About
Chess, with your shoes on
Chess is played sitting down, indoors, alone with a screen. This is the version that gets you across town on a Sunday and gives you something to argue about with the neighbours. Made in Rotterdam by one person, for the people playing it.
Everything is earned
By playing. Nothing for sale makes you stronger, and a rating is never a currency.
Solo always works
Including in a village. Playing together makes it easier, never necessary.
It costs you nothing
Servers, map data and the engine cost money, and for now that bill is ours. Nothing to buy, no advertising. What is free today stays free.
Who and what made this
Humans, AI, and Stockfish. Three different things.
- The artworkHuman-made and AI-made, and we say which. The chess pieces are the cburnett set by Colin M.L. Burnett, drawn by hand and used under its BSD licence. The rest, the current app icon included, is AI-made. When somebody draws for this game, they are credited here by name.
- The codeCo-written with AI, reviewed by humans who are accountable for it. A tool, like the framework it is written in.
- The botsStockfish, on our server. Its strength follows the position you drew, which follows your rating. It never plays your side.
Help build it
We want your drawings, boards, animations and sounds
What would help
Piece sets, board themes, faction emblems, short animations, sound, and anything that pushes the house style further. Also welcome: monument suggestions, playtesting, translation, code.
What you get
Your name in the app and on this site, and your work actually used. There is no money in it; this project does not chase profit, and we would rather say so now than after you have made something.
Send what you have, or what you are planning, to support@chessmeoutside.com. A few examples say more than a long e-mail. We will tell you plainly if it does not fit.
What comes next is partly yours to decide
The order of what gets built after the first version is steered by the people playing it. We put what is on the list up on Instagram, and you vote.
Instagram, once the account is up