Fixing Blunders, Boosting Security & Opening the Rookify Community
007 - Tightening up Practice Mode, locking the doors with a security pass, and opening the Rookify community to the world.
Hey folks, welcome back
This week was less about flashy new features and more about making sure Rookify feels stable, accurate, and safe for the people now starting to use it. Think of it as tightening the bolts and oiling the gears before inviting more passengers onto the train.
Practice Mode Blunders (Literally)
Last week’s Practice Mode launch had a hilarious (and slightly terrifying) bug, some absolute howlers of moves were being marked as “best.” Imagine hanging your queen and being told: “Brilliant!”
Turns out the issue was that Stockfish was being forced to evaluate moves through the lens of engine strength & playstyle customisation. That’s great for suggestions, but when it came to classifying moves, it made the evaluator lose track of what was actually the top line along with the top position scores.
The fix:
Classifications → always use full-strength Stockfish. Accuracy first.
Suggestions → can still flex to Elo levels and playstyle preferences, so you get those fun “what would a 1800-rated positional player play here?” type vibes.
Now you get the best of both worlds: rock-solid accuracy when grading your moves, and playful flexibility when exploring “what if” lines.
✨ A Bit of UI Polish
Since the Explore and Login pages are now officially public-facing, I spent some time making them a little easier on the eyes:
Proper light and dark mode colour schemes
Switched to the Poppins font for a friendlier, modern look
Nothing earth-shattering here, but sometimes small design touches make the whole experience feel more polished.
🔒 Locking the Doors (Security Review)
Here’s the less glamorous but very necessary bit: I had a cyber-security specialist review Rookify, and… let’s just say I’m very glad I did.
They found a couple of areas where, in theory, someone could’ve spammed certain endpoints and basically tried to knock the app over with a DoS attack. Not cool.
So I went on a bit of a security hardening spree:
Sanitised all FEN input to block dodgy payloads
Added rate limiting so nobody can hammer the servers endlessly
Gated heavy analysis endpoints behind proper auth & API keys
Locked down sensitive admin routes (rook to d8, so to speak)
Tightened content security policies so the app only talks to itself
Cleaned up logging so no secrets get accidentally exposed
Is this the fun, sexy side of building? Nope. But it’s the kind of work that means when you log in, you can actually trust the platform.
🧪 A Quick Recap: Explore + Practice Mode
Since a few of you are new here, let me quickly recap what’s already live on Rookify:
Explore Mode → Set up any custom chess position, tweak Stockfish’s Elo strength and playstyle (Aggressive, Balanced, Positional), and see how the lines change. Great for experimenting and sandboxing ideas.
Practice Mode → Play moves from a position with no feedback until after you commit. Stockfish then grades your move (Brilliant → Blunder) and shows what you missed. Perfect for testing yourself under pressure.
Both modes are available here: https://rookify.io
Right now, I’m allowing 100 free Practice Mode spaces to kick-off our user base. As I write this, there are roughly 70 spots left — so if you’re curious, now’s the time to grab one.
🫂 Discord Server Launch
I’ve also set up the Rookify Discord server
This is where:
Early testers can give feedback on Explore + Practice Mode
Chess players can nerd out about improvement
Anyone curious about vibe coding can follow along in real time
Come hang out here: https://discord.gg/rqH44YYhQh
I’d love for you to join — whether you want to help shape Rookify, share chess memes, or just lurk and see what happens.
That’s it for this week — another mundane, but super important for building a solid foundation. Next week, I’ll be diving back into the Skill Tree work and pushing further toward the ML-powered coaching vision.
Thanks for reading,
– Anthon
Chief Vibes Officer @ Rookify