feature.
But since I play a lot in the browser, and since browser extensions are good for exactly this kind of little workflow patch, I figured I would make one myself.
So I built a small Chrome extension called ChessMark.
ChessMark is basically a local notebook for chess positions. When I see a position worth remembering, I can open the extension, save the board, add a quick note or tag, and come back to it later. It captures a cropped screenshot of the board, saves the source URL, stores the FEN when it can, and gives me a link to reopen the position in analysis after the game is over.
ChessMark is intentionally simple. It does not analyze positions, suggest moves, show engine lines, or do anything during the game beyond saving the position. It is just a bookmark button for chess boards.
Right now it works on Chess.com and Lichess. It saves a board screenshot, the page URL, notes, tags, and FEN when it can find it. Later, I can open the saved position back up in analysis and actually study it after the game.
Everything is stored locally in the browser. No account, no backend, no analytics, no uploads.
That is basically it. It is not a training app. It is not a chess engine. It is just a tiny tool for catching the positions I know I will otherwise forget to look at.
I built it quickly with Codex because the workflow I wanted was specific and small: save the board, tag it, and get out of the way. It has been useful enough for me that I figured I would share it.
If you are also a chess enjoyer more than a chess understander, maybe it will be useful for you too.