Preview mode
The analysis panel reads the game after the fact. Preview mode works upstream, right on the board: it projects, in translucent pieces, the expected continuation from the current position — hence its other name, Ghost mode.
It toggles via Game > Preview (Ghost mode) (Cmd + Option + G), or from the Preview selector in the toolbar, which also picks the source of the projection:
| Source | What gets projected |
|---|---|
| Engine | Stockfish’s best line |
| Book | The opening’s theoretical continuation |
| Study | The line from one of your studies |
| Collection | The most played move in a collection of your games |
| Review | The analysis’s best line at the current faulty move — see below |
The Review: the best move, in one gesture
On an analyzed game, stop on a move marked Inaccuracy, Mistake or Blunder and press Shift + →: the best line immediately projects as ghost pieces on the board, from the position before the fault. Shift + → unfolds the line move by move, Tab or Escape leaves it — the game itself is never modified, it’s a pure projection.
It’s the fastest gesture of the whole review: no panel to read, no variation to create — the answer to “what should have been played?” appears on the board, instantly, because it comes from the already-computed analysis.
Ghost pieces play out the expected continuation — here, the engine’s best line.
The use that builds progress
Replay one of your games with Preview set to your study: at every move, the projection shows what your repertoire expected — the gap between learned theory and the move actually played jumps out. The same mechanism powers repertoire training, detailed in the Studies & repertoire chapter.
With the Book source, Preview becomes a silent opening teacher: as long as the ghosts and the played moves coincide, the game is “in theory” — the first divergence marks exactly where the work begins.