Just Chess

Enjoy a deep chess experience – solo or online – with Just Chess!

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned player, Just Chess has everything you need. Sharpen your skills against a chess engine in a modern 3D environment, test your tactical vision with over four million chess puzzles, play Chess960, or challenge the world with comprehensive Lichess integration.

Key Features:

• Built-in Chess Engine – Play offline instantly using the game's internal chess engine, no setup required.

• UCI Engine Support – Take your game to the next level by connecting any external chess engine that supports the UCI protocol, such as Stockfish. Play against opponents at – and even beyond – grandmaster strength. Chess960 (Fischer Random) is also supported in UCI engine games.

• Advanced UCI Profile Manager – Take full control of your imported engines. Create, rename, and save multiple custom profiles for any external engine. Adjust core settings like Hash (RAM), Threads (CPU), and Skill Level seamlessly from the UI, or dive into engine-specific advanced parameters for the ultimate tailored experience.

• Simulated Player Tournaments – Play full offline tournaments against the Internal engine or imported UCI engines! In UCI mode, the game auto-generates opponents of varying skill levels. Choose the number of participants and play in 4 exciting modes: Simulated, Arena, Survival, and Time Attack. You can save your tournament progress via the intermission panel and resume later.

• Engine vs Engine (EvE) Tournaments – Curious to see which engine is stronger? Pitch your custom UCI engine profiles against each other in massive auto-battles! Support for Round Robin (everyone plays everyone), Swiss (winners face winners), and Gauntlet (one "hero" engine plays against everyone else). View final cross-tables, skip animations for faster processing, and instantly copy the full PGN of the tournament to your clipboard for Lichess Study!

• Puzzle Arena – Test your skills and improve your tactical awareness with a massive database of over four million puzzles from Lichess. Try different modes like the fast-paced Puzzle Blitz and the endurance-testing Puzzle Run.

• Lichess Integration – Log in to your Lichess account directly from the game!

  • Challenge friends or millions of other players online.
  • Play standard chess and Chess960 games.
  • Play against Lichess's Stockfish chess engine at various difficulty levels.
  • Continue your ongoing correspondence or real-time games.
  • All online games are seamlessly synchronized with your Lichess account.
  • (Note: Bullet and Blitz games cannot currently be played directly through the game due to Lichess API limitations. A browser link is provided instead.)
  • (Note: Tournaments are not supported in Lichess mode due to API limitations.)

• Lichess TV & Live Broadcasts – Follow games in progress on Lichess, including both standard chess and Chess960. Watch live broadcasts and grandmaster games unfold directly within the game's immersive 3D environment.

• Live Game Analysis – During supported Lichess live broadcasts, enable Live Game Analysis to see the engine's best suggested move directly on the board.

• Spoken Move Announcements – Hear moves, captures, checks, and the final result announced out loud. Adjust the volume with Page Up / Page Down or disable announcements from the board-edge UI or with the M key.

• Opening Display – See the current chess opening by name and ECO code, such as C60 · Ruy Lopez. The opening information updates automatically as moves are played or taken back and works across all three game modes.

• Manual Board Setup – Freely arrange the chessboard by dragging pieces into any position.

• In-Game Music Player (Radio) – Listen to hundreds of included tracks! The radio UI appears seamlessly when you hover at the top of the screen. Features volume control, skip, mute, loop, shuffle, and remembers your power state between sessions.

• Customizable Theme Manager – Make the board your own. Freely adjust the colors of the black and white pieces, board squares, board edges, and the table surface. Fine-tune the size of your selected chess pieces with the piece size slider.

• Immersive 3D Interface – Experience a revamped interface with 3D UI elements designed for better immersion and a more consistent visual style.

• Comprehensive Undo/Redo System – Effortlessly scroll back and forth through your entire move history to review past positions.

When playing against the computer, the following tools are available:
(Use the convenient right-side hover menu to toggle these features on/off to save hardware resources.)

• Post-Move Analysis: Immediately after a move, the board displays colored arrows indicating the move's quality (good, inaccuracy, mistake, blunder) alongside a blue arrow showing what the optimal best move would have been.
• Hint Function: Calculates and color-codes the three best move options on the board, and you can preview their possible continuations directly on the board.
• Move Analysis: Calculates color-coded evaluations and scores for your selected piece, and if a variation is available, you can preview it directly on the board.
• Threat Analysis: Displays arrows and evaluations on the board representing the opponent’s threats.

Note: Analysis tools such as hints, the evaluation bar, and piece analysis are not currently available in Chess960 games.

Board & View Controls:

• Smoothed 3D Chessboard – Featuring adjustable viewing angles with smooth, refined camera controls.
• Flip & Reset View – Use F to switch the view from one side to the other, or hold it down to rotate the camera in 90-degree increments, and R to reset it to your playing side.
• Chess Clocks & Time Controls – Play timed games with popular formats like Bullet (1+0), Blitz (5+3), Rapid (10+5), and Classical (30+0, 90/40). Time controls under 10 minutes are supported with both the built-in and UCI chess engines. Untimed mode is also available.
• 2D and 3D Chess Clocks – Switch between practical 2D and immersive 3D clock views using the C key or by double-clicking the clock. Features a redesigned digital clock UI.

Additional Features:

• Adjustable Move Speed – Customize how fast the built-in or UCI chess engine plays its moves for a more relaxed or time-pressured experience. Combine with difficulty settings for a personalized challenge.
• Easy to Play – Simple controls and an intuitive interface.
• Adaptive Strength – Both the built-in and UCI chess engines can automatically adjust their strength based on your wins and losses, ensuring a balanced challenge.
• PGN Export and Analysis – The game allows you to copy the chess game in PGN format to the clipboard and analyze it on online chess analysis websites. Online analysis may require an account with the analysis service provider.

Note: External chess engines must be downloaded separately. Please use only trusted sources. The developer is not responsible for third-party software.