What is Chess?
With two players, it's the classic 8×8 board. With three, the board is a hexagon of 96 squares: each player owns a home area of 4 ranks by 8 files along one edge, with their pieces set up as in ordinary chess.
By default each device shows only its own player's home area, so the board is split across the table. Three tablets in a triangle, top edges inward, each show their own sector, and together they read as one hexagon.
How it plays
The goal is to capture the king. There's no check rule: any move is allowed, and taking a king knocks that player out. The last player in wins, and everyone gets a place.
Pick a piece and every device lights the squares it can reach. A move can end on another player's screen: tap the lit square there.
Castling, en passant and promotion work as in classic chess, with the queen preselected for promotion. A player with no legal move passes. Resigning takes two taps.
With three players, the lobby picks what a captured king means: the army freezes, its pieces left as grey obstacles that can be captured (the default); the match ends and the capturer wins; or the capturer takes over the army.
Clocks are optional and off by default: 15, 30 or 60 seconds a move, after which a random legal move is played for you, or a chess clock of 5, 10 or 15 minutes each. Run out of it and you're out.
What you need
2 or 3 devices, one per player: phones or tablets. A short intro at the start names who sits on your left and who on your right.
Two players can also share one device and pass it. The whole board stays on one screen, never turned, and its edges glow in the color of whoever is to move.
Ways to play
- Home areas
- The default. Each device shows only its own player's part of the board; together they make the whole board.
- Whole board
- Every device shows the full board, turned so its own player sits at the bottom.
- Two players, one device
- Two players, one device, the whole board on one screen.
Why it's fun at a table
Three players change chess. Every attack on one opponent leaves you open to the other, and a knocked-out army can stay on the board in everyone's way, or change hands.
With the board split across the devices, an attack really crosses the table: your move lands on the other player's screen.
Chess: questions and answers
When is Chess coming out?
There's no release date yet. Until then, the games at the bottom of this page play on the same phones and tablets today.
How does chess for three players work?
On a hexagonal board of 96 squares. Each player has the usual army in a home area along one edge, and the last player with a king wins.
Can we play on one device?
With two players, yes: the whole board stays on one screen, and you pass the device after each move. Three players need three devices.
Will it be free?
Yes. Like every game on BIGBOARD.GAMES, it plays in the browser, with no app.