Chess Folk

Chess Folk is a chess game where you can play fictional opponents, meet real players online, practise skills, study games and take part in tournaments. It also includes historical chess quests, tools for reviewing games, and ways to create and share custom opponents and other content.

Meet your rivals

Challenge more than 300 fictional opponents, each with a portrait, nationality, biography and playing style. They include patient defenders, bold attackers, promising youngsters and a formidable panda. Find opponents by country, continent or in-game rating, save favorites, revisit recent matches and request rematches. Friendly animal opponents provide gentler starting points for children and beginners.

You can also create opponents with a name, portrait, biography and personality. Choose their playing level and adjust their preferences, thinking habits and opening preparation, either from a preset or through individual settings. Upload artwork, generate an avatar offline and test an opponent directly from the editor. Organize custom opponents into collections, share them, watch them compete or include them in unrated tournaments. Their displayed strength is an estimate, not an independently calibrated rating.

Practise and learn

Play untimed practice games with Susu the Panda, asking for hints, exploring alternative moves and retrying decisions. Choose to receive guidance at key moments, after every move or whenever you ask. Guided lessons, chess puzzles and the Opening Explorer offer further ways to study at your own pace.

Board Vision provides untimed practice in capturing unprotected pieces, saving attacked pieces, finding worthwhile exchanges and creating threats. Hints, retries and explanations help you work through each position. Quick Spot adds a short timed challenge to find captures that win material, build a score and track personal bests; afterward, you can revisit missed positions without a clock. Attackers & defenders focuses on exchanges and recaptures where the first capture does not settle the position, while Think & Move asks you to find a good move within a time limit and then reflect on your decision.

Review your games

Game Review covers completed online and offline games with an accuracy summary, mistakes, missed opportunities and engine continuations. Use the move list and navigation controls to revisit positions, check how long you spent on decisions or continue playing from a position to test an idea. Games played through Chess Folk are saved to your match history and can be replayed, exported or reviewed.

Opening insights shows which openings you play most often and highlights early mistakes found in saved reviews. Filter by color, time control or recent games, then open a position in Opening Explorer. Online ratings, results and rating history are tracked separately from progress against computer opponents.

Explore chess history

Illustrated historical quests take you to Paris in 1858, Havana in 1921 and New York in 1956. Meet the players, learn about each setting and take your place at the board during key moments from celebrated games. Explore Paul Morphy’s attacking ideas, Capablanca’s precision and decisions from thirteen-year-old Bobby Fischer’s encounter with Donald Byrne. The campaigns combine stories with chess challenges, hints and explanations of why the moves matter.

Play and compete

Play offline tournaments or create round-robin, Swiss-system or knockout events with up to 64 players. Choose the field and time control, follow pairings and standings, and return later to finish. Recurring events and illustrated venues add variety, and some competitions are designed for newer players. Track your in-game rating, progress through the Chessfolk Club leagues and keep a record of your games. Separate local profiles let multiple people maintain their own progress.

For offline games, choose bullet, blitz, rapid, classical or custom time controls, including increment, delay and multi-period clocks. Play local two-player chess on one computer, team up against a computer opponent in Play Together, or watch computer opponents compete. Computer matches and offline tournaments work without an internet connection.

Online play connects to Lichess, where you can choose rated or casual matchmaking with 10-minute, 15+10 or 30-minute time controls. Follow moves and captured pieces, use premoves, and review completed games in Chess Folk. Online play requires an internet connection and a free Lichess account; the offline club remains available without signing in. Lichess ratings are tracked separately, and Chess Folk is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lichess.

Customize your club

Choose a 2D board or 3D view and customize pieces, boards and scenery. Options include warm woodgrain and a translucent Frosted Glass board, along with background visibility, a dark theme and adjustable text size. You can also change music, sound effects, clock warnings and spoken announcements. Earn Club Tokens through play and learning to unlock cosmetics; tokens are not sold for real money.

Steam Workshop lets you create and share custom AI opponent collections, chess piece sets made with your own artwork, puzzle collections, board styles, annotated game collections and recorded chess-announcer voice packs. The in-game editors support puzzle positions and solutions, board colors, textures and backgrounds, and game commentary and alternative lines. You can browse other players’ creations or exchange collections directly through files. Workshop browsing and downloads require an internet connection.

Use arrows and highlighted squares to work through ideas, import or export PGN games, and set up positions. Mouse, keyboard and controller are supported.