Noctie Flashcards: Turn Your Mistakes into Puzzles
Flashcards are chess puzzles in Noctie that you practice repeatedly until they stick. After each game Noctie automatically generates flashcards from your biggest mistakes, adds them to your flashcard queue, and uses spaced repetition to show you the ones that need practice the most. There are also hand-made flashcards — the daily puzzles and curated puzzle collections — that go into the same queue.
Where flashcards come from
There are two sources, and they land in one place:
- Automatic flashcards from your games. Noctie’s move feedback already grades every move from Blunder to Excellent by how it looks from a human perspective. When a game ends, it picks the most instructive mistakes — not necessarily the biggest engine swings — and turns each into a puzzle: the position before your mistake, and the better move you should find.
- Manual flashcards. The daily puzzle and curated puzzle collections — including the flashcards inside Noctie’s lessons (“Themes”) — are flashcards too. Solving them adds them to your queue so they come back for review. (Weekly scenarios are different: they are playable positions you try to win, not cards.)
Because the automatic cards are built from your games, the queue is a personal record of the patterns you keep missing — the opposite of a generic tactics trainer.
How the flashcard queue works
- After a game, open your flashcards and you will find new cards generated from that game.
- Solve a card by finding the better move on the board. Noctie’s instant feedback tells you whether the idea is right.
- Each card is then re-scheduled: cards you solve confidently come back later, cards you miss come back sooner. This is spaced repetition — the same principle language-learning apps use — applied to positions from your own play.
- Return to the queue whenever you have 5 minutes; Noctie always surfaces the cards that are due.
Getting the most out of your flashcards
- Play first, review second. Cards only exist if you play games with feedback on. A couple of games a day feeds the queue with exactly the mistakes you make under real conditions.
- Read the feedback color, not just the answer. The color on the original move (Mistake, Blunder, Dubious) tells you how serious the pattern is; a repeated orange in similar structures deserves a lesson.
- Combine with Themes. Noctie’s interactive lessons teach the concept behind a pattern; the flashcards test it in your own positions. Roadmap note: custom flashcard decks from PGNs is in progress and better flashcards (fewer duplicates, higher quality) as coming up.
- Don’t clear the queue in one sitting. Spaced repetition works because it spreads reviews out. Short daily sessions beat one long weekly cram.
Flashcards from your online games
You can also link your Chess.com or Lichess account name and review your online games, so puzzles are generated from your online mistakes too — see importing your Chess.com and Lichess games. The result is one queue covering both the games you play against Noctie and the games you play against people.
Flashcards and your subscription
Puzzles from your mistakes are part of every plan (monthly €14/month or yearly €8/month billed annually), and the free 7-day trial gives you full access, so you can see the queue fill up from your own games before deciding. Your flashcards stay with your account across web, iOS and Android.