How to play

Make your move

White moves first. Checkmate the opposing king to win. You may never make a move that leaves your own king in check.

• Pawns move forward, capture diagonally and may move two squares from their starting rank.
• Knights jump in an L shape. Bishops move diagonally, rooks along ranks and files, and queens combine both.
• Kings move one square in any direction.

Tap or click a piece and its destination, or drag it there. Use arrow keys to move keyboard focus, Enter to select, and Escape to clear a selection or premove.

Special moves

Castling

Move the king two squares towards its rook. Both must be unmoved, the path must be clear, and the king cannot start in, cross or finish in check.

En passant

Immediately after an opposing pawn advances two squares beside your pawn, you may capture it as though it advanced only one square.

Promotion

When your pawn reaches the last rank, choose a queen, rook, bishop or knight. Your clock continues until you choose.

Clocks and premoves

Time controls show minutes per player plus bonus seconds per move. Correspondence has no time limit. White’s and Black’s first moves are completely time-free and earn no bonus. After Black’s first move, White’s clock starts. Bonuses begin after White’s second move.

Closing the page or losing your connection does not pause a running clock. The server decides whether your move arrived in time. A premove is one move prepared during your opponent’s turn; it is sent only if legal in the confirmed next position. It still uses the time needed to reach the server. Premoves are cleared after a connection interruption.

Premoves must follow your piece’s movement pattern. Occupied squares, blocked paths and check do not prevent preparing one. Pawns must move forward, with a two-square move only from their starting rank; diagonal captures may target an empty square. Castling premoves require the corresponding castling right. All other legality checks happen before the premove is sent.

Ending a game

Checkmate, resignation or running out of time loses the game. A timeout is a draw if the opponent lacks mating material in the current position. Stalemate, insufficient mating material, threefold repetition and 50 moves by each side without a pawn move or capture automatically draw the game. These are automatic online draw rules, rather than claim-based tournament rules.

You can also agree to a draw. A shared rematch keeps the time control and switches colours.

Wins between two different signed-in Factory accounts request $1 within the shared $5 daily game reward limit. Guest games and draws do not award dollars.