ChessField

ChessField uses the chess moves you already know. Rooks travel in straight lines, bishops on the diagonals, knights in their awkward jump, and everything you know about how the pieces relate still holds.

What changes is the shape of the game. This is not one long match from opening to endgame but a run of short levels, each handing you a particular arrangement on the board with a countdown already running at the top of the screen.

The board is not plain either. Bands of green terrain cut across the squares and they do not stay still, so a line that would normally be open to a piece can be closed off — which is what stops the obvious move from being the right one.

With a clock running, thinking ten moves ahead is not what the game wants. It asks you to see quickly instead: which piece can get there, by which route, before the count runs out.

For players who bounce off the formality of a traditional set, a format this short is far easier to step into. The moves are the same, but a level is over in seconds.