Court Chess

Play real chess against a computer player at Easy, Standard, or Expert, with the same rules you learned at the kitchen table. The pieces are the Company: two sides of sixteen, one in red and gold, one in green and black, and every capture is acted out in a few seconds of small, polite comedy.

How this table works

Before the first move you choose your side. The Court, in red and gold, moves first and is the default; the Field, in green and black, moves second. Then you pick the computer player's level for the whole game: Easy, Standard, or Expert. The computer player is Edwin, and he sees exactly the board you see.

To move, tap one of your pieces. The squares it can reach light up, and a capture is marked differently from an empty square. Tap a square to go there, or tap the piece again to put it down. On a computer you can also drag a piece to its square. With a keyboard, the arrow keys move around the board and Enter chooses a square. The last move stays marked, and a king in check glows so you can't miss it.

When a pawn reaches the far side, a small window asks what it becomes: queen, rook, bishop, or knight. To castle, move your king two squares toward the rook; the rook jumps over by itself. The pieces you have taken sit at the sides of the board with a running count of material, so you can see who is ahead without counting.

Undo (key U) takes back your last move and Edwin's reply. Hint (key H) shows the move an Expert player would make. Resign asks once, then ends the game as a loss. The Menu has Replay this deal, Today's deal, statistics, and Copy deal details. To see the Company play a whole game by itself, watch a game. Sound starts off; the speaker button switches it on.

The Intermission button

Someone at the door? Tap Intermission on the toolbar, or press the panic key, ` left of 1, and the board vanishes behind office work or a plain curtain. Where your browser allows it, the cover fills the screen and the tab's title turns dull; Escape pressed twice covers only the window. Return with the panic key, Escape twice, or the small control in a corner, and the position is just as you left it. Under Menu, Table settings, pick the screen (Dashboard, Inbox, Code editor, Spreadsheet, Project plan, Report, or Curtain), turn Go full screen on or off, and set the Panic key: `, \ or F2. Read more.

How to play chess

If you haven't played in forty years, this is the whole game again, briefly. Two sides, sixteen pieces each, on an eight-by-eight board of alternating light and dark squares. White moves first, and here that is the Court. Players take turns, one move at a time, and nobody may pass. The aim is not to take everything but to trap the enemy king.

How each piece moves

• The king moves one square in any direction. It may never move onto a square the enemy attacks.
• The queen moves any distance in a straight line: along a row, a column, or a diagonal.
• The rook moves any distance along a row or a column.
• The bishop moves any distance along a diagonal, and so stays on the same color of square all game.
• The knight moves in an L: two squares one way and one square at a right angle. It is the only piece that jumps over others.
• The pawn moves one square straight ahead, or two squares on its first move, and it captures one square diagonally forward. It never moves backward, and it can't capture the piece standing right in front of it.

Except for the knight, no piece may jump over another. A piece captures by landing on the square of an enemy piece, which is then removed. You may not land on a square held by your own side.

Check, checkmate, and the end of the game

A king under attack is in check. When you are in check you must deal with it on your very next move: move the king out of the way, block the attack, or capture the piece giving it. A move that leaves your own king attacked is not allowed, and the table won't let you make it. If you are in check and nothing works, that is checkmate and you have lost. The king is never actually captured. The game simply ends there.

Castling

Once per game, you can tuck your king away and bring a rook into play in a single move. The king moves two squares toward a rook, and that rook jumps to the square the king just crossed. It is allowed only if neither piece has moved before, nothing stands between them, and the king is not in check, does not pass over an attacked square, and does not land on one.

En passant

Say your pawn stands on its fifth row and an enemy pawn next to it advances two squares in one move, landing right beside yours. For one move only, you may capture it as if it had advanced a single square, moving diagonally behind it. Wait a turn and the chance is gone. The name is French for "in passing."

Promotion

A pawn that reaches the far end of the board becomes a queen, a rook, a bishop, or a knight of its own color, as you choose. You are not limited to pieces you have lost, so a player can have two or even three queens. Nearly everyone picks the queen. The table calls the queen from the reserve, with a small ceremony.

Draws

Not every game has a winner. It is a draw when:

• Stalemate: the player to move is not in check but has no legal move.
• Repetition: the same position, with the same side to move and the same castling and en passant rights, appears three times.
• Fifty moves: fifty moves by each side pass with no pawn move and no capture.
• Too few pieces: neither side could give checkmate however the rest of the game went, such as a lone king against a king and a single bishop.

In the official laws, a player must claim a draw by repetition or by the fifty-move rule. At this table the draw is declared for you as soon as it happens, which spares you from counting. The table has no clock, no draw offers, and no touch-move rule: choosing a piece doesn't oblige you to move it.

The two sides

The Court is the Hearts and Diamonds, in red and gold. The Field is the Clubs and Spades, in green and black. Each piece is a character from the Company with a trade and a temperament, and each keeps the card it is dealt: a piece is always a particular card, which is how the table knows whom to call when a pawn reaches the end of the board.

On the board, every piece wears a ring in its side's color and a small chess symbol in the corner, so you can tell a rook from a bishop at a glance whatever the portrait looks like. Captured pieces wait at the edge of the board, where their faces stay visible. When a pawn is promoted to a queen, the Court sends the Queen of Diamonds from the reserve, and the Field sends the Queen of Clubs.

The scenes

Whenever a piece is captured, the table cuts to a short scene: two panels, the capturing piece on the left and the captured piece on the right, each in front of a plain gray studio wall and a chessboard floor. The two characters act out the capture, one word appears at the moment of impact, a sound plays, and the Herald says a line. Then the table cuts straight back, with the capturing piece already on its new square. A scene lasts between two and a half and four seconds.

The comedy is of the courtly, office-politics kind. A pawn out-bows its victim until the victim topples. A steward tries three keys on his victim, and the third one clicks. A sergeant shouts and the other piece marches off. A king holds his sword in the air so long that his target gets bored and leaves. Nobody is hurt and nobody is ever the butt of the joke: the pieces fall over, hand in their notice, or leave very offended. The king himself is never captured. When a king is checkmated, he surrenders, and the surrender is the scene.

A few moments have scenes of their own: two queens facing each other, a pawn who takes a queen and needs a moment, two rooks settling who has seniority, castling, en passant, promotion, and a draw. The same scene never plays twice in a row, and the third time one appears in a game, it is cut down to a quick version.

You are in charge of how much of this you see. Tap or press any key during a scene and it ends at once. Switch Scenes off in Settings and every capture happens instantly, with the Herald's line. If your device is set to reduce motion, the scene becomes a still picture with its word and the Herald's line, with nothing moving.

Court mode

Court mode is off until you turn it on. When it is on, now and then someone from the Company wanders over the table: the jester pops up and gets cut off, the court musician plays hold music if you've been thinking for a minute, a falconer runs after his falcon, a shepherd looks for a sheep, or the signaler blows a horn for nothing. None of it touches the position or counts as a move. Tap to send them away, and they never appear during a capture.

Settings

Open the Menu, then Table settings. Beyond the usual board size and speed, chess adds a few of its own. The shared Pieces setting, also on the toolbar, switches between the Company's portraits and Classic pieces: plain chess pieces, large and easy to tell apart.

• Scenes (on by default) acts out each capture. Turn it off for fast games.
• Voice (off by default) reads each move aloud, such as "Knight to f3" or "Queen takes bishop on d2," and says "Check" after every check. Now and then it also reads one of the Herald's or the narrator's remarks. It uses the voice your device already has and sends nothing anywhere. It stays quiet during Intermission.
• Table view (off by default) tilts the board as if you were seated at it and stands each member of the Company on their square, nearer rows in front. It appears only on a wide screen used with a mouse, and moves, keys and scenes work just as on the flat board.
• Court mode allows the interruptions described above.
• Size makes the board and its squares larger or smaller. Squares never go below a comfortable tap size, even on a phone.

On a phone, the two panels of a scene stack or shrink so that they fit the screen, and the board fills the width.

Strategy basics

You don't need theory to play a decent game. A handful of habits will serve you better than any memorized opening.

Don't leave pieces hanging

Before every move, look at what your move leaves undefended and at what your opponent's last move attacks. Most games between casual players are decided by a piece that was simply left where it could be taken for nothing. A piece is "hanging" when an enemy piece can capture it and nothing of yours can capture back.

Count what a trade is worth

As a rough guide, a pawn is worth 1, a knight or a bishop 3, a rook 5, and a queen 9. If you take a rook and lose a knight, you have gained 2. Don't trade your queen for a pawn and a promise. Trade when you are ahead, since fewer pieces make an advantage easier to use.

Bring your pieces out early

In the first ten moves, move your knights and bishops off the back row, and don't move the same piece twice without a reason. A knight on the edge covers few squares, so aim your knights toward the center.

Take the center

Pawns on the two middle files, and the squares around them, give your pieces room. A common first move is to push the king's pawn two squares: e4 for the Court. Pieces in the middle of the board can reach both wings quickly.

Castle early

Castling puts your king behind a wall of pawns and brings a rook toward the action. A king stuck in the middle with the queens still on is a target. Castle before the middle opens up.

Keep the queen at home for now

The queen is your strongest piece, so a queen that comes out early often gets chased around by cheaper pieces, and every chase costs you a move. Bring out your knights and bishops first, and think twice before she goes into the enemy camp alone.

Look for forks and pins

A fork is one piece attacking two at once, and knights are the masters of it. A pin is an attack on a piece that can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it. When Edwin sets one up, you'll feel it, and the higher his level, the more often he finds them.

Use Hint and Undo

Both are there to be used. Hint shows the move an Expert player would make, which is a good way to learn, though it's best not to lean on it for every move. Undo takes back a move you saw was a mistake a second too late. Neither is cheating at a table where nobody is keeping score.

Frequently asked questions

Who goes first?

The Court, which plays the white pieces, always moves first. If you choose the Field, Edwin makes the first move and you answer.

Why did the game end in a draw when I was clearly ahead?

Most likely a stalemate. When the player to move isn't in check but has no legal move with any piece, the game is drawn, whatever the material. If you are close to mate with a big lead, leave the other king a square to move to, or give check, before you take that last escape away.

Why can't I move this piece?

Probably because the move would leave your own king attacked, or because you are in check and this piece can't help. Tap the piece and see which squares light up; if none do, it has no legal move right now. A pinned piece, one that is shielding your king, is a common case.

Does the table use the official rules?

Yes, for the moves, castling, en passant, promotion, check, checkmate, stalemate, and the drawn positions. It differs in two small ways: it declares draws by repetition and by the fifty-move rule itself instead of waiting for someone to claim one, and it has no clock and no touch-move rule. The sources are listed at the bottom of the page.

What changes between Easy, Standard, and Expert?

Easy usually takes a free piece when it sees one and avoids losing its queen, but otherwise plays without a plan. Standard looks a couple of moves ahead and weighs every capture before it makes one. Expert looks further, checks every capture sequence, and tries the strongest moves first. All three are the same every time for the same game, which is how Replay and Today's deal work.

Can I turn off the funny scenes?

Yes. Tap to skip one, or switch Scenes off in Settings and every capture happens instantly. The Herald's lines stay, since they are the running commentary.

Does the computer player cheat?

No. Chess has no hidden cards, so there is nothing to peek at: Edwin plays from the same board you see. He just never loses his place, which is why Standard is a tougher opponent than it looks.

Is there a way to play without portraits?

Yes: choose Classic pieces under Pieces in Table settings, or tap Classic pieces on the toolbar. You get plain chess pieces, large and clear, and the game plays exactly the same.

Sources

1. Laws of ChessFIDE (handbook.fide.com)
2. Official Rules of Chess, 7th Edition, Chapter 1US Chess Federation (new.uschess.org)