Really Bad Chess

Maybe you were one of the many people who began playing chess because you watched “The Queen’s Gambit” during the pandemic. Or maybe you attempted to play chess and realized: Oh yeah, chess is actually pretty hard. Whatever your skill level, Really Bad Chess is a modern take on the classic game, where pieces are randomized and not mirrored. With a different board every day, and an Undo button if you get stuck, everyone can channel their inner Anya Taylor-Joy.

How to play chess:

You are playing as white, your goal is to use your pieces to take your opponent’s black pieces, and eventually checkmate their king. Don’t let them put your king into checkmate. Each piece type has its own movement pattern that can be seen by tapping (or hovering) over it. After making a move be sure to confirm it by tapping again.

Check

If either the black king or white king is threatened, it will cry for help. It must either move away from threat or have a piece moved to block the threat.

Checkmate

If either king is under threat and cannot escape, or, it is the only piece remaining and cannot move into a square that isn’t under threat, the game is over. If you checkmated the black king this way, you’ve won!

How to play Really Bad Chess:

Unlike normal chess, in Really Bad Chess the piece allocations are randomized and not mirrored. Each day everyone on Puzzmo plays with the same piece configuration. Try to get a checkmate in the least number of moves! If you make a mistake you can always undo — but beware you cannot undo twice in a row.

Scoring

You are scored based on the number of moves that it took to checkmate the black king. Try to win in the lowest number of moves. Moves taken before an undo still count towards your score. As always, there are many ways to play Puzzmo! If least moves isn’t your thing, consider trying to checkmate the black king in the fastest time.

Keyboard controls

Use the arrow keys and spacebar / return to pickup and move pieces. You can also select squares by typing in board coordinates.