The ultimate chess app, built for foldables.

1 · Play

Play

Every way to sit down to a game, with no caps on how many you play.

• Play the computer

  Eight levels, from a gentle beginner up to the full engine. Lower levels make plausible human-style mistakes instead of random ones. No daily limits.

• Pass and play

  Two people, one device. Legal-move dots, castling, en passant, promotion picker, check, mate, stalemate and draw rules are all handled.

• Table mode

  Lay the phone flat between two players. Each end gets its own board, clock and controls, and the far end is turned around for the player across the table.

• Nearby play Tested on simulators so far

  Find a player in the room and play over Bluetooth or peer-to-peer Wi-Fi. No internet and no account needed.

• Online with friend codes

  Start a game, share an 8-character code, and your friend joins from anywhere. Clocks run on the server, and a dropped connection reconnects to the same game.

• Ranked matchmaking

  Join the queue and get paired with a player near your rating; the search window widens while you wait. Elo ratings update after every ranked game, and there is a leaderboard.

• Saved and recoverable games Restoring on a second device is not built yet

  Computer and pass-and-play games are backed up as you go, so a crash or relaunch does not lose them, and you are offered to resume. Games can also be imported and exported as PGN.

2 · Board

Board

See the game the way you like, and shrink the interface to the size you want.

• A real 3D board

  A proper 3D board and pieces with a free camera: rotate, zoom and pan with your fingers. You decide how you look at the game.

• A 2D board when you want it

  Prefer a flat, top-down view? Switch to the 2D board from the display menu.

• Five board themes

  Classic green, Walnut, Slate, a colorblind-safe palette (blue, orange and purple chosen to stay distinct), and a high-contrast black and white theme.

• Display levels

  Choose how much the screen shows: Focus (board only), Clean (a slim status strip), Auto (the interface fades while your finger is on the board), or Full.

Simple illustration of how much interface each display level shows. Auto fades the interface while you touch the board.

3 · Foldable

Foldable

PixelChess starts from the idea that a folding phone is a chess table.

• Hinge-aware

  On supported foldables PixelChess reads the live hinge angle and knows whether the phone is closed, standing like a laptop, or lying flat.

• Table mode suggestion

  Lay the phone flat during a pass-and-play game and the app offers to switch to Table mode, so you do not have to hunt for it.

• Built around the fold

  The screens are designed for a phone that folds one way: board on the lower half like a laptop, information above. Fully automatic layout changes with posture are still being finished.

Illustration. Postures are read from the hinge angle; closed is under about 20 degrees, laptop up to about 150, flat beyond that.

4 · Learn

Learn

A coach that explains, instead of just giving you a number.

• Coach with per-move feedback

  As you play, each move gets a label (best, good, inaccuracy, mistake or blunder) with a plain-language reason and, when relevant, a better move.

• Three-step hints

  Hints teach instead of just spoiling: first the piece or area to look at, then the idea, and only then the exact move.

• Post-game review

  After a game, see accuracy for both sides, the opening, the five biggest swings, and scrub back through every move with notes.

• Mistakes become puzzles

  Your own mistakes and blunders are extracted from the review as puzzles, so you practise the positions you actually got wrong.

• Puzzle bank Content being added for launch

  A bank of ready-made puzzles sorted by difficulty, with solved counts.

• Illustrated guide Being connected into the app for launch

  A written guide of 34 chapters from the 64 squares to rook endings, with a glossary and diagrams drawn from checked positions.

5 · Privacy and price

Privacy and price

Simple on purpose.

• No ads, ever

  No banners, no video ads, no interruptions.

• No daily caps

  Play as many games as you like. Nothing is rationed behind a timer.

• Core game is free

  Every game mode, the 3D and 2D boards, ranked play and the basics are free to use.

• One-time PixelChess Pro

  A single purchase unlocks the extras (the full coach, mistakes-as-puzzles, all opponent levels and every board theme). Launch price: $4.99. No subscription. The final split between free and Pro is confirmed at launch.

Read the privacy policy

6 · Platforms

Platforms

One game, three kinds of screen.

• iPhone

  Designed first for phones, including foldables.

• iPad

  The same game on a bigger board.

• Mac

  Runs on the Mac through Mac Catalyst.

• One purchase

  Unlock Pro once and it applies to all of your devices that use the same Apple account.