Amigo
Leopard cub coach. Orange scarf, pawn icon. Shows up in lessons, empty states, and any moment you need a little encouragement. Amigo's tone is warm and direct — like a good friend who happens to play 1800.
Built by improvers, for improvers.
We made the chess trainer we wished existed when our own ratings flatlined at 1400 — and our coaches kept telling us we needed "board vision" without ever defining the term.
Why Pawnther exists
There's a missing layer in chess training.
Chess platforms today divide neatly into two buckets: openings databases and puzzle treadmills. Both are good. Both also assume you can already see the board — that you can name every square's colour without thinking, hold a six-move line in your head, and read a notated game like a sentence.
Most club players can't. They get to 1400, hit a wall, and blame their tactics. The real issue is a perception bottleneck — and there are no apps drilling it.
Pawnther Chess is that drill. Board vision, calculation, and human-like sparring, in a system you'll actually open every day.
Practical, not academic
We don't teach you how to beat Carlsen. We teach you how to stop dropping pieces against the player next to you at the club.
The mascots
Amigo and Maia.
Two cats. One brand. One does the encouraging, one does the sparring.
Maia
Black panther queen. Crown, ermine cape, pink bow. Maia is your sparring partner — a human-like AI trained on real games at every ELO. She blunders like a human, plays openings like a human, and lets you actually beat something that resembles your real opponents.
How we build
Three principles, no exceptions.
Real-life chess
We optimise for the player you'll face at your club, not the database. Drills are weighted by what actually happens at your rating.
Short and daily
The product is 10 minutes a day. If a feature can't be used in that window, it shouldn't ship.
Warm, not childish
The brand has cats and watercolour and Patrick Hand notes. The product UI is calm and grown-up. Both can be true.
Get in touch
Read the FAQ
Questions, feedback, or a coaching partnership?
We answer emails like normal humans. hello@pawnther.chess