Clikey Chess guide
Clikey Chess is a board you can share on one device, play against the computer, or play with a friend on a different computer using a game code. There are no accounts. Use this guide alongside the board: you can try an idea, undo it, and compare another move.
Start a game and read the board
White moves first. Select a piece, then select a highlighted destination. Dots show empty legal destinations; marked enemy pieces can be captured. Selecting an empty unmarked square clears your selection. You cannot make a move that leaves your king in check.
Choose Two players to pass the device after each turn. In Vs computer, choose White or Black. Choosing a color starts a fresh position; Black lets the computer make the first move. The opponent calculates on your device, so it may take a moment on slower hardware. It is a practice opponent, not a rated online player.
Choose how strong the computer is
In Vs computer, the Computer strength slider runs from 400 to 1600 in steps of 100. Lower levels look fewer moves ahead and sometimes play a human-style slip instead of their best move, so they are easier to beat and still make believable moves. At the top level the computer plays its best every move, and it always plays a checkmate in one when it sees it. The numbers are a rough guide that rise with real strength; they are not an official rating. Your choice is remembered on this device, and you can change it in the middle of a game.
Play a friend on another computer
Choose Online, pick your color (or Random) and press Make a game code. Send the six-character code to your friend. They open Clikey Chess on their own computer, choose Online, type the code under Join a friend and press Join. The board connects and White moves first. Each side sees the other's moves within a second or two. Resign ends the game for both players; Leave game closes your side. If a move cannot be sent after a few tries it is taken back so both boards stay the same. A game code stops working after three idle hours, and the moves are not saved anywhere afterward.
What the controls change
- Flip board rotates your view without changing whose turn it is.
- New game clears the current position and move history.
- Undo move removes one move, not a whole pair of turns. In computer mode the opponent may respond again when its turn returns.
- The promotion selector chooses the piece a pawn becomes on the last rank. Set it before moving the pawn there; queen is the default.
Special moves you can try
To castle, select the king and choose its two-square destination. The king and relevant rook must not have moved, the squares between them must be empty, and the king cannot start in check or pass through an attacked square. Moving a rook back to its original square does not restore castling rights.
En passant is available only on the move immediately after an opposing pawn advances two squares beside your pawn. Your pawn moves diagonally into the square it passed over, and the adjacent pawn is removed. If you make another move first, that opportunity is gone.
A useful first ten minutes
Begin in Two players mode. Move White's pawn from e2 to e4, then Black's pawn from e7 to e5. Develop the g1 knight to f3 and the b8 knight to c6. Before each next move, ask: is my king attacked, is one of my pieces undefended, and what did the last move threaten? This routine is more useful than memorizing a long opening sequence.
Try an early queen move and notice how many opposing pieces can gain time by attacking it. Undo and develop a knight or bishop instead. The goal of this exercise is to compare positions, not to claim every queen move is wrong.
Game status, notation and limits
The status panel distinguishes check, checkmate and draws recognized by this implementation. The move list records algebraic notation: N is a knight, B a bishop, R a rook, Q a queen and K a king. A pawn move usually starts with its destination file. Use the highlighted last-move squares to follow the computer's reply.
This is a casual practice board, not a tournament arbiter. It has no clocks, online rating, account history or match export. A page refresh starts over; an installed browser window does not add cloud saving. If you find a rules problem, report the starting position and the moves needed to reproduce it through Help & contact.