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Chess

Free chess that runs in your browser. Play the computer at three strengths, or pass the phone across the table and play a person on the same board. One button switches between the two.

Free
No ads
No account
No download
Works offline
Single player

How do you play?

Pick an opponent - The computer at three strengths, or two people on one device. The same button switches back whenever you want.
Tap a piece - Its legal squares light up, castling and en passant among them the moment either is available.
Tap where it goes - The piece moves. Tapping a dark square does nothing, so an illegal move is not something you can play by accident.
Promote a pawn - A pawn reaching the far rank stops and asks. Queen, rook, bishop or knight, and it is a real choice rather than a formality.
Leave and come back - The board saves itself. Shut the tab and the same game opens next time.

About this game

Tap a piece and every square it may legally reach lights up. Tap one of them and the piece goes there. That is the whole interface. Nothing to type, no notation to learn, and no settings screen standing between a seven-year-old and a game.

The rules are complete, which is less common on free chess sites than it ought to be. Castling on both wings. En passant. A promotion that genuinely asks which of 4 pieces you want instead of handing you a queen. Stalemate, threefold repetition, and the fifty-move rule counted the way the rulebook counts it, at 100 half-moves. We checked the move generator against the standard perft counts: 20 legal first moves, 400 positions once both sides have played, 197,281 after four half-moves. Leave one rule out and those numbers come out different, which is exactly why everybody tests with them.

Illegal squares never light up.

Against the computer there is a take-back button. Against a person there is none. That is deliberate. Two people sharing a screen have each other to answer to, and a move you can quietly undo is not really a move. A child playing the machine has nobody to apologise to, so letting them walk a blunder back is the difference between learning what a bishop does and giving up on it.

The position saves itself on the device. Close the tab mid-game, come back tomorrow, and the same board is waiting with the same side to move. What that costs you is that a phone and a tablet are two separate boards. We never asked you for an account, so there is nothing to join them with.

What does it teach?

Thinking a move ahead

Every move opens something and shuts something else. Chess is the cheapest place to discover that, because the mistake costs one game and nothing more.

Reading a threat

Asking what the last move attacked, before carrying on with your own plan. That is the whole skill in one sentence.

Sitting with a hard problem

There is no clock, so two minutes on one move is allowed. Children are not handed many chances to do that.

Losing without a fuss

A new board is one tap away. A loss costs precisely nothing, and that is what makes trying things possible.

Tips

Open toward the middle

A centre pawn two squares forward frees a bishop and a knight in one move. Of the 20 first moves you are allowed, two of them do most of the work.

Knights before bishops

A knight in the corner sees 2 squares. The same knight in the middle sees 8. Nothing else on the board gains value that fast, so it comes out first.

Count before you trade

Count the attackers and the defenders on a square before you take on it. Most beginner losses are one trade that looked even and was not.

A draw is a result

Down on material, stalemate and threefold repetition are on your side. Holding a draw against the hard computer is a win in everything but name.

What age is it for?

6 to 7

Together, and without counting who won. At this age the job is remembering how each piece travels, and the lit squares do that part for them.

8 to 10

The easy computer, alone. This is when a child starts seeing threats rather than just moving.

11 and up

Medium, then hard. From here it is a game rather than an exercise.

Grown-ups

Hard, with the take-back left alone. Or against a person, which is a different game entirely.

Accessibility

One tap picks a piece up and a second tap moves it. No dragging and no press-and-hold, so it works with alternative input devices and with a hand that does not aim well yet. The legal squares light up, which means nothing depends on remembering how a knight travels. There is no clock anywhere in the game, so a long think costs nothing and a position can sit unfinished for a week. You can play the whole thing with the sound off and miss nothing.

Playing together

Pass the phone

Two players, one board, and the computer out of the picture. The button switches into that mode and back.

Say why

One sentence before each move about what it does. It slows the game down and improves it more than any advice you could give.

Two heads, one side

Both of you against the computer, agreeing every move before anyone taps. The arguments are the good part.

Spot the threat

After each of the opponent's moves, the other person says what it attacked. A child who learns that stops losing pieces for free.

Common questions

Is the chess game free?

Completely. No payment, no in-game purchases, and no paid version, because there is no other version. Every game on the site is open from the first second.

Do I need to download or sign up?

No. It runs in the browser, with no download and no account. We do not ask for an email either.

Can two people play on one device?

Yes, and it is a proper mode rather than a workaround. One button switches between playing the computer and two players handing the device back and forth.

Are all the chess rules there?

Yes. Castling, en passant, promotion to any of four pieces, stalemate, threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule. The move generator hits 20, 400 and 197,281 on the standard perft tests, and those numbers do not come out right when a rule is missing.

Is there a clock?

There is not. No timer, no countdown, and no move that runs out on you. Think for as long as you like.

Can I take a move back?

Against the computer, yes. Against a person, no. A move played in front of somebody stays played, because otherwise there is no game.

Can I play other people online?

No. There is no server and no connection to anyone, so there is no rating, no lobby and nobody who can message your child. Your opponents are the computer, or whoever is sitting next to you.

Does it remember where I was?

Yes. The position is saved on the device, so you can close it mid-game and come back to the same board. Clearing your browser storage erases it.

Can I play offline?

Yes. After one visit the game is stored on the device and runs on a plane.

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