ChessUp vs Mind Palace

ChessUp is a companion app for the ChessUp smart chessboard. The app provides chess game archives and analysis. The app can link with the chessboard over BLE to provide live Ai assistance. The app can also provide an internet connection for the board in order to play remote chess opponents on various chess platforms.

Mind Palace is an engineered implementation of the Method of Loci, the spatial-memory technique used by world memory champions. It converts arbitrary text into structured spatial cues and drives you through a measurable two-phase training loop. ENGINE - Imagery layer: each input is mapped to (icon, palette hue, scene caption, keyword set) by an on-device deterministic mapper, no LLM, no network - Three theme-coherent route layouts: Castle, Forest, Space Station, each with 8 landmark cue sets - Stable encoding: the same input produces the same cue, supporting repeated rehearsal TRAINING PROTOCOL - Phase 1 Memorize: walk the route, observe the visual encoding for each peg - Phase 2 Recall: blind input on each peg, accuracy graded per peg - Score = accuracy x 0.7 + speed x 0.3, baselined at 180 s - Tournament mode persists scores to a local leaderboard for longitudinal tracking PRIVACY AND FOOTPRINT - 100% on-device. No accounts, no analytics, no remote endpoints, no third-party SDKs - All palaces and tournament records persist in local UserDefaults - No background activity. App is dormant when closed. USE CASES - Vocabulary acquisition (L2 learning, GRE/IELTS) - Formula and definition retention (medical, engineering) - Speech and pitch rehearsal (sequential cue chains) - Procedural lists (checklists, routines) REQUIREMENTS - iPhone, iOS 17 or later - No connectivity required at any point Train with intent. Measure with rigor. Mind Palace ships the algorithm of antiquity in a clean, modern, and verifiable form.