Chess
Human-like AI, a master engine and online play with a clock
Play chess free in your browser against human-like AI from beginner to advanced or a master-level engine, or play online with a clock, with lessons and puzzles in 11 languages.
Features
Four AI levels
Beginner to advanced play like real people at those strengths, and the master level runs a full chess engine.
Online play with a clock
Quick matching at bullet, blitz or rapid, or a private room shared by link with your choice of time control.
Lessons and puzzles
A beginner's guide plus a library of openings, tactics, strategy, checkmates, endgames and daily puzzles.
Eleven languages
The game, the guide and the lessons are available in eleven languages, from English and Japanese to Portuguese.
How it works
- 1
Meet the pieces
Read the short how-to-play guide to learn how the six pieces move and the special rules.
- 2
Pick an opponent
Choose a computer level, join quick matching, or send a friend the link to a private room.
- 3
Checkmate the king
Attack the enemy king so it has no escape. Stalemate, repetition and insufficient material are draws.
About the game
Chess is played on an 8 × 8 board by two players, White and Black, each starting with sixteen pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. White moves first. The goal is to checkmate the opposing king, attacking it so that it cannot escape. The game also has a few special rules — castling, en passant and pawn promotion — and several ways to end in a draw, including stalemate, threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule.
The site is built for families and newcomers as much as for regular players. A grandparent can teach a grandchild the moves on a phone, and a returning player can find an opponent at the right strength in a few seconds.
What we built
Seriauth wrote the rules engine in house and checked its move generation against standard perft counts. The beginner, intermediate and advanced levels run Maia-3, a neural network trained to predict human moves at a given rating, so the computer plays like a person rather than a machine on reduced settings. The master level runs Stockfish in the browser. Both run on the player’s device, with no server round trip. Games against the computer include undo, a reviewable move list, a flip-board option and a computer opponent that comments in short chat lines.
Online play offers quick matching at three time controls and private rooms with a choice of five, with a chess clock, draw offers, rematches, spectating and moderated chat. A learning section covers the rules, openings, tactics, strategy, checkmates and endgames, with interactive boards and daily puzzles, in 11 languages. The site can be installed as a progressive web app.
FAQ
Is the AI really human-like?
Yes. The beginner, intermediate and advanced levels are trained on real games, so they make the kind of moves and mistakes a person at that level would. The master level is a conventional engine for experienced players.
Do I need an account to play online?
No. You pick a nickname and either join quick matching or share the link to a private room. Games are timed, with draw offers and rematches.
I have never played chess. Where do I start?
Read the how-to-play guide, which takes a few minutes per page, then play the Beginner level, which plays like someone who has just learned the moves.
Is there anything to install?
No. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, and can be added to the home screen as an app.
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