Chess on a five by five board. The same pieces and the same rules, in games that last a few minutes rather than an hour.
The same eight opponents as the full game, so the difficulty means the same thing here.
You play white at the bottom. Click a piece to see its moves, then click where you want it to go.
Pieces move exactly as they do in chess. There is no castling and no en passant, because the board is too small for either to come up.
Pawns promote to a queen when they reach the far rank, which happens fast on a board this short.
Win by checkmate. With so few pieces, most games are decided by one tactic, so look at every check before you move.
A rook, a knight, a king, a knight and a rook along the back row, with five pawns in front of them.
There is nowhere to castle to. The king is already in the middle of a five square row, so the rule would do nothing.
Shorter, not easier. Fewer pieces means fewer mistakes get buried, so a single loose move usually decides the game.
Yes, the same ladder of eight levels from Drunk Rook up to The Beast, with the same ratings attached.
Small chess variants have been around for decades, usually invented to make the game quicker to learn or quicker to finish. Five by five does both.
It is a good place to practise tactics. Forks and pins happen constantly because there is nowhere for a piece to hide, and a game takes a couple of minutes to replay.
If you want the full board, Solo Chess runs the same opponent on eight by eight.