Chess Blitz
Three minutes. Sixty-four squares. No alibis.
How to play
Select one of your pieces, then choose a lit destination. Every standard rule is live: check and checkmate, stalemate, castling, en passant, underpromotion, repetition, the fifty-move rule and insufficient-material draws. Each side starts with three minutes; checkmate or outlast the opposing clock to score 100 points.
What is Chess Blitz?
Chess Blitz is complete tournament chess compressed into a sharp three-minute duel. The board is familiar, but the clock changes the texture of every decision: a safe move that costs forty seconds may be worse than a practical threat found in four. You play White in solo mode against Night Engine, a deterministic alpha-beta opponent, or take either color in a synchronized 1v1 match.
This is not a simplified chess variant. Check, checkmate, stalemate, castling through safe squares, en passant, queen and underpromotion, threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule, insufficient material and clock losses are all resolved by the same pure rules engine used to validate replays.
How to play
Tap or click one of your pieces. Legal destination squares light up; choose one to move. Tap the selected piece again to clear it. On a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move focus around the board and press Enter or Space to select and move.
When a pawn reaches the final rank, a four-button promotion panel appears. Pick a queen, rook, bishop or knight. Castling is offered by selecting the king and moving it two squares toward the rook whenever the route is empty, the king is not in check and no crossed square is attacked. En passant is available only on the move immediately after an opposing pawn advances two squares.
Both sides begin with three minutes. Your live clock is deducted when you commit a legal move; if it reaches zero first, the game ends immediately. A win scores 100 points, a draw scores 40 and a loss scores 0.
Tactical notes
- Develop with tempo. Bring knights and bishops toward the center while attacking something useful; repeated moves by the same piece burn both position and clock.
- Castle before opening the center. A king in the middle turns every forcing check into a calculation you must solve under time pressure.
- Count forcing moves first. Checks, captures and direct threats sharply reduce the reply tree — ideal when seconds matter.
- Use the whole promotion menu. A knight underpromotion can check on a square a queen cannot, while a rook or bishop can avoid an accidental stalemate.
- Know when the clock is the position. With a winning material edge and little time, choose clean moves that keep legal replies simple rather than chasing the prettiest mate.
FAQ
Does the AI cheat or use random moves?
No. Night Engine searches legal positions with alpha-beta pruning and a material, mobility and king-pressure evaluation. The room seed only breaks exact evaluation ties, so the same seed and move trace always replay to the same result.
Can I castle out of check or through check?
No. Castling is legal only if the king is currently safe, the crossed square is safe, the destination is safe, the path is empty and the original king and rook have not moved.
How is multiplayer synchronized?
Each legal move includes the time spent on that turn and is appended to the platform's durable turn log with a deterministic state hash. Both players replay the same ordered actions, while the platform room clock drives the live countdown display.
What causes an automatic draw?
Stalemate, three repetitions of the same position, fifty moves per side without a pawn move or capture, and positions with no possible mating material are recognized automatically.
