Chess

Play chess against the computer or a friend, and train with puzzles

ASYNCMobile betaClassicsboardstrategyclassicmultiplayerasync

$ chess

Text a game

Make the opening move, then send it. They can answer whenever, and the match stays here while either of you is away.

Win by checkmating the other king. Type moves in standard notation, such as e4, Nf3, exd5 or O-O. The notation is strict: a capture needs x, a check needs + and a checkmate needs #.

Play the computer, share a board, challenge a friend live or over days, solve Lichess puzzles (with a blindfold option), or train board vision against a timer. On a phone, tap a piece and then its square.

What is different here

Typing your moves makes you stop and picture the board, which is good training. Try it once: if it feels ten times harder than moving a piece with the mouse, that is the training working.
Blindfold puzzles hide the board and list the pieces instead. You pick the puzzle rating and the number of pieces, and CLI-Games tracks your volume: rating times pieces, divided by 100.

What you will see

A back-rank checkmate in two movesreplay

Moves are typed in standard notation.

How this command behaves

Supports two players
Save and resume your game
Track your statistics and high scores
Play online against other players
Runs in the browser; nothing to install
Playable entirely from the keyboard

Start it from the prompt

Usage

chess [savename]

Aliases

None

Where it came from

Chess began in India around the 6th century as chaturanga and took its modern rules in 15th-century Europe.

Guides from the wiki

Chess at CLI-Games →

Puzzles, vision training, blindfold mode, and AI opponents - all from the command line

Chess Opening Principles - Stop Losing in the First 10 Moves →

Learn the 4 opening principles that separate beginners from intermediate players. No memorization required.

Run $ chess