A little time. A better move.
A game of chess, entirely on your own computer. Meet the Club - twelve named opponents rated 400 to 2200, each with a style of their own; beat one to bring on the next - or pick one of four quick levels. Solve a new puzzle every day, play with a chess clock, against a friend on the same PC, or from a shuffled Chess960 start. A classic board or a 3D board you can orbit, every rule explained, takebacks, PGN and your game saved as you play. No adverts, no account. Free in your browser or as a Windows app.
The 3D board in a Ruy Lopez, and the review after a game you won.
3D board - drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, click to move. Walnut board, Boxwood & ebony pieces (Pro)
Game review - your accuracy and the graph are free; every move marked and replayed comes with Pro
From Pip (400), who pushes every pawn, to Celeste (2200), the club champion. Each has an Elo-style rating, a style - queen out early, gambits, endgame grinding - and favourite openings. Four are ready to play; beat each one to bring on the next.
A new puzzle each morning on the Puzzles tab, chosen from the Lichess open puzzle database and played offline. Find the move; if the other side has a reply, it's played for you.
Play with a chess clock, from 3 minutes plus 2 seconds a move up to 30 minutes, against the computer or a friend on the same PC - with takebacks if you both agree.
Fischer Random: the back row shuffled into one of 960 starting positions, so the openings you know are off the table. Castling works the Chess960 way - click the rook.
Beginner, Club, Advanced, Expert. Not a random-move generator: a built-in engine with a proper tactical search, tuned so that each level plays like a person of that strength. Expert looks eight to twelve moves ahead.
Clear pieces, coordinates, highlighted legal moves, last-move and check markers. Click a piece, click where it goes - or use the arrow keys. Flip it to play from black's side.
Switch to a three-dimensional board with sculpted pieces and soft shadows. Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, click to move - the same game, a different view.
Castling, en passant, promotion with a choice of piece, check, checkmate, stalemate, threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule and insufficient material - and a plain-English status telling you what just happened.
Changed your mind? Take back a move. Play as white or black, flip the board any time, and change the level mid-game if you want a harder or easier opponent.
Close the app mid-game and it's back on the board next time you open it - with the computer taking its turn if it was due one. One click copies the whole game as PGN for any chess app or website.
After each move, a line shows how many positions the computer considered, how deep it looked and how long it took.
No adverts, no account needed to play. The rules, the engine, the puzzles and the 3D board all ship inside the app - in your browser or on Windows.
Most chess apps either need a live connection to an engine or an opponent, or make their money from adverts and in-app purchases. Here's how Kingside Chess compares.
| Feature | Kingside Chess | A chess website | A free chess app |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free - no adverts; an optional one-off Pro upgrade | Free tier plus subscription | Free, ad-supported, in-app purchases |
| Works fully offline | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ (often with adverts) |
| Built-in engine opponent with levels | ✓ four levels | ✓ (online) | ✓ (varies) |
| Named opponents with ratings and styles | ✓ twelve, 400 to 2200 | Many in paid tiers | Sometimes |
| Daily puzzle, offline | ✓ | ✓ (online) | Varies |
| Chess clocks, two players on one device, Chess960 | ✓ | Online play instead | Some of these |
| 3D board | ✓ | ✕ (usually) | Sometimes |
| Game saved automatically, PGN export | ✓ | ✓ | Varies |
| No adverts, no account needed to play | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
The game stays free - every level, the Club, the daily puzzle, clocks, two players, Chess960, both boards and the game summary. Kingside Chess Pro is a one-off £3.99 upgrade inside the Windows app, bought through the Microsoft Store - no subscription, no account. Try it free for 7 days in the app first.
All twelve opponents open at once - play Celeste, the club champion, on day one.
1,979 puzzles by theme - forks, pins, skewers, mates in one, two and three - picked to match a puzzle rating that moves as you solve them.
Your mistakes explained in plain English: the piece you left hanging, the fork you walked into, the mate you missed - and the better move.
Paste or open a PGN - from Lichess, Chess.com or a club match - and the engine reviews it move by move.
Stuck? Ask the engine for its move whenever it's your turn - it's marked on the board.
Every move marked from best to blunder, the better move where you slipped, and a replay of the turning points.
Fifteen classic openings as White and Black - the Italian, Ruy Lopez, Sicilian Najdorf, Caro-Kann and more - learned move by move.
Five more boards and three more piece sets - walnut, tournament green, marble, gold & silver, glass - in 2D and 3D.
| FEATURE | FREE | PRO £3.99 |
|---|---|---|
| Four levels, 2D and 3D boards, takebacks and PGN | Yes | Yes |
| Play in your browser | Yes | Windows app |
| Opening names and the end-of-game summary | Yes | Yes |
| Daily puzzle, clocks, two players and Chess960 | Yes | Yes |
| The Club: twelve opponents rated 400 to 2200 | Four, then one per win | All twelve |
| Unlimited puzzles by theme, with a puzzle rating | No | Yes |
| "Why was that bad?" explanations | No | Yes |
| Import a PGN to review | No | Yes |
| Hints | No | Yes |
| Full game review with replay | No | Yes |
| Opening trainer: 15 classic openings | No | Yes |
| Five more boards and three more piece sets | No | Yes |
Yes - the four levels, the first four Club opponents (and each of the rest once you beat the one before), the daily puzzle, chess clocks, two players on one device, Chess960, the 2D and 3D boards, takebacks, PGN, your saved game and the end-of-game summary are all free, in the browser and on Windows, with no ads and no account. Kingside Chess Pro is an optional one-off £3.99 upgrade in the Windows app that opens the whole Club at once and adds unlimited puzzles by theme, plain-English explanations of your mistakes, PGN import, hints, the full move-by-move game review, an opening trainer and extra boards and pieces. You can try Pro free for 7 days in the Windows app.
No - play it straight from your browser, on a phone, tablet or PC, with no sign-up. It works offline once it has loaded, and you can add it to your home screen or desktop like an app. There is also a free Windows desktop version in the Microsoft Store if you prefer an installed app.
No. The browser edition needs no account at all. The Windows app doesn't need one either.
It's a real chess engine, built into the app, and you choose how strong. The Club has twelve named opponents with Elo-style ratings from 400 to 2200 - Pip pushes every pawn and hangs pieces like a first-week beginner; Celeste, the club champion, plays at full strength - and each has a style and favourite openings. There are also four quick levels: Beginner, Club, Advanced and Expert, which looks eight to twelve moves ahead and will punish loose pieces.
From the Lichess open puzzle database, which Lichess releases free for anyone to use (Creative Commons CC0). Kingside Chess bundles 1,979 of the most popular puzzles, rated 400 to 2600 across fourteen themes, so they work offline. Everyone gets a new puzzle every day; Kingside Chess Pro adds all of them, by theme and difficulty, with a puzzle rating.
Yes. Choose Two players, pick a clock if you want one - from 3 minutes plus 2 seconds a move up to 30 minutes - and take turns on the same board. You can also start from any of the 960 shuffled positions of Chess960, against a friend or the computer.
No. The rules, the engine, the puzzles and the 3D board all ship inside the app. Nothing is fetched from the internet to play a game.
Yes - castling, en passant, promotion (you choose the piece), check, checkmate, stalemate, threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule and draws by insufficient material, with a plain-English explanation of what just happened.
The game is saved after every move. Open the app again and the same position is back on the board - and if it was the computer's turn, it takes it.
Yes. Copy PGN puts the whole game on the clipboard in standard notation, with headers, ready to paste into any chess app, database or website.
Your saved game stays on your device by default, and the app works fully offline - nothing is fetched or sent over the internet to play.
Free in your browser or from the Microsoft Store. No sign-in needed to play.
