Okagame Chess

Okagame Chess is a full chess client in a browser tab. Matchmaking finds you a live opponent, and games run in real time at whatever time control you pick.

Ratings are kept separately for Bullet, Blitz, Rapid and Daily, which is more useful than one combined number — most players are noticeably better at one pace than another, and separate ratings make that visible instead of averaging it away.

A set of 110 puzzles covers tactics at a range of difficulties, and they are the fastest way to improve for anyone who keeps losing games they were winning. Bot mode is there for practicing an opening without a rating attached.

Match history lets you go back through finished games, which is where the actual learning happens — the move that lost a game is rarely the one you remember as the mistake.

Bullet, Blitz, Rapid and Daily explained

The number is the time budget for the whole game, not per move, and your clock only runs on your turn. Run out before your opponent and you lose, even in a winning position.

• Bullet, 1 minute - almost no thinking time. It is decided by patterns you already know cold and by how fast you move. Not the place to start.
• Blitz, 5 minutes - enough to check what your opponent threatens before you move, but still quick decisions throughout. This is the format most people play.
• Rapid, 15 minutes - room to genuinely calculate a few moves ahead and change plans midway. The sensible choice while you are learning.
• Daily, 60 minutes - the most relaxed pace and the closest to classical tournament chess. For serious games with no clock breathing down your neck.

Ratings are tracked separately per time control because people genuinely differ by speed: plenty of strong Rapid players fall apart at Bullet. If you are new, start with Rapid and work down to the faster controls once the patterns become familiar.

Getting started, step by step

1. Press Play on the opening screen. If you are signed in to okagame.com the game uses that account; if not, a guest account is made for you, so nothing stands between you and the board.
2. You land on Home, which holds your profile, four rating cards, your recent games and the buttons that start one.
3. Press Play Online. The game page opens with the board on the left and a tabbed panel on the right.
4. On the NewGame tab, pick one of the four Game Mode cards: Bullet, Blitz, Rapid or Daily. The selected card is outlined in green.
5. Press Start Game. A searching animation runs until another player picks the same time control.
6. When the pairing lands, the board goes live. Move by clicking a piece and then its destination square, or by dragging it. Push a pawn to the last rank and the board asks what you want it to become: queen, rook, bishop or knight.

Practicing against the bot

1. From Home, press Play Bot. You can also open the NewGame tab on the game page and press Play a Bot at the bottom.
2. Under Play As, choose White to move first or Black to move second.
3. Under Difficulty Level, pick one of seven levels. The small range beneath each one, from 200-400 up to 1400-1600, is roughly how strong that opponent plays; higher levels let the engine search deeper before it answers.
4. Press Start Game. The bot replies on its own whenever the turn comes back to it.
5. If you get stuck mid-game, Hint lights up a suggestion for five seconds. The red button at the left of the same row ends the game whenever you want out.

The clock still runs against the bot, and it uses whichever Game Mode was last selected on the NewGame tab, which is Rapid at 15 minutes if you have never changed it. The bot's clock can run out too, and if it does the win is yours. Bot games are not recorded against your rating, which makes them the safe place to try an opening you do not know yet.

Playing a friend with an invite code

1. On the NewGame tab, press the Play a Friend panel. It opens downward with its own set of time controls.
2. Pick a pace and press Create Room. The invite code appears underneath, with a copy button beside it.
3. Send that code to your friend however the two of you usually talk.
4. Your friend opens Play a Friend as well, presses Join Room, pastes the code into the field and presses Join. The board opens for the two of you without going through the matchmaking queue.

The controls during a game

• Clock - the clock box lit green shows whose turn it is. The large number is what is left for the whole game; the small red one beside it counts how long you have been sitting on this move.
• Move list - White Moves and Black Moves record every move, and Time Taken shows how long each one took.
• RequestUndo - asks your opponent to let you take your last move back. They can accept or refuse, so do not count on it.
• Resign - concede the game. It asks for confirmation first.
• Draw - offer a draw. The game only ends level if your opponent agrees.
• Message box - a chat column under the move list, open for the whole game.
• The gear icon near the board opens Board Appearance for the board colors and Show Square for square names like e4.

Pressing Start Game while a game is still running brings up a warning first. Going ahead counts the old game as a loss, so finish what you are playing if you would rather keep the result.

The rest of the left-hand menu

• Puzzles - three ways in: Daily Puzzle, which changes at midnight, Random Puzzles for one after another, and Browse All to filter the set by theme and by difficulty from Beginner to Expert. Get Hint highlights the square the answer starts from, and Next Puzzle moves you on once this one is solved.
• Watch - follow games other people are playing right now, board and clocks moving as they happen.
• Statistics - your rating over time and a breakdown of results per time control.
• Social - search players by name or PlayerID, send friend requests, message them and challenge them to a game.
• Tournaments and Clubs - scheduled events to enter, and clubs to join with other players.
• Settings, the gear at the bottom - dark mode, board theme, sound effects and a row of switches: Auto-Queen to skip the promotion prompt and take a queen every time, Show Coordinates for square names, Highlight Valid Moves to light up the legal moves.

Finished games do not disappear. On Home, every recent-game card carries an Analyze button that opens the analysis board with the engine's evaluation at each move, and a Challenge button that asks the same opponent for a rematch.