Study tools that stay with the board

A game review often starts with a question: what changed here? You might want to write an explanation, trace a piece’s route, or check whether a newly exposed piece creates a tactic. Those tools are useful beside the board, but putting every control in Game Moves makes it harder to follow the game.

Ironwood now gives Draw on board, Notes, and Tactical Map their own translucent floating windows. Their icons sit above the board, to the left of 2D/3D. Open the tools you need, drag their titles to arrange them, and close them when you want more space.

Keep the position and its context together

The Notes window has two tabs. Note follows the displayed position; Start lets you read the game’s introduction without taking the board away from the move you are studying. The title names the move in notation and plain language, such as Notes: Nxb5 (Knight to B5).

Double-click the note text to edit it, or double-click the empty-note prompt to start writing. Double-clicking a move in Game Moves opens its note editor directly. The collapsible All notes list gathers the game’s written observations in one place, including the starting note. Notes help explains editing and sharing.

Draw a plan, then refine it

The drawing window offers four colors, squares and circles with solid or dotted outlines, and solid, dashed, or curved arrows. A curve can show a route without covering another line; dotted outlines can distinguish one group of squares from another.

You can change an arrow before releasing it. Keep holding left-click and tap right-click to switch between solid and dashed, or to reverse a curve’s direction. The preview updates immediately. Drawing also stays aligned as you zoom the 3D board.

Expand Drawings to change a color, move a shape to another square, adjust an arrow’s endpoints, or delete one entry. The list grows when you make the window taller. The window keeps a compact width, and its header has a drawing switch, Clear, and Undo. Ctrl+Z undoes drawing changes for the displayed position while the tools are open, including a deletion or Clear.

Saved games and Analysis JSON preserve the styles, as do annotated board images. Annotated PGN includes an Ironwood extension for styles; another chess app may show simpler arrows or square outlines. Drawing help covers the controls and export behavior.

Trace a tactical clue

Open the bullseye to inspect Tactical Map findings. Danger identifies attacked pieces that gained attackers or lost defenders after the previous move. Pins finds pieces shielding their king from a sliding attacker. Forks lists legal candidate moves that attack at least two enemy pieces other than pawns.

Select a card to see its relevant squares and attack lines on either board view. These findings help you choose what to examine; they do not prove a material win. Use Stockfish to test the opponent’s replies. The map is hidden during rated training games, active online play, best-move exercises, and prediction previews. Tactical Map help describes its limits.

See where the game changes phase

The expanded analysis graph now shades the opening in blue, middlegame in purple, and endgame in green. Boundary lines and labels show the ranges, while the legend and selected-position details keep the phase readable even when a band is narrow. Evaluation gaps still mean positions have not been analyzed.

The graph shares the summaries’ practical classification: the first 20 half-moves are opening. After that, Ironwood counts both sides’ non-pawn material before each move—three points for a knight or bishop, five for a rook, and nine for a queen. A total above 26 is middlegame; 26 or fewer is endgame. These are study categories, so they may differ from how you describe the position yourself.

Use the bands to find a part of the game to review, then inspect the moves, add a note, or draw the plan you missed. The phase guide explains the rules with examples, and the Gallery shows the updated graph.