little tableChess
Checkmate the opposing king: attack it so that no legal reply removes the threat. This implementation uses the chess.js rules engine and supports castling, en passant, promotion and draw claims.
Local AI practice · Private online room
Players: 2
Set up the table
The standard eight-by-eight position has sixteen pieces per side. White starts. The back rank is rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook, with pawns in front.
On your turn
Move one piece without leaving your king attacked. Rooks move straight, bishops diagonally, queens both; knights jump in an L, and kings step one square. Pawns advance forward, may initially advance two clear squares, and capture diagonally. Promotion chooses queen, rook, bishop or knight. Sliding pieces cannot pass through other pieces. Capture by landing on an enemy; never land on your own piece. Castling moves the king two files toward its rook and places that rook beside it, with the intervening squares clear.
Winning and ending
Checkmate wins. Stalemate and engine-detected insufficient material draw. Threefold repetition or fifty moves per side without pawn movement/capture may be claimed; fivefold repetition or seventy-five such moves draw automatically.
Worked example
From the initial position, play e2–e4, e7–e5, g1–f3. The white knight legally jumps to f3, and Black is next; this is development, not checkmate.
A common mistake
Castling cannot escape check, cross an attacked square or finish in check; the king and chosen rook must not have moved.
Questions at the table
When is en passant available?
Only immediately after the opposing pawn’s two-square advance creates that capture. An adjacent enemy pawn captures diagonally onto the square the advancing pawn passed over, removing that pawn from its destination square.
Must a pawn promote to a captured piece?
No. Choose any of the four supported promotion types, even if you already have one.
Further rules references
External rules provide context; the implemented variant described above takes precedence here.