Expert Chess

Expert Chess Strategy Guide

Pro-Level Advice

• Don't rush your opening. Get your knights and bishops out before you even think about moving your queen into the mess.
• Control the center squares early. Whoever owns the middle of the board usually dictates the whole fight.
• Count trades before you commit to one. A queen for a rook and a bishop sounds fine on paper but plays out very differently once the pieces actually come off.
• Castle sooner rather than later. A king stuck in the middle is basically a countdown timer against a sharp opponent.
• On the higher difficulty setting, watch for quiet moves that set up a fork two or three turns down the line. The computer isn't bluffing.

There's no map to explore here and no story to chase, just sixty-four squares and two sets of pieces staring each other down. The whole point is simple to say and hard to actually do: outthink whoever's sitting across the board, trap their king, and do it before they trap yours. You can go up against the computer, picking from three difficulty levels depending on how much punishment you're in the mood for, or you can pass the mouse to a friend sitting next to you and settle things the old-fashioned way, over one board, in person. Either way, the pressure builds the same, one move at a time.

How To Play

• Click a piece to pick it up, then click the square you want it to land on.
• Legal moves get shown for you, so there's no guessing about whether a jump is actually allowed.
• Pick your difficulty first if you're playing against the computer — easy is forgiving, the top tier is not.
• Passing control back and forth on the same device is all it takes for local two-player matches.
• Keep an eye on check warnings; ignoring one for even a turn can unravel your whole position fast.
• Take your time between moves. There's no clock breathing down your neck, so use that thinking room.