UI Overview
Masterboard is organised into four main pages accessible from the left sidebar, plus a mosaic workspace for detailed game work.
Sidebar navigation
Section titled “Sidebar navigation”The left sidebar is always visible and provides access to:
- Games — your game library
- Board — the main analysis and annotation workspace
- Openings — opening repertoire management
- Settings — accounts, engine, and appearance
The active engine name and status are shown at the bottom of the sidebar.
Games page
Section titled “Games page”The Games page is your game library. It shows a sortable, filterable list of all your games.
- Folder tree (left panel): organise games into a hierarchy of folders. Click a folder to filter the list to that folder’s contents.
- Games list (main panel): columns include players, result, date, ECO code, time control, and source. Click any column header to sort.
- Filter bar: filter by player name, result, source (chess.com, Lichess, PGN, OTB), or collection.
- Import button (top-right): opens the import dialog. See Importing Games.
- Double-click a game to open it on the Board page.
Board page
Section titled “Board page”The Board page is the main workspace for reviewing, annotating, and analysing games. It uses a mosaic layout: panels can be freely repositioned and resized.
Panels
Section titled “Panels”- Board panel: the interactive chessboard. Click to make moves; right-click arrows and squares to draw annotations.
- Notation panel: the move tree. Variations are shown inline in PGN-style notation. Click any move to navigate to that position. The panel header shows the ECO classification of the current position and, after analysis, the per-player accuracy percentages.
- Engine panel: real-time evaluation from the active engine. Shows the centipawn score, WDL bar, and up to 5 principal variation lines.
- Game Info panel: displays the game’s metadata — players, Elos, result, date, event, site, round, time control, and ECO code.
Rearranging panels
Section titled “Rearranging panels”- Drag a panel header to move it to a different position in the grid.
- Drag a panel edge to resize it.
- Layouts are preserved across sessions.
Board toolbar
Section titled “Board toolbar”The toolbar above the board provides:
- Navigation buttons (start, back, forward, end)
- Flip board (
Fkey) - FEN copy/paste for setting up positions
- Edit Position for the board editor (drag pieces to set up any position)
- Analyse to run automated engine analysis on the current game
Openings page
Section titled “Openings page”The Openings page lists all your opening repertoires, grouped by colour (White repertoires first, then Black).
- Click a repertoire name to open the Repertoire Builder.
- Click the pencil icon to rename a repertoire inline.
- New Repertoire button (top-right) to create one.
Repertoire Builder
Section titled “Repertoire Builder”The Repertoire Builder shares the same mosaic layout as the Board page. Its panels are:
- Board panel: make moves on the board to add them to the repertoire.
- Notation panel: shows the variation tree for the current repertoire. Right-click any move for annotations, comments, and branch deletion.
- Database panel: will show master game statistics for each position when the master database feature ships.
Settings page
Section titled “Settings page”Settings is divided into three sections:
- Connected Accounts: chess.com and Lichess usernames, and your display name for game identification. See Connected Accounts.
- Engine: custom engine path, hash size, thread count, and MultiPV. See Engine Configuration.
- Appearance: board theme, accent palette, and dark/light mode. See Appearance.
Theme toggle
Section titled “Theme toggle”The sun/moon button in the top-right corner of the app window switches between dark and light mode. Your preference is saved and restored on the next launch.