Chess 2

A chess variant with new pieces, mechanics, and chaos. Play online against friends or an AI bot.

Play it live

What's Different from Regular Chess

• Dragon — moves like Queen + Knight. Can castle with the King.
• Shadow — moves like a Bishop. Can cloak (become invisible for 2 turns, costs 1 energy).
• Energy — both players start with 0, gain 1 per turn (max 5). Powers special abilities.
• Duels — 15% chance on any capture that both pieces die.
• King's Decree — spend 3 energy to push all adjacent enemy pieces one square away.
• Castling 2.0 — standard castling rules, plus Dragon castling.
• Pawn Promotion — promotes to Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight, or Dragon.

How to Play

1. Go to the link above
2. Create Room to get a 6-character code
3. Send the code (or the URL with ?room=CODE) to your opponent
4. Or click Play vs Computer to play against the AI

Game is fully server-authoritative. No cheating possible.

Run Locally

npm install
npm start
# http://localhost:3000

Deploy

Already deployed on Railway. To redeploy:

git push origin main
# Railway auto-deploys from GitHub

Or use Docker:

docker build -t chess2 .
docker run -p 3000:3000 chess2

Tech

• Node.js + Express + WebSocket (ws)
• Server-side game engine with full move validation
• AI opponent using minimax with alpha-beta pruning (depth 3)
• Vanilla JS client with drag-and-drop

Features

• Room-based multiplayer with shareable links
• Play vs AI bot
• Board auto-flips for Black
• Spectator mode
• Color swap on rematch
• Auto-reconnect on disconnect
• Works on mobile