Odin's Chess

Need a hand? Email sean@hollender-consulting.com and I'll get back to you.

GETTING STARTED

Odin's Chess is a one-time purchase: no ads, no tracking and nothing more to buy. It plays on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac, and everything but the online modes, leaderboards and achievements works with no account and no network at all.

Every board is played the same way. On your turn you pick up one of your pieces, and dots appear on every square it can reach, with a ring round any piece it can take; then you set it down on one of those squares. The pieces move as they do in chess, and How to Play describes every move on every board. White always moves first. A king under attack is in check, and the board says so. The game screen names each board's goal — on Classic it is checkmate — and when a game ends, the result says how it was decided.

• iPhone and iPad — tap a piece, then tap the square it should go to, or drag it there. A finger close to one of your pieces, or to a square the piece you picked up can reach, counts as that square, so even the small squares on an iPhone are easy to hit.
• Apple TV — swipe on the remote to move the highlight to a piece and click to pick it up, then move to its new square and click again. The game's controls are on the side rail to the left of the board. During a game, Back (Menu) or Play/Pause opens the Paused card, with Resume and Main Menu; on any other screen, Back closes it.
• Mac — click a piece, then click the square it should go to, or drag it there; or move the highlight with the arrow keys and press Return (or Space) to pick up and put down. Esc puts a picked-up piece back. From the keyboard: Command-Z undo, Shift-Command-R restart, Shift-Command-M sound, Command-? How to Play. The Help menu opens the Video Instructions and How to Play.

When a pawn reaches the far rank, a card shows the pieces it may become, and the move is made when you choose one. With Settings > Auto-Queen on, it becomes a queen without asking.

WAYS TO PLAY

• Vs the computer — Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert on any board. You play White, which moves first.
• Pass & Play — two people sharing one screen; after each move the screen says who to hand it to. On iPhone and iPad, Settings > Turn the Board turns the board after each move so the player to move sits at the bottom.
• Play Online — Quick Async Match, Live Match, or an invitation to a friend.
• Play Someone Nearby — two devices in the same room, no account needed.

VIDEO INSTRUCTIONS

The Video Instructions teach the game in under three minutes, on the real board: how to use the app, the pieces in brief, check and checkmate, castling, en passant, promotion and the draws, the eight boards, every House Rule and the ways to play. Open them from the link at the top of the main menu (on Apple TV, above the picture of the board), from any How to Play page, or on a Mac from the Help menu. The player has chapters, a transcript of every caption and five-second skips; with Reduce Motion on, it moves one step at a time instead.

THE EIGHT BOARDS

Every board is a game of its own. Seven are eight squares a side; Quick is six.

• Classic — chess as the world plays it.
• Chess960 — the pieces behind the pawns start in one of 960 arrangements: the bishops on squares of opposite colours, the king somewhere between the rooks, and Black mirroring White. Castling ends with the king and rook on the same squares as in classic chess; to castle, move the king onto the rook.
• Quick — a short game on a 6 × 6 board with no bishops: no castling, a pawn never moves two squares (so there is no en passant), and a pawn that reaches the far rank becomes a queen, a rook or a knight.
• Shatranj — the medieval game the Lewis carvers knew. The counsellor (the queen's piece) moves one square diagonally; the elephant (the bishop's piece) jumps exactly two squares diagonally, over any piece in between. There is no castling, a pawn never moves two squares, and a pawn that reaches the far rank becomes a counsellor. Checkmate wins, and so does stalemating the other side or taking every piece but its king — unless the other side can do the same on its very next move, which is a draw.
• Horde — White plays thirty-six pawns and no king against Black's standard army, and White's pawns on the first rank may move two squares. White wins by checkmate; Black wins by taking every white pawn and every piece they become.
• Racing Kings — both sides start on the first two ranks with no pawns, and no move may give check, to either king. The first king to reach the eighth rank wins; if White's king arrives first and Black's king can arrive on the very next move, the game is drawn.
• Antichess — taking is compulsory: a side that can take a piece must take one. The king is an ordinary piece — there is no check, no checkmate and no castling, and a pawn may become a king — and a side wins by losing every piece it has, or by having no legal move.
• Atomic — every capture explodes: the piece that takes, the piece taken and every piece on the eight squares around them leave the board, except pawns beside the blast. A king may never take, and a move that would blow up its own king is not allowed. A side wins by blowing up the other king, or by checkmate; kings standing side by side never give check.

Pick a board in World of Chess, the first of the round buttons on the main menu, or with the board button just above the four doors. Your choice applies to new games — a game already under way keeps the board it started on. How to Play, also on the main menu, gives you the rules of whichever board is selected, with a card for each House Rule that is on.

HOUSE RULES

House Rules, the third round button on the main menu (and a row in World of Chess), adds five optional rules. Switch on any of them, in any combination; each rule says which boards it leaves out, and a game on one of those boards is played without it:

• The High Seat — a side also wins by moving its king onto one of the four centre squares. Not on Horde, Racing Kings, Antichess or Atomic.
• Three Blows — a side also wins by giving check for the third time. Not on Horde, Racing Kings, Antichess or Atomic.
• The Jarl's Gift — a handicap: one side starts without a piece — a pawn, a knight, a rook or the queen. Choose which, and which side gives it up; the stronger player gives up the piece. Not on Horde, Racing Kings or Antichess. A game against the computer in which the computer starts without the piece counts as assisted, like a coached one: it still earns XP and counts in your record, but it stays off the best-streak and fastest-Expert leaderboards and out of the Unaided achievement.
• Open Hall — castling is not allowed. Only on the boards that have castling: Classic, Chess960, Horde and Atomic.
• No Quarter — a side left with no legal move loses, as in English chess before 1800. Not on Shatranj, Racing Kings or Antichess.

House Rules apply to every new game — solo, Pass & Play, online and nearby — and never change a game already under way; a saved game keeps the rules it started with. Online and nearby, a game is played under the House Rules of the player who opens it, so both players always play the same game — all but the Jarl's Gift, which only an invitation carries: a game that matchmaking finds for you is never handicapped. An invitation from a friend for a turn-based game, or from someone nearby, names those rules — and, with the Jarl's Gift, says that you will play Black — before you accept. The game screen names the board, the goal and every rule in play, and How to Play, opened during a game, shows a card for each rule in play. A win against the computer with a House Rule in play earns the Law of the Longhouse achievement.

THE PIECES AND THE BOARD

The two sides are White and Black on every board. Settings > Pieces offers two sets — the Lewis Chessmen (the default), carved figures in the style of the twelfth-century Norse set, and Sigils, flat coins each marked with its piece — and in both, White's pieces are the light ones and Black's the dark. Settings > Board offers four looks: Oak (the default), Oak & Iron, Engraved Cherry and Green Leather. Settings > Board view shows the board flat, from straight above, or angled, with the pieces standing in perspective; Apple TV opens angled, everything else flat. Coordinates, on by default, label the files and ranks on the board's frame.

All of these belong to your device — an online opponent sees the pieces and board they picked — and they are only a look: they never change how the game plays, and there is nothing to collect or unlock.

THE MOVE LIST

Every move of the game is listed in chess notation with small piece figures, the same in every language: in a strip above the board, in a panel beside it when the screen is wider than it is tall, and in a column beside it on Apple TV. Each player's card shows the pieces they have taken. On iPhone, iPad and Mac, tap or click a move to see the position after it; the board takes no move while you look, and Resume brings back the game as it stands.

DRAWS

A side that has no legal move but is not in check is stalemated, and on most boards the game is drawn; on Shatranj and under No Quarter the stalemated side loses, and on Antichess it wins. A game is also drawn when neither side can ever checkmate, as with king against king.

When the same position has occurred three times, or fifty moves by each side have passed with no capture and no pawn move, the player to move may claim a draw: a button on the game screen says which claim is open — Claim a Draw by Repetition, or Claim a Draw by the Fifty-Move Rule. Nobody has to claim. A fifth repetition, or seventy-five such moves, draws the game by itself. The computer claims a draw when one is open and it stands worse.

THE COMPUTER OPPONENTS

Four strengths that genuinely play differently. Easy plays loosely: about one move in four is picked at random, though never one that hangs a piece or allows mate in one. Medium thinks a few moves ahead, and about one move in ten it plays one that is nearly as good as its best instead. On the Classic board with no House Rules, Hard and Expert open from a book of forty well-known lines, so their openings vary. After that, Hard plans carefully, thinking for up to a second and choosing among equally good moves; Expert thinks for up to three seconds and always plays the move its search likes best. Expert thinks against a clock rather than playing perfectly. One leaderboard leaves two boards out: the fastest-Expert leaderboard takes times from every board but Quick and Shatranj.

THE COACH

Switch Coach on before you start a game against the computer — it is on the Solo Game screen — or press the Coach button (the lightbulb) during one, and the coach rings the move it would make, the piece and the square it goes to, with a line saying when that move wins the game, gives check or takes a piece. It exists only in games against the computer.

A game you start with the Coach switched on still goes into your win/loss record, but it earns no XP. Turning the Coach on part-way through a game marks that game as assisted, and the app says so first: it still earns XP and counts in your record, but it stays off the best-streak and fastest-Expert leaderboards and out of the Unaided achievement.

UNDO AND RESTART

Undo takes back your last move: against the computer, the computer's reply goes too, so the board is back where it was your move; in Pass & Play it takes back one move. Restart clears the board and starts a new game on the same board against the same opponent, with the House Rules as they are set now — and, on Chess960, a freshly shuffled back rank. Both are among the game's round controls (on Apple TV, on the side rail), and neither exists in an online match — there is no taking a move back from an opponent. Online, that control is Resign instead.

SAVED GAMES

Up to six games are kept, and every move saves automatically, so leaving the app never loses a game. The game at the top of your list is the Continue card on the main menu, and a new game joins the list at the top; once there is more than one, Saved beside the rank badge opens them all. There, swipe left on a game to rename or delete it, and drag a game up or down to put another one on the Continue card; on a Mac, swipe left with two fingers or right-click, and on Apple TV, press and hold a game. Holding the Continue card itself (or right-clicking it) renames or deletes that game too. A finished game leaves the list. Turn-based online matches are not saved this way — they live on Game Center's side and wait for you on the Play Online hub — and a live or nearby game ends if either player leaves it.

MY GAMES AREN'T SYNCING BETWEEN DEVICES

Saved games, your records, your rank and even your chosen language sync through your own iCloud account; your House Rules, your pieces, the board's look and view, and your sound setting stay on each device. Make sure every device is signed in to the same Apple Account with iCloud Drive turned on. On Apple TV that is under Settings > Users and Accounts. After a fresh install it can take a moment — or one relaunch — for the first sync to arrive.

APPLE TV IS A SHARED DEVICE

On Apple TV each person's profile gets its own saved games, records, rank and Game Center account. Switching profiles in Control Center switches the app over to that person's games.

PLAYING ONLINE

Three ways to play someone who isn't in the room:

• Quick Async Match — pairs you with another player on the board you picked. It is turn-based, so you each move at your own pace over hours or days, and Game Center tells you when it's your move.
• Live Match — both of you connected at once, moves landing instantly.
• Invite a Friend — choose Live or Async, pick someone, and they are asked to accept. An async invitation arrives on their Play Online hub as its own row, naming the board and any House Rules, with Join and Decline.

These three need you signed in to Game Center (Settings > Game Center), and so do the leaderboards and achievements; signed out, the trophy button on the main menu asks you to sign in.

The hub lists the eight boards. A board marked Players active has had players looking for a game there recently. The others say Tap to check (Press to check on Apple TV), which is not the same as empty: choose the row and the app asks Game Center whether anyone is waiting on that board, and opens their match if someone is. Matchmaking is per board, not per House Rule: a Quick Async Match on Atomic pairs you with somebody else who chose Atomic, and the game is played under the House Rules of whoever opened it, without the Jarl's Gift. Matches waiting on you are listed under Your Move; touch and hold a match (press and hold on Apple TV) to leave it.

The player who opens an online or nearby game plays White and moves first. When a game ends, either player can offer a rematch. In a live or nearby rematch the sides swap, so whoever played Black last time plays White; in a turn-based rematch, whoever starts it plays White. Every rematch keeps the House Rules of the game before it; when the sides swap, the Jarl's Gift stays with the player who gave it.

WHY CAN'T THIS ACCOUNT SEND A LIVE INVITATION?

Because Game Center will not deliver a live invitation from an account that has communication limits, and on a child account those come from the account's age under Family Sharing — not from anything set in Screen Time. Nothing you can switch on the device changes it. The app checks before it asks, so you get an explanation instead of an invitation that silently never arrives.

Everything else on that account still works: Live Match will still find a random opponent, a friend can still invite that account, Quick Async Match works normally, and Play Someone Nearby doesn't use Game Center at all.

There is a second, different case. If Multiplayer Games is switched off for the account, live play cannot connect at all — and that one IS a Screen Time setting. Whoever set the device up can allow it under Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. Nearby play works either way.

LIVE MATCH ON APPLE TV

Apple allows real-time matchmaking only for the Apple TV's main user. An added profile is refused by Game Center itself, even when it is signed in to iCloud, and the app says so on the search screen rather than spinning. Quick Async Match works for every profile, and so does Play Someone Nearby.

PLAYING SOMEONE NEARBY

Play Someone Nearby is separate from the three modes above and does not need Game Center or the internet. Two devices on the same local network find each other and connect directly. Each device is listed by name: your Game Center nickname and the kind of device — "Erik · iPad", say — if you are signed in, otherwise the device's own name. Whoever sends the invitation chooses the board and plays White, and the invitation names the board and the sender's House Rules before the other player accepts. If the connection drops during a game, the board says so and the two devices spend up to 90 seconds reconnecting before the game is called off.

I CAN'T FIND ANYONE NEARBY

Both devices have to be on the same network with the Play Someone Nearby screen open — opening it is what starts the search. The first time you open it, the device asks permission to find things on your local network; if that was declined the app cannot see anyone, and it will say so. Turn it back on in Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network (on Mac, System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network).

CAN I PLAY WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONNECTION?

Yes. All eight boards, all five House Rules, all four computer strengths, Pass & Play, saved games, undo, the coach and the Video Instructions work with no network at all and with no account. Only the online modes, leaderboards and achievements need connectivity — Play Someone Nearby needs a local network but no internet.

RANK, LEADERBOARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Every finished game against the computer, online or nearby earns XP, and XP climbs your level: Wanderer, Raider, Shieldbearer, Huscarl, Jarl, High King, and then Grand King, numbered again every five levels. Against the computer a win earns the full amount for the difficulty you beat — Expert is worth twelve times Easy — a draw half and a loss a quarter, and the board scales it: the short games, Quick and Racing Kings, are worth three quarters of the other boards. Online, a game against a player ranked above you is worth more and one against a player below you less; a nearby game is worth the same whoever you play. The first XP-earning game you play on each board each day carries a small bonus. Your Rank, opened from the rank badge beside Play, shows where you stand; Your Games keeps your wins, games played, best streak and record on each board.

Signed in to Game Center there are 14 leaderboards — total wins, best streak, fastest Expert win, weekly wins, online wins, rank, and one for each of the eight boards — and 30 achievements. Trophies on the main menu opens them.

WHY DIDN'T THAT GAME EARN ANY XP?

Three reasons, all deliberate. Pass & Play earns nothing, because there is no single player to credit. A game started with the Coach switched on earns nothing. And there is a daily ceiling of 600 XP on games against the computer — once you reach it the result screen says so, and it resets the next day. Games against other people are not capped.

I CAN'T HEAR ANY SOUND

Sound has its own switch inside the app — among the game's round controls (on Apple TV, on the side rail), in Settings, and on a Mac in the Game menu — and it is deliberately independent of the ring/silent switch, so check the in-app setting first. iPhone also plays a small haptic with each sound, and that one is independent of the sound setting; iPad has no haptic engine, so it stays quiet there by design.

WIDGET AND SIRI

On iPhone and iPad, the Your Turn widget shows a turn-based match that is waiting on your move; tapping it opens that match. You can also say "Continue my Chess game" to Siri, which opens your most recent game.

CHANGING THE LANGUAGE

Odin's Chess is playable in 50 languages. It follows your device by default, and you can override it under Settings > Language — the change applies immediately, with no relaunch, and travels to your other devices through iCloud.

ACCESSIBILITY

Every square of the board is a button that VoiceOver reads by its name and what stands on it — "e4, White knight", or "e4, empty" — adding whether it is the piece you picked up, whether that piece can move or take there, whether the coach recommends it, whether it was part of the last move and whether the king on it is in check. Every move in the move list is read as words — "White knight to f3" — and check and the result are announced. The two sides differ by tone as well as by name: in both sets, White's pieces are the light ones. On iPhone and iPad, text follows your Dynamic Type size, and with Reduce Motion on, a moving piece fades from its square to the new one instead of sliding.

IS THERE ANYTHING TO BUY INSIDE THE APP?

No. Your purchase is the whole game: there are no ads, no tracking, no in-app purchases, no subscription and no locked boards. There are no analytics and no third-party software development kits of any kind in the app, and nothing about you is collected or sent to us. The only thing the app ever promotes is our own other games: More Games From Us opens our page on the App Store (on Apple TV, a code to scan with your phone), and you can walk straight past it. On iPhone, iPad and Mac, after your third, tenth and twenty-fifth win against the computer it may ask — through Apple's own rating prompt, never more than once a month, and never again once you have tapped Rate — whether you'd rate it. The full details are on the privacy page: https://www.hollender-consulting.com/odins-chess-privacy

CONTACT

sean@hollender-consulting.com

Hollender Consulting, LLC — https://www.hollender-consulting.com/