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Browse all →Chess
Full rules. Castling on both sides, en passant, pawn promotion with a piece picker, check, checkmate, stalemate, and 50-move and threefold-repetition draws. The computer uses negamax with alpha-beta pruning across three difficulty tiers — Easy is forgiving; Hard adds quiescence search.
All games
Full rules and three difficulty levels, everywhere
Word Search
Hangman
Chess
Checkers
Backgammon
Connect 4
Dots & Boxes
Sudoku
Minesweeper
2048
Othello
Chinese Checkers
Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe
Mancala
Mahjong Solitaire
Player notes
Chess: castle early, then break the center
Get the king to safety on move 6–10. After castling, look for a central pawn break (e3-e4 or d3-d4) — that opens lines for your bishops and rooks. The computer on Hard punishes uncastled kings ruthlessly.
- Castle by move 10 −40% loss
- Trade pieces when ahead winning
- 50-move rule auto-draw
Checkers: forced captures cut both ways
Captures are mandatory in American rules — including for the computer. Setting up a position where the opponent's only legal move is a capture you've prepared a counter for is the classic trap. Push for kings; the back rank is gold.
- Capture chains required
- King advancement +streak
- Edge play safer
Backgammon: race or block, never both
If you're ahead in pip count, race — bring everyone home and bear off. If you're behind, build a prime (4–6 consecutive points) and try to trap a back checker. Blots are punishments waiting to happen; cover them.
- Pip count diff strategy gate
- 5-point first standard opening
- No doubling cube v1
Connect 4: own the center column
The middle column passes through 7 of the 21 winning lines — more than any other column. Open with column 4 and the computer on hard mode loses about 60% as second player.
- Center first +30% win
- Two threats guaranteed
- Odd rows for first player strong
Dots & Boxes: chain control
Late game is all about who gets stuck closing chains. Sacrifice a short chain to force your opponent to open a long one. "Hard-hearted handout" — give two boxes to claim five.
- Short chain (≤2) sacrifice
- Long chain (3+) steal
- Double-cross +net 2
2048: build down the corner
Pick a corner — bottom-right is conventional — and never move the largest tile out of it. Build a snake pattern down one side and the merges cascade. Most early losses come from accidentally swiping the big tile away.
- Anchor the corner required
- Snake pattern cascading merges
- Avoid up-swipes late game
Othello: corners over discs
Disc count in the middlegame is a trap. Corners are permanent; everything else can be flipped back. Avoid the X-square (diagonally adjacent to a corner) until you own the corner — it gives the opponent a free corner. On Hard, the computer switches to a perfect endgame solver in the last 12 squares.
- Corner first permanent
- X-squares danger
- Mobility > discs midgame
Chinese Checkers: ladders over walks
One jump covers the same ground as two single steps. Chains do even better. Set up a ladder of your own marbles down the middle so the back ones can leapfrog the front ones turn after turn. In 6-player, the chaos cuts both ways — opponents become accidental hop pegs for you.
- Build a ladder +chain jumps
- Stay on center line fastest path
- Goal triangle one-way