--- title: Chess Puzzles for Everyone: Accessibility & Offline SRS in Tactiq description: Three months ago, I introduced Tactiq — a minimalist, offline-first puzzle trainer. Thanks to your feedback, Tactiq has grown from v1.6 to v1.13. Here is how Lichess players shaped our biggest updates yet: complete TalkBack screen-reader accessibility, offline Spaced Repetition ("Revenge" mode), and an 85% reduction in app download size (from 72MB down to just 9.5MB). image: https://image.lichess1.org/display?fmt=webp&h=550&op=thumbnail&path=nKZjm59M006o.webp&w=880&sig=1c7db089ea30019d9460d9b6c9e623810d4635d6 --- Three months ago, I posted here about building **Tactiq** — a minimalist, offline-first puzzle trainer designed for daily commutes and quiet focus. The feedback from this community has been invaluable. You tested the app on subways, during power outages, and in everyday routines. More importantly, you pointed out critical gaps that I hadn't considered. Today, Tactiq moves from version 1.6 to 1.13. Every major feature in this release started as a conversation with a real player, and I want to share three key updates we built together. 1. **Complete Screen-Reader Accessibility (TalkBack Support)** A few weeks after my last post, I received a message from a visually impaired player asking if the chessboard supported screen readers. At the time, like many mobile chess apps, Tactiq relied heavily on visual rendering — making it almost unusable for players using Google TalkBack. Chess is one of the most accessible games in the world, and a digital trainer should be no exception. Over the past two months, we rebuilt the entire board and UI navigation from the ground up for accessibility: **Spoken Board State & Moves:** Every piece selection, square coordinate, and move announcement is properly labeled for TalkBack. **Explore Mode & Puzzle Results:** You can step through Stockfish engine lines, review puzzle feedback, and adjust settings entirely by sound. **Accessible Navigation: All screens** — from Statistics to Settings — now follow strict accessibility focus trees without duplicate announcements or trapped focus. If you or someone you know uses screen readers on Android, I would love your feedback on how the board audio navigation feels in real practice. 2. **"Revenge" Mode: Spaced Repetition for Failed Puzzles** One of the most common complaints about tactical training is simple: *"I solve 50 puzzles a day, but I keep making the exact same tactical mistakes in real games."* When you solve a puzzle by chance or fail a complex combination, most apps just move on to the next position. The mistake disappears into history, and your brain never gets a chance to encode the pattern into long-term memory. To fix this, we built **Revenge Mode** — a built-in Spaced Repetition System (SRS) designed specifically for tactical patterns: **Automatic Failed-Puzzle Queue:** Whenever you fail a puzzle, it is automatically saved to your local Revenge queue. **Smart Review Intervals:** The SRS engine resurfaces failed positions at optimal intervals (hours, days, weeks) until you achieve **Mastery**. **Offline Spaced Repetition:** Just like the rest of Tactiq, your entire review queue and SRS schedule live on your device — working 100% offline. Instead of endlessly grinding random positions, you can now revisit your personal weak spots until the pattern becomes second nature. | | | | --- | --- | | ![viber_image_2026-08-03_13-20-39-692.jpg](https://image.lichess1.org/display?op=noop&path=-Dih_a0bkVG_.jpg&sig=352ab77e17e2590bffdbe61e2a478fcbc878642f) | ![viber_image_2026-08-03_13-20-39-646.jpg](https://image.lichess1.org/display?op=noop&path=lGG244L7R2R5.jpg&sig=8b8e5342e501579b8b6426c777f091c50927d7ea) | 3. **Shrinking App Download Size: 72 MB → 9.5 MB** Offline-first training requires running a full chess engine locally on your phone. However, shipping native Stockfish binaries often inflates app size, consuming valuable storage and making downloads slow on spotty mobile data. We overhauled our native build pipeline, optimizing Stockfish binaries and tailoring native architectures (\`arm64-v8a\`). The results directly from the Google Play Console: **85% Smaller Download:** Total app download size dropped by **62.5 MB** — down from \~72 MB to just **9.49 MB**. **5-Second Downloads:** Average download time on mobile data dropped from 44s to just **5 seconds**. **Instant Guest-First Launch:** You can download Tactiq in seconds and start solving puzzles immediately without setup friction or mandatory registration.![Screenshot 2026-08-03 at 13.01.30.png](https://image.lichess1.org/display?fmt=png&h=0&op=resize&path=tZweqTgQbKBZ.png&w=800&sig=334cf216746cc4fa7f47f0cb64950a5fbf739763) #### **What Else Is New in v1.13?** Alongside these core changes, we’ve added several community-requested updates: * **Game Phase Filters:** You can now filter puzzles specifically by **Opening**, **Middlegame**, or **Endgame** positions. * **Smart Weakness Recommendations:** The Learn screen now highlights your weakest tactical motifs based on your actual miss-rate, suggesting targeted practice sessions. * **Puzzle History Replay:** Easily browse past solved positions and step through engine variations directly in Explore Mode. | | | | --- | --- | | ![Screenshot_20260802_204002.png](https://image.lichess1.org/display?fmt=png&h=0&op=resize&path=P8zFGb4g7qMv.png&w=800&sig=711e3d4136a39091cb3c99c713f764a4687ed73b) | ![Screenshot_20260802_203834.png](https://image.lichess1.org/display?fmt=png&h=0&op=resize&path=D9S7L2z4SKa4.png&w=800&sig=f1811044cce782829eb2fc7a4010f0966e7b5409) | I’d Love Your Critique **Tactiq** remains 100% ad-free, lightweight, and focused purely on helping you improve your tactical vision. If you have a few minutes to test the new release, I’d genuinely appreciate your thoughts: 1. **Accessibility Users:** How does TalkBack board navigation feel during active puzzle solving? 2. **Revenge Mode:** Does spaced repetition help you retain failed patterns better than random solving? 3. **What’s Next:** What feature is still missing from your daily offline training routine? You can try the latest version here: [Tactiq on Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.tactiq) Thank you to everyone on Lichess who continues to share feedback and shape Tactiq. — **Tactiq Dev**