Outplan your rival and checkmate the king. Chess is a free 2 player board game for one phone, online with a friend or vs the computer. Castle, promote pawns and checkmate the king to win.
How to play
Each player starts with sixteen pieces. White moves first, then the players take turns moving one piece. On one phone White sits at the bottom; online, each phone shows its own colour at the bottom.
- Tap one of your pieces to see where it can go. Dots mark empty squares and rings mark pieces you can capture.
- Tap a dot to move there, or drag the piece straight onto its square.
- On a computer you can click, or move the cursor with the arrow keys and press Space to pick up and put down.
The last move stays lit up, and a king in check glows red.
Rules
Rooks slide along ranks and files, bishops along diagonals, and the queen does both. Knights jump in an L shape, and the king steps one square in any direction. Pawns move straight forward, one square or two from their starting square, and capture one square diagonally forward.
Castling moves the king two squares towards a rook, which hops over to the other side. You can only castle if neither piece has moved, the squares between them are empty, and the king is not in check and does not pass through or land on an attacked square. En passant lets a pawn capture an enemy pawn that has just stepped two squares past it, but only on the very next move. A pawn that reaches the far side is promoted: pick a queen, rook, bishop or knight.
You may never leave your own king in check, so only legal moves are offered.
Winning and drawing
You win by checkmate: the enemy king is in check and has no way out. Online, a player who runs out of time on the move clock loses. The game is a draw by stalemate (the player to move has no legal move but is not in check), when neither side has enough material left to mate, when the same position appears three times, or after fifty moves each without a capture or a pawn move. The footer counts down the last ten.
Playing the computer
Switch Black to CPU on the setup screen and pick a level. Easy only looks at its own next move and often picks a weaker one, so it is a good partner for learning. Medium looks two moves ahead for each side. Hard thinks for up to a second and a half and calculates much deeper. The board stays smooth while it plans.
Tips
- Control the centre early with pawns and knights.
- Castle soon to tuck your king away and connect your rooks.
- Before every move, check what your opponent threatens. Many games are lost to a hanging piece.
- In the endgame, bring your king forward.
Chess takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to master, so start a quick game now.