Release11/09/2026 · 22:55

TenChess is playable: online, against the bot and with your own army

Locally, against the computer or online against people – with ratings, leaderboards, achievements, draw offers and the new chaos army planner.

TenChess is now fully playable: with two people on one device, against the computer, and online against other players. Here is an overview of everything that has been added.

Three ways to play

• Local: two people on one device.
• Com: against the bot at four strengths – Beginner, Advanced, Experienced and Master. You choose White, Black, or let chance decide.
• Online: against people. With a preset time control the site automatically looks for a matching opponent. With your own settings you put your game on a list – with a name and password if you like – or join an open game.

The time controls are Bullet, Blitz, Rapid, Standard, Long and Marathon, or your own settings – different for White and Black if you want.

Classic and Chaos

Classic uses the fixed starting position. In Chaos mode you put your own army together: 50 build points, class A pieces only on the back rank, class B on both ranks. Points left over go to your bank. If the game ends drawn on the board, the higher bank wins. Online, your army stays secret until both sides are done.

Fair play online

• Every move is checked on the server. Anything against the rules is not accepted.
• The clock runs on the server, not in your browser.
• If someone does not make their first move within 20 seconds, the game is cancelled – no winner, no rating change.
• If your connection drops, you have 60 seconds to come back. After that your opponent wins. A lost connection is never recorded as a resignation.
• If you reload the page, “Continue current game” takes you back to the board.

Rating and leaderboard

Online games between people are rated using the Glicko-2 system. Besides the number itself, it keeps track of how certain that number is: at the start your rating moves quickly, and settles down with every game. A question mark after the number means it is still based on only a few games.

Ratings are kept separately for Classic and Chaos and by thinking time (Short, Medium, Long). Games against the bot and local games do not count. The top ten of each list are on your account page.

Offering a draw

Online you can offer a draw once both sides have moved. Your opponent accepts or declines – if they move instead, that counts as declining. An agreed draw is a draw in Chaos mode too; the bank does not decide here. Locally, a draw takes one short confirmation.

Chaos army planner

On your account page you can build up to three Chaos armies calmly and without a clock, and give them names. In the setup phase of a Chaos game you load one with a single click. If you play Black, the army is mirrored automatically. If a game allows fewer points than your army costs, it is locked – and the page tells you why.

Achievements

Eight achievements are waiting for you – from your first game at the same table to your first rating of your own. You can see your progress in the profile overview on the home page.

Try it without an account

Even without an account you can play one game of TenChess against the bot – Classic, Rapid time control.

Faster

The site now answers noticeably faster: it is computed right next to the database instead of sending every request across the Atlantic.

What comes next

Next we are working on an introduction to the game that explains every piece and every rule step by step.