Lumen · infinite chess

Same pieces. No edges.

Infinite chess is regular chess on a board with no border. Every piece moves the way you already know. The only difference: the board keeps going.

Play now

Two players, one device. Tap a piece, tap where it goes.

Three things to know

  1. Pieces move like normal chess. Kings, queens, rooks, bishops, knights, pawns — all the moves you already know. Captures, checks, and castling work the same way.
  2. The board has no edge. You can drag to pan in any direction, forever. Use WASD or arrow keys on a laptop. Long-range pieces really go long-range.
  3. White starts on ranks 1-2, black on ranks 7-8. Exactly like a normal opening. The infinite part only matters once pieces start running away from the center.

The Penrose view

Penrose view: the whole infinite board, squeezed into a circle A conformal projection. The center holds the starting pieces; concentric rings show how squares shrink as they move toward the edge, which represents infinity. Tap the Penrose toggle inside the board view to see this view live. infinity center

The Penrose view squeezes the whole infinite board into a circle. The middle is where the pieces are. The edge of the circle is infinity — squares far from the action shrink as they get further away, but they're all still there.

Toggle it from inside the board view. It's how you see both the local fight and how much room each side has to run.

Your first move

Open the board. The starting position is set up. Tap a white piece; the legal squares glow. Tap a glowing square to move. Then it's black's turn.

That's the whole game. Hand the device back and forth, or play both sides. Drag to pan if you want to see further out. There's an undo button if you tap the wrong square.

Open the board

Longer rules primer · All versions · Back to Lumen