Chess: Pawn to Master

Chess: Pawn to Master takes you from your first move to checkmate, in 16-bit pixel art. Learn from scratch with step-by-step lessons, climb a campaign of 13 rivals, solve puzzles, play against the computer or with friends on one screen.

LEARN TO PLAY. 59 lessons in 14 chapters take you from how each piece moves to a solid level. Basic: the pieces, capturing, check, checkmate and stalemate, castling, promotion, en passant and your first tactics. Intermediate: skewers, discovered attacks, deflections, decoys, classic mating patterns, the Greek gift, the main openings (Italian, Spanish, Queen's Gambit, Sicilian) and defenses for Black (French, Caro-Kann). Advanced: open files, outposts, pawn structure, good and bad bishops, key endgames (opposition, Lucena, Philidor), how to save lost games with perpetual check and stalemate tricks, calculation and a final exam against the computer. Every lesson starts with a short explanation and continues with exercises: reach the stars, capture everything, find the right move, mate in N, or win a game with a goal. Earn up to three stars per lesson.

MORE WAYS TO PLAY
- Quick Game: five computer levels, from Novice to Master, your choice of color and clock, with hints and undo if you want them.
- Road to Master: 13 rivals with their own names and styles. The first ones give you a head start; the last ones play even games on the clock.
- Challenges: a daily puzzle with a streak, 66 engine-checked mate-in-1 and mate-in-2 puzzles, and 6 endgames to win within a move limit.
- Local multiplayer: 2 players on one board (it turns to face whoever moves), 2 vs 2 teams, and a knockout tournament for 4 or 8 players that you can save and resume.
- Sandbox board: move both sides, with hints and undo.

HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND THE RULES. When a move is not allowed, the game tells you why (the piece is pinned, the square is attacked, your king is in check) and marks the rival piece that prevents it. You can turn these tips off, together with the move dots and the last-move highlight, whenever you like.

COMPLETE RULES. Castling, en passant, promotion, check, checkmate, stalemate, threefold repetition, the 50-move rule, insufficient material, time out, draw offers and resignation.

EXTRAS. 60 achievements, detailed stats, 14 original music tracks that build up when the game gets tense, and an in-game guide to the rules and controls.

FIVE THEMES. Each theme changes the pieces, the boards, the backdrop and the music, while the rules stay the same:
- Classic: wooden Staunton-style pieces in a quiet library, with piano and strings.
- Pre-Hispanic: warriors, jaguars and temples under a desert sun, with ocarina and marimba.
- Galaxy: androids and turrets among the planets, with warm synthesizers.
- Medieval: knights, wizards and a dragon by the castle, with recorder and lute.
- Feudal Japan: shogun, princess and monk below the mountain, with shakuhachi, koto and taiko.
14 boards in all. You start in the Classic theme and open the others by playing.

Play with keyboard, gamepad, mouse or touch screen. Available in English and Spanish. It works fully offline, with no ads, no in-app purchases and no data collection.