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Chess against rivals that play like people

Our chess game is Kingsway Chess. You travel a road called the Kingsway through five regions, The Meadows, Riverbend Town, Greyspire Pass, The Frozen Keep and The Sky Citadel, and six rivals live in each one. Beat a rival and the road opens to the next.

The first rivals really do play like beginners. They leave pieces hanging, miss forks and love a flashy check, and for the first five the coach points out any loose piece you could grab. By Riverbend Town they're steady club players. The last three in the Sky Citadel play at our engine's full strength, and The Oracle at the end of the road thinks for about seven seconds a move. Shown ratings run from 250 for Pip, the very first rival, to around 2600 at the top.

Every rival offers three crowns: one for winning, one for winning with no undo or hints, and one for winning within 40 of your moves or finishing at least 5 points of material ahead. There are 90 crowns in all, and beating each region's boss unlocks a new board and piece set.

Puzzles, Puzzle Rush and the Daily Puzzle

Off the road there's a rated puzzle mode that starts you at 800 and moves you up or down like a player rating. Puzzle Rush gives you three minutes and three lives to solve as many as you can. The Daily Puzzle is the same position for everyone and changes at midnight UTC. You start with 1000 points, lose 200 for each wrong try and 250 for each hint, and can earn up to 500 more for speed. Rush and Daily scores both go on the leaderboards.

Hints, threats and game review

Nothing is locked behind a paywall. Hint draws a green arrow with a strong move, and Threats circles every piece of yours that can be taken for free. After any game, Review runs the engine over every move, draws an evaluation graph and labels moves from Brilliant to Blunder, with an accuracy score for each side. The Mistakes button jumps straight to your next slip, which is the fastest way we know to stop making it.

You can also play Quick Play against any rival you've reached or a strength slider, choose White, Black or Random, or hand the phone back and forth in Pass and Play with an optional clock.

New to chess?

Start with our Kingsway Chess guide, which covers how every piece moves, castling, en passant and the five ways a game can be drawn. Then read chess openings for beginners for the first ten moves. If you'd like something lighter after a long game, Crown Jump Checkers is full-rules checkers with a 20-rival world tour.

Stuck on a rival? Our article on how to beat the computer at chess explains what the early rivals tend to miss and how each one's style gives it away.

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