Play like your opponent: practise against any player's style

Type a Lichess or Chess.com username and play a practice bot that copies that player's openings and plays at about their rating. Free, no account needed.

Updated 29 October 2026 · 2 min read

Got a match coming up, or a friend you keep losing to? Play like your opponent builds a practice bot from a real player's public games, so you can rehearse against their openings before you face them.

How to use it

1. Open Play like your opponent (it's also on the Play page and the bot list).
2. Choose Lichess or Chess.com and type a username, or paste a profile link.
3. Press Build bot. ChessMess reads up to 200 of their latest public standard games (on Chess.com, from the last 8 months).
4. Read the summary, choose your colour and time control, then Play the practice bot.

What the summary shows

• the bot's rating and how many games it's built from;
• their rating in each time control with at least 3 games;
• wins, draws and losses, and their top openings as White and as Black;
• style hints such as "Meets 1.e4 with 1...c5 in 64% of games";
• a warning if fewer than 20 games were found.

How the bot plays

While the game follows the player's usual lines (up to 16 moves into the game), the bot picks their moves in proportion to how often they played them. Once the game leaves their repertoire, it plays on at about their rating for that time control. Ratings are kept between 250 and 3000.

A practice bot copies a player's opening choices and plays at about their rating — it isn't them. ChessMess isn't affiliated with Lichess or Chess.com.

Limits and privacy

You can build 20 new bots an hour (looking up a player again is free). Profiles are kept in server memory for 6 hours and nothing else is stored; your recent opponents are remembered only in your browser.

Questions and answers

Can I practise against a specific chess player?

Yes. Enter their Lichess or Chess.com username and ChessMess builds a bot from their public games that copies their openings and plays at about their rating.

Does the bot play exactly like them?

No. It follows their real opening choices, then plays at about their rating. It's a practice partner, not the person.