Chess and variants
Duck chess
After every move you move the duck, which blocks everyone. No check.
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What you can do here
- Bots from Novice to Club player, or friends at the same device
- A short course on the rules, task by task on the board
- Over 1,400 puzzles that adapt to your level
- Every turn in two steps: your move, then the duck
How Duck chess is played
Duck chess is chess with a duck on the board that belongs to nobody. The pieces move as you know them, and after every move the duck moves too.
The duck
After your move you must move the duck to another empty square of your choice; it may not stay where it is. In the first turn it comes onto the board on any empty square. Click the square, or drag the duck there.
Blocking
No piece may land on the duck or pass through it; only a knight jumps over it. The duck also stops a pawn’s double step and castling. Use it to shield your own pieces or to block your opponent’s.
No check
There is no check and no checkmate. Your king may stay attacked or step onto an attacked square; the board marks an attacked king, but nothing stops you. Castling through attacked squares is allowed.
Winning
You win by capturing the opponent’s king; that move ends the game, without a duck move. A player who cannot move at all on their turn wins: a stalemate is a win for the stalemated side.
Draws
The same position three times, or fifty moves each without a capture or a pawn move, is a draw.
More games
Chess and variants
- Chess · Classic chess or Chess960 with a shuffled back rank, against a bot.
- Chess960 · Fischer random chess: the back rank starts in one of 960 setups.
- Antichess · Losing chess: give away all your pieces, captures are compulsory.
- Atomic chess · Every capture is an explosion that clears the pieces around it.
- Crazyhouse · Captured pieces change sides and can be dropped back onto the board.
- Fog of War · You only see where your pieces can move. Capture the king to win.
- Friendly Chess · Nothing is captured: pieces unite and set off chain reactions.
The chess family
- Chaturanga · India’s ancient chess, the root of the family: take the king to win.
- Shatranj · The medieval ancestor of chess, with a weak ferz and a jumping alfil.
- Makruk · Thai chess: a slow, strategic game with a counting rule.
- Ouk Chatrang · Cambodian chess: Makruk with a leap for the king and the met.
- Sittuyin · Burmese chess: set up your pieces, then promote on the diagonals.
- Xiangqi · Chinese chess: a river, palaces and a cannon that jumps to capture.
- Janggi · Korean chess: no river, palace diagonals and a cannon that always jumps.
- Shogi · Japanese chess: captured pieces return to the board on your side.
- Minishogi · Shogi on a 5 × 5 board: six pieces a side, short and sharp games.
More players
- Chaturaji · India’s four-handed chess: kings can be captured, captures score.
- Four Seasons Chess · Alfonso X’s chess for four from 1283: four seasons, the last king wins.
- Three-player chess · Three armies on a hexagonal board: you against two bots.
- Four-player chess · Four armies on a cross-shaped board: in teams or all against all.
- Eight-player chess · Eight armies on a board of 516 squares: all against all, in pairs or four against four.