Chess Arena
Chess Arena is the classic game of chess on a clean, modern board. Every rule is here: castling on both sides, en passant captures, pawn promotion with a choice of piece, check, checkmate and stalemate, plus the draw rules of threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule and insufficient material. Move by dragging a piece or by tapping it and then its target square; legal moves are highlighted, the last move is marked, and the move list keeps the whole game in standard notation.
Play against the computer at five levels, from Beginner, which makes plenty of mistakes while you learn, up to Master, which searches many moves ahead in a second and a half. The engine varies its openings, so no two games start the same way. Take back moves, ask for a hint, flip the board and come back later: an unfinished game against the computer is saved automatically. Pass one device back and forth for a game with a friend, with or without a chess clock.
Go online for real games with a clock: quick match a random opponent at 3+2, 5+0 or 10+0, or create a private room and share its four-letter code with a friend. Offer a draw, resign, or win when your opponent runs out of time or leaves. Sharpen your tactics with 30 checkmate puzzles, from mate in one to mate in three, and climb the leaderboards for wins against the computer, online wins and puzzles solved.
How to play
- White moves first, then the players take turns. Drag a piece to a highlighted square, or tap the piece and then the square.
- Each piece moves its own way: the king one square, the queen any distance in a line, the rook straight, the bishop diagonally, the knight in an L shape, and pawns forward, capturing diagonally.
- Special moves: castle by moving the king two squares toward a rook, capture en passant right after an enemy pawn jumps two squares past yours, and promote a pawn that reaches the last rank.
- Attack the enemy king to give check. If the king cannot escape check, it is checkmate and the game is won.
- A game is drawn by stalemate, threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule, insufficient material or agreement.
Controls
| Mouse / touch | Drag a piece, or tap it and then a highlighted square |
|---|---|
| Tap the selected piece | Deselect it |
| U / Backspace | Undo (against the computer or two players) |
| F | Flip the board |
| H | Hint |
| Esc | Menu |
- Developer
- peakr.io
- Released
- Platforms
- Browser (desktop and mobile)
- Players
- Single player and online multiplayer