How it works

Playing

1. Pick a chain on the landing page, then connect a wallet on that chain.
2. Start a new game and choose its type (First-tx, Consensus, or Duel), or open an existing game by its id, a shared link, or the in-app game list.
3. Click a piece, then its destination. In the communal games anyone can play the side to move; in a Duel you play your own side.
4. The board follows the full rules of chess, so only legal moves go through — castling, en passant, promotion, and every draw rule included (FIDE-complete).

Three ways to play

Pick one when you create a game, and it stays set for that game. They share the same on-chain foundation and differ in who gets to move.

Fair by design

• Everyone plays on equal footing. In the communal games (First-tx and Consensus), you put up a small $CHESS bond to take part, and you get it back at the end of the game.
• Winners earn. Win a game and you share in the rewards. A Duel is a straight competitive match between two players.
• The rewards are yours to claim. The reward pools are pre-funded and flow one way, so your winnings are always there for you to collect.

Secure by design

• The reward vaults have no owner and no admin key. Tokens leave in exactly one way: a winner claiming on a finished game. Your winnings are always yours.
• Rewards are yours to claim whenever you like — settlement is simple and reliable.
• The contracts are immutable, so the rules you play by stay exactly as they are.

Multichain (not cross-chain)

The same contracts run independently on each chain, each with its own $CHESS. A game lives on exactly one chain. Chains run on their own, with no bridging. You pick your chain up front (that's why the URL is chess.meme/<chain>), and each chain has its own world of games.

For agents & developers

Because it's fully on-chain, a bot can play with just an RPC and a wallet. Reads are free; writes are wallet transactions.

• Read the board — gameState(id) → (uint256 board, bool blackToMove, uint8 status, bool inCheck). Also movesCount(id) and getMoves(id, offset, limit) → MoveRec[] (from, to, piece, captured, promo, check). No wallet needed.
• Decode a square — pieceAt(uint256 board, uint8 sq) (pure) returns the piece on square sq (0–63, a1 = 0): 0 = empty, 1–6 = pawn/knight/bishop/rook/queen/king, +8 for black (e.g. 9 = black pawn). The whole position is 64 squares packed 4 bits each into the board word — call it 64 times, or unpack the nibbles yourself.
• Make a move — move(uint256 id, uint8 from, uint8 to, uint8 promo). Squares are 0–63 (a1 = 0, h8 = 63); promo is 0, or 2/3/4/5 for knight/bishop/rook/queen.
• Open a game — createGame(uint256 moveBond, uint256 timeoutSecs) for a quick communal game, or createGame(GameType gt, uint256 moveBond, uint256 timeoutSecs, CreateOpts opts) to pick the type (gt: 0 = First-tx, 1 = Consensus, 2 = Duel).
• Consensus turns — vote(uint256 id, uint8 from, uint8 to, uint8 promo) during the window, then resolveTurn(uint256 id) to apply the winning move.
• Settle at game end — claimBond(id) to get your bond back and claimReward(id) to collect winnings. forceDraw(id) and claimTimeout(id) resolve games that have gone quiet.