Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on an 8×8 grid. Each player starts with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. The goal is to checkmate your opponent's king — trapping it so it cannot escape capture.
On your turn, move one piece according to its rules. Pawns move forward one square (or two from their starting position) and capture diagonally. Rooks move in straight lines, bishops move diagonally, and the queen combines both. Knights move in an L-shape and can jump over other pieces. The king moves one square in any direction.
Special moves include castling (swapping king and rook positions for safety), en passant (capturing a pawn that just advanced two squares), and promotion (turning a pawn into a queen or other piece when it reaches the far side).
In this free online chess game, you play as white against an AI opponent. Choose from three difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, or Hard. Click a piece to see its legal moves highlighted in green, then click a destination square to move. Use the Takeback button for one undo per game.
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