Free chess vs the computer, no sign-up

How to start

1. Open bigboard.games on every device and tap Start a table on one of them.
2. The others join by themselves on the same Wi-Fi; elsewhere, scan the QR code or type the four-letter code.
3. Lay the devices edge to edge, screens up, as the drawing shows, and pick the game.

One level, and how it plays

The bot has a single level. On each move it looks two moves ahead, weighing material, mobility, checks and the safety of its king, with a little seeded variety so that no two games go the same way.

That is enough to beat random moves in more than 90 % of games. It plays either colour and either board: the classic 8 × 8 against you, or its own sector of the hexagon in 3-player chess. Think of it as a sparring partner for practice and for a quick game, not an engine for analysis. The checkers bot looks two moves ahead too.

Playing it alone

Alone, start a table on one phone or tablet, add a bot, and the whole board is on your screen, facing you. The bot waits a human-like moment before each move, counted from the start of its turn, so the game has a rhythm instead of instant replies.

Clocks apply to it too. With a move timer or a chess clock turned on, the bot's time runs exactly like yours, and it can run out like anyone else. Resign is there when a position is lost, and Rematch starts the next game straight away. When a friend sits down, 2 player chess on one phone swaps the bot for a person.

A bot at a table of friends

Bots also fill seats at a table. Two people and one bot make a three-player game on the hexagon. A bot with no device of its own plays from the host device, and every screen then shows the whole board.

If the host leaves, the next device takes the bots over and keeps the same pause, so the game carries on without a hitch.

With bots: questions and answers