The Chess Archive

Chess is more fun than you think.

Learn how the pieces move in a few minutes, play the computer or a friend, and replay the greatest games ever played — move by move, in 3D.

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Most of the library ends in mate on the board, and for a long time all of it had to: the closing shot holds on a mating net generated from the final position, and a resignation gives it nothing to hold. That rule kept out most of the canon — about two master games in a hundred end in mate — so games that end in a resignation or a draw are in here too, and their closing shot holds on the move the game stopped at instead. Every row says which it is. The mating games are also what the puzzles are made of: a hundred finishes, and the question is the one somebody answered at the board. A game that ends any other way sets no puzzle, because there is no mate in it to find. Games you import are under no such rule either; one that ends in a resignation or a draw simply ends and sets no puzzle. The board, the pieces and the annotation are the same ones the videos are rendered from (animations/207-famous-chess-games); this is that render with the clock handed over to you — and, on the play pages, with the moves handed over too: against the engine, or against whoever you send the link to. The annotation is readable on its own too, a page per game and grouped by opening, over here. Or take the winner's side and guess the moves they played — the note about the move is what answers you. New to the game? Every piece, and how it moves. To add your own, use Import games with your Lichess or Chess.com username, or drop a .pgn (or a .zip holding one) anywhere on this page; they are kept in this browser and go nowhere else. Every review, every lens and both ways to play are free and stay free — the engine runs in your browser, so a review costs this site nothing. Nothing here asks you to sign up first: every game, every puzzle and both ways to play work the first time you open the page, and Install in the corner keeps them working with no connection at all — on a plane, on the underground, in a waiting room. An account is optional and buys one thing, a reaction on a game you liked. Nothing is advertised at you, and you are asked before anything about your visit is counted.

Chess is more fun than you think.

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