Mini Chess

What mini chess is on this page

Mini chess is chess played on a smaller board with fewer pieces, so games are short and the patterns are easy to see. This page lets two people play mini chess on one screen, passing the device back and forth. It runs in your browser. Use the Variant menu to choose Gardner minichess (5×5) or Los Alamos chess (6×6). There is no computer opponent, so both players share the same board. You can set the board to turn after every move, so each player sees the position from their own side. The page checks every move, so illegal moves and moves that leave your own king in check are refused.

How to play mini chess on this page

1. Open the Variant menu and choose Gardner minichess (5×5) or Los Alamos chess (6×6).
2. Click New game to start with that variant's set-up.
3. Click one of your pieces. Dots mark its legal squares.
4. Click a dot to move there. The last move is highlighted.
5. If a king is in check, its square is highlighted. Read the status line to see whose move it is.
6. When a pawn reaches the last rank, the page asks "Promote the pawn to:". Click the piece you want.
7. Click Undo move to take back the last move; you can keep pressing it to go back further. The move list uses standard algebraic notation, with files a–e or a–f.
8. Tick Turn the board after every move so each player sees the board from their side, or click Flip board to turn it yourself.
9. When the game ends, the status line announces the result, such as "Checkmate — White wins" or "Stalemate — draw".

To swap sides for a second game, click New game and let the other player take White. The variant you pick is stored in the address bar as ?variant=, so a copied link opens the same variant. Nothing else is saved, so a game is lost if you close the page.

Questions and answers

Is there a computer opponent?

No. The page lets two people play on one screen, so the second player sits at the same device and takes the other side.

Is Gardner minichess solved?

Yes, in a weak sense. In 2013 Mehdi Mhalla and Frederic Prost weakly solved it, which means that with perfect play from both sides the game is a draw.

What is Los Alamos chess?

Los Alamos chess is a 6×6 variant devised in 1956 by Paul Stein and Mark Wells at the Los Alamos laboratory for the MANIAC I computer. It was the first chess-like game played by a computer program. It has no bishops, and pawns promote only to a queen, rook or knight.

Can I play on a phone?

Yes. The board scales to the width of a phone screen, and with "Turn the board after every move" ticked two players can pass the phone back and forth.

Can pawns move two squares in mini chess?

Not here. In both variants on this page a pawn always moves one square forward, so there is no en passant capture either. Martin Gardner's first version of 5×5 chess did allow the double step and castling; the rules used here are the later ones without them.

How many legal moves does White have at the start?

In Gardner minichess, White has 7 legal first moves: five pawn moves and two knight moves. In Los Alamos chess, White has 10.

Related chess tools

• Play chess against the computer — use this when you want a computer opponent instead of a second person at the same device.
• Chess board setup — use this to learn the starting layout of standard chess before you try a smaller board.
• Eight queens puzzle — use this to practise placing pieces so that none of them attack each other.
• Knight's tour puzzle — use this to explore how a knight moves across a board, one of the moves that also matters in mini chess.
• Chess960 generator — use this when you want randomised starting positions instead of the standard set-up.
• Chess puzzle trainer — use this to practise finding tactics that win material or force checkmate.
• Chess endgame trainer — use this to practise the endings that often decide a game with few pieces left.