Best Chess-Like Games to Play Online

The definitive two-player strategy game. Chess features six piece types, 16 pieces per side, and a win condition of checkmating the king. Its deep theory, rich history, and global community make it the benchmark all strategy games are measured against. If you can handle its learning curve, the depth is unmatched.

Chess-like because: Piece hierarchy, tactical combinations, positional play, and promotion.

Japan's national board game. Like chess but with one key difference: captured pieces change sides and can be re-entered onto the board. This creates massive combinatorial depth and very different endgames. Shogi has 8 piece types, a 9×9 board, and is significantly more complex than chess.

Chess-like because: Piece hierarchy, promotion zones, deep tactical combinations.

Played on a 19×19 grid with black and white stones, Go is about territory: surrounding and capturing areas of the board. The rules are extremely simple (one of the simplest rule sets in abstract strategy), but the resulting depth dwarfs chess. Go has the largest game tree of any two-player board game.

Chess-like because: Perfect information, no luck, deep strategy. Very different mechanically but rewards the same analytical mindset.

Played on a diamond-shaped board, Hex is about connecting your two opposite sides before your opponent connects theirs. Two players, alternating, placing stones. No captures. A famous result proves Hex can never end in a draw. Elegant, mathematically rich, and very different from chess.

Chess-like because: Perfect information, no luck, strategic planning. Minimal rules with deep emergent strategy.

A two-player abstract game played with hexagonal tiles, each representing an insect with a unique movement pattern. There is no board: the tiles form the playing surface. The goal is to surround the opponent's Queen Bee. Hive is portable, zero-luck, and surprisingly deep for how quickly it can be learned.

Chess-like because: Piece types with distinct movement rules, tactical captures, strategic positioning.

A two-player abstract game where movement rules change each turn based on cards drawn at game start. Each player holds two movement cards; using one passes it to the opponent. The result is a compact, quick game with high replayability and tactical depth. Every game plays differently.

Chess-like because: Capture-based, piece movement hierarchy, positional play on a 5×5 board.

Created specifically to be difficult for AI to solve (at the time). Arimaa uses a chess-like board with animals of different strengths that push and pull each other. The branching factor is extremely high, and positional evaluation is complex even for modern engines.

Chess-like because: Animal piece hierarchy, positional strategy, capturing via displacement.

Raichu is a chess-inspired abstract strategy game with three piece types: Pichu, Pikachu, and Raichu, each with distinct movement and a capture hierarchy. Played on an 8×8 board, the goal is to capture every opponent piece. No luck, no draws, no download required.

Chess-like because: Piece hierarchy, promotion mechanic, board control, positional and tactical depth.