The things people ask first

Playing offline is free and always will be: the computer, pass and play, the analysis board, all thirteen lessons, teaching mode, learner mode and the review after every game run entirely on your device and need nothing from anyone. There is no advertising anywhere in the product and there are no subscription tiers.

Playing on chain is different, and it would be dishonest to call it free. Every rated move is a transaction on a network that real machines are running, and transactions are paid for in the network's coin. At launch those coins are being handed out, so in practice it will feel free for a while - but the honest description is free to start, not free forever.

What that buys you is the part a free chess site cannot offer: a result nobody can fake, and eventually a game you can actually play for something.

Not to play by yourself. Games against the computer, pass & play, the lessons and the analysis board all work with no account at all - there is a "play offline without an account" link on the sign-in screen.

You need a wallet to play other people, because that is what holds your rating and your game history. If you would rather not think about wallets, pick a username and a password: that quietly derives one for you.

Create a game in the lobby and tell them to join it, or hand them the device and use pass & play. Player search lets you look somebody up by name.

Chess with the back rank shuffled into one of nine hundred and sixty legal arrangements, the same for both players. Memorised opening theory is worth nothing, so you have to actually think from move one. All 960 positions are supported, online and against the computer.

Yes, once you have opened it once. Games against the computer, learner mode, offline mode, pass & play, every lesson, the analysis board and your local history all work with no connection. Only online play, chat and rating updates need the chain.

Any current browser. Installing to the home screen works everywhere too, though each browser has its own way of doing it - the install page has the exact steps for each.

Yes, in Normal mode. It counts because the contract plays the machine's side itself rather than trusting your browser to report what happened. It uses the same deterministic search the app uses, seeded from chain data, so any node can replay the game and get the same reply. That is what makes the number worth having.

It settles however the game ends: checkmate, resignation, a flagged clock or a draw. Learner and Offline games never move it, on purpose, because in those modes you are allowed to change your mind about a move.

Players is earned against people in rated online games. Bots is earned against the computer in Normal mode only. They are stored separately, shown separately and never mixed, so an evening of practice can never inflate the ladder that counts. Learner and Offline games affect neither.

No. There is no function in the contract that sets a rating. The only way a rating changes is for the contract to compute it at the end of a game it refereed itself. That applies to us in exactly the same way it applies to you.

Nothing stops a person opening a chess engine in another window - that is true of every chess site there has ever been. What is different here is the evidence: because every move is its own transaction, a rated game leaves a move-by-move record with real timings attached, which is the raw material for detection rather than a log we ask you to trust.

Within the app itself, the evaluation bar and the best-move arrow are switched off for the whole of a live rated game. Integrity signals, bonds and dispute handling are on the roadmap.

Not immediately. Clocks come from the chain, and there is a fifteen-second grace after your flag falls. A win on time then has to be claimed, and only your opponent can claim it. Come back before that and you are still in the game, at the position the chain has.

An application served from the ITZA chain that talks to a node directly, with the logic it needs to be trusted living in a contract. ITZA Chess makes no third-party requests at all - no content delivery network, no font service, no analytics.

Treat them as public. Records mirrored to the chain sit under your wallet on a public ledger, which is exactly what makes them portable and verifiable. It is a chess score sheet, so there is not much to hide - but it is worth knowing.

Chat messages are a separate matter: those are encrypted for each party using the same scheme as ITZA Chat. Local practice games never leave your device at all.

The same thing that happens with any wallet: nobody can restore it for you, because nobody else has it. Keep the recovery phrase and the key file somewhere safe. If you signed in with a username and password, the key is derived from those - so keep those safe instead.

Not yet, and nothing on this site should be read as an offer to. Staked play is switched off in the contract and depends on iCHESS, the platform credit, which has not gone live yet. Today every rated game on chain is played for the rating alone.

It is, however, the direction. The intention is wagered games, prize tournaments and a progressive jackpot, settled by the same contract that already referees the moves - which is the whole reason the refereeing was built first. A stake is only safe to place on a game whose result cannot be forged, and that part is finished and running now.

When it arrives there will be two modes. Crown is the classic version: two players, one pot, winner takes it. Crown and Ransom splits the pot across the pieces as bounties you collect by capturing, so even a losing player keeps what they took. The stakes page lays both out.

It will be a wager, which means you can win and you can lose, and it will be subject to the rules of wherever you live. See the disclosure document for the formal position.

It is the platform's own credit, the thing stakes are held in. You buy credits with a card in one step and play with them; you never have to touch an exchange or manage anything technical. iCHESS has a live market, so its value floats rather than being fixed.

For a single game that floating value does not expose you to anything: both players' stakes are locked at the same moment at the same rate, so a game is a game, not a bet on a market.

They can, and they can go down. As more people play, demand for credits can grow and their value can rise over time. That is a mechanism that depends entirely on the platform succeeding; it is gradual if it happens and it is not promised. Nothing on this site is a guaranteed return, an investment, or a target, and you should not treat credits as one. They are for playing chess. The disclosure document is the formal position.

It is the platform's own credit, the thing stakes are held in. You buy credits with a card in one step and play with them; you never have to touch an exchange or manage anything technical. iCHESS has a live market, so its value floats rather than being fixed.

For a single game that floating value does not expose you to anything: both players' stakes are locked at the same moment at the same rate, so a game is a game, not a bet on a market.

They can, and they can go down. As more people play, demand for credits can grow and their value can rise over time. That is a mechanism that depends entirely on the platform succeeding; it is gradual if it happens and it is not promised. Nothing on this site is a guaranteed return, an investment, or a target, and you should not treat credits as one. They are for playing chess. The disclosure document is the formal position.

It is the platform's own credit, the thing stakes are held in. You buy credits with a card in one step and play with them; you never have to touch an exchange or manage anything technical. iCHESS has a live market, so its value floats rather than being fixed.

For a single game that floating value does not expose you to anything: both players' stakes are locked at the same moment at the same rate, so a game is a game, not a bet on a market.

They can, and they can go down. As more people play, demand for credits can grow and their value can rise over time. That is a mechanism that depends entirely on the platform succeeding; it is gradual if it happens and it is not promised. Nothing on this site is a guaranteed return, an investment, or a target, and you should not treat credits as one. They are for playing chess. The disclosure document is the formal position.

Learner mode at Level 1, against Regular Dave. You play your own moves with no hints, and after each one you are shown what you played and what would have been better, with the reason. When you beat him you get his badge and Level 2 is waiting.

Alongside that, work through the openings in Learn - start with the Italian Game - and the back-rank mate, which is the one you will meet first in a real game.

Teaching mode colours your options before you move, so you can explore a position. Learner mode says nothing until after you have committed, then tells you how it went. Teaching mode is for understanding a position; learner mode is for finding out whether you actually understood it.

Yes. Every finished game in your history has a one-tap PGN copy, so you can paste it into any other tool you like.