Chess
Play a full game of chess against the computer or a friend, right in your browser.
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Computer
A full game of chess, against a computer opponent or a friend on the same screen — every legal move is enforced, with check, checkmate, stalemate, and the other draw rules all detected automatically, so you can just focus on playing.
Tap a piece to see its legal moves highlighted, then tap a square to move there; pawns reaching the far rank prompt you to choose what to promote to. In two-player mode, the board can flip after each move so whoever's turn it is always sees their own pieces at the bottom, which is handy for passing a phone or tablet back and forth. Once you've played some moves, copy the plain move notation or a full PGN file straight from the page — useful for saving a game or analysing it elsewhere.
The rules people most often miss
- En passant: a pawn advancing two squares past an enemy pawn can be captured as though it had moved one. The right expires immediately — it must be taken on the very next move.
- Castling requires that neither king nor rook has moved, the squares between are empty, and the king is not in check, does not pass through check, and does not land in check. The rook may pass through an attacked square.
- Stalemate is a draw, not a win. A player with no legal move who is not in check ends the game level — which has rescued countless lost positions.
- Threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule both draw. Fifty moves without a capture or pawn move ends the game regardless of material.
- Insufficient material draws automatically: king versus king, or king and a single bishop or knight, cannot deliver mate.
- A pawn reaching the eighth rank may promote to a queen, rook, bishop or knight — underpromotion to a knight occasionally wins where a queen doesn't.
Principles that carry a beginner a long way
- Control the centre. A knight on a central square reaches eight squares; one in a corner reaches two.
- Develop every minor piece before moving the same piece twice or bringing the queen out early.
- Castle within the first ten moves or so. A king in the centre is the most common cause of a short, painful game.
- Connect your rooks and put them on open files, where they do their work.
- Before every move, ask what your opponent's last move threatened. Most beginner losses are to an unnoticed one-move threat.
- Count material before trading, and remember the rough values: pawn 1, knight and bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9.
- In the endgame, activate the king. It becomes a strong attacking piece once the queens have left.
Reading the notation the tool exports
Algebraic notation names each square by file and rank — a1 to h8 — and each move by the piece letter plus the destination: Nf3 is a knight to f3, e4 is a pawn to e4 (pawns have no letter). Captures take an x (Bxc6), check a +, checkmate a #. Castling is O-O kingside and O-O-O queenside.
PGN wraps that move list in a standard file format with header tags for the event, date, players and result. Any chess application — Lichess, Chess.com, a desktop engine — will import a PGN file, so copying it from here is how you take a game elsewhere to analyse it properly.
Frequently asked questions
- What do Easy, Hard, and Advanced change?
- How many moves ahead the computer looks: Easy grabs whatever gains it the most material right now without checking your reply, Hard also checks your best response before committing, and Advanced plans two moves ahead of that — stronger, but it can take a little longer to reply.
- Which side does the computer play?
- The computer always plays black; you play white and move first.
- Does it stop illegal moves?
- Yes — only legal moves are ever allowed, and the game automatically detects check, checkmate, stalemate, insufficient material, threefold repetition, and the fifty-move rule.
- Can I undo a move?
- Yes — the Undo button steps back a move at a time; against the computer, it takes back your last move and its reply together so it's your turn again.
- Why does the board flip after each move?
- In two-player mode, "Flip board each turn" rotates the board so the player about to move always sees their own pieces at the bottom — useful when two people are sharing one screen. Turn it off to keep white at the bottom throughout.
- What's the difference between the notation and PGN copy options?
- "Move notation" copies just the plain move list (e.g. "1. e4 e5 2. Nf3"). "PGN" copies the same moves wrapped in the standard PGN file format with header tags, ready to save as a .pgn file or paste into any chess app.
- Why was my move a stalemate instead of a win?
- Stalemate happens when the side to move has no legal move but is not in check — the game is drawn. It's the classic way a winning position is thrown away, usually by leaving the opponent's king no square at all.