Chess Games

Chess is played on a board of 64 squares, with 16 pieces per side, and the winner is whoever checkmates the opposing king. This section has about 40 games, from classic matches against the computer to stranger variants.

What you'll find

Most are the standard game of chess, on a 2D or 3D board: Chess Classic, Classic Chess, Master Chess, Casual Chess, Real Chess, Ajedrez, Ajedrez 2D, Ajedrez 3D or Chess Grandmaster. In these you can usually choose whether to play white or black, and sometimes the strength of your opponent.

If you want to play with another person, there are two-player games, like Chess for Two, Two Player Chess and 2 Player Chess, which share one screen. And Chess Multiplayer says in its name that you can play against other people.

Stranger ones include Chess Solitaire, Dungeon Chess, Chess Fill, GBox ChessMazes or Eliza Queen of Chess, which depart from regular chess. Halloween Chess is a themed version.

How the pieces move

Each piece moves in its own way: the bishop diagonally; the rook in straight lines; the queen like both together; the knight in an L, and it's the only one that can jump over other pieces; the king one square at a time. The pawn moves forward but captures diagonally. With the mouse or a finger, you click the piece and then the destination square, and many games highlight the legal squares.

Three special rules surprise beginners. A pawn that reaches the last row becomes another piece, almost always a queen. Castling moves the king and a rook at once, under certain conditions. And if the player whose turn it is can't move without putting their king in check, but isn't in check right now, the game ends in a draw (stalemate), not a win.

Where to start

If you're learning, pick a game that shows the possible moves and play at a low level. The classic first tips still hold: bring out your knights and bishops early, control the center and don't move your queen too soon. Before every move, check which of your pieces is left undefended: most games are lost to an oversight, not to a brilliant move.