Pawn
Raviolini Sprintini
Moves one square forward, or two on its first move. Captures diagonally. Promotes when it reaches the far end.
BRAINROT CHESS
The rules, minus the chaos.
The characters change. The goal stays the same: checkmate your opponent’s king.
Start a game
Choose the bot to play solo, or Two players to share one device. Against the bot, you play White. Its three levels change the difficulty; they do not represent official Elo ratings.
White moves first. Select one of your pieces, then a highlighted square to move it. The game only allows legal moves. Light and dark bases underneath the characters distinguish the two sides.
Which piece does what?
Rook
Tortuga Télévisa
Moves any distance horizontally or vertically, without jumping over pieces.
Knight
Brocolino Patinino
Jumps in an L: two squares in one direction, then one sideways. Can jump over other pieces.
Bishop
Axolotto Grillettino
Slides any distance diagonally, without jumping over pieces.
Queen
Flaminga Limonada
Combines the rook and bishop: moves along straight lines and diagonals.
King
Capybaro Cactuso
Moves one square in any direction, but cannot move into check. Protect that crown!
A piece cannot move onto another piece of its own side. To capture an opponent’s piece, move onto its square. Pawns move straight forward but capture diagonally.
Meet the six original characters and learn a practical tip for each piece.
Check, checkmate and stalemate
Your king is in check when an opposing piece attacks it. You must move your king, capture the attacking piece or block the attack, if one of these moves is possible. You can never leave your king in check.
If there is no escape from check, it is checkmate: the other side wins. If a player has no legal move but their king is not in check, it is stalemate: the game is a draw.
Three special moves
- Castling: the king moves two squares toward a rook, which moves to the other side of the king. Neither piece may have moved before, and the squares between them must be empty. The king cannot castle while in check, pass through an attacked square or land on one.
- En passant: when an opposing pawn advances two squares and lands next to yours, your pawn may be able to capture it as if it had advanced only one square. This is only available on the immediately following move.
- Promotion: a pawn reaching the last rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight. Choose its new piece in the dialog to complete the move.
Draws in this game
This version automatically ends a game for stalemate, the third occurrence of the same position, insufficient material recognized by the rules engine, or fifty moves by each side without a capture or pawn move. You do not need to claim a draw for repetition or the fifty-move rule here.
Useful controls
- Undo: take back a move. Against the bot, it also takes back the bot’s reply if it has already played.
- Flip the board: change your viewpoint without changing the side you play.
- Classic pieces: replace the characters with familiar chess silhouettes.
- Sound: enable or mute move sounds. Sound starts off.
- Keyboard: Tab to reach the board, arrow keys to navigate, Enter to select or move, Escape to cancel a selection.
The game stays in the open tab. Closing, leaving or reloading the page clears it. There is no game saving or remote multiplayer in this version.
Three ideas for your first moves
Try to control the center, bring your knights and bishops into play, and keep your king safe. Before each move, ask what your opponent is threatening. If you are learning, use the highlighted legal moves and the Undo button to explore another idea.