Sparring vs Play vs Arcade

TacoChess has three places to actually play chess. They are designed for different things.

Play

Live 1v1 against another human at a chosen time control. Rated games affect your TacoChess Glicko-2 rating. Use this when you want a real game.

Sparring

Practice against a bot tuned to a specific style — you can pick a bot that mimics a 1500 Lichess player, a 2000 OTB attacker, or a player who consistently fumbles endgames. Useful for targeted practice without the rating pressure.

Sparring games are not rated and do not affect your DNA. You can review them in Game Review the same way as live games.

Arcade

Mini-games: Chess Invaders (knight vs descending pawns), Threat Grid (find the threats), more coming. Pure fun, leaderboards optional.

Which to use

• "I want to climb" → Play
• "I want to fix a specific weakness" → Sparring
• "I have 5 minutes and want chess" → Arcade