Pocket Pawns

A chess adventure with a collection to call your own

In Pocket Pawns, the chess pieces you meet become part of your adventure. Walk through towns and countryside, find wild pieces, solve their checkmate puzzles and add them to your team. Then take that team into chess matches against the people you meet along the way.

You begin at home in Openfield. Ahead of you are nine towns, six Club Masters and a place in the World Championship to earn. Along the way, you can stop for a lesson, follow a local story, shop for a new board or head out looking for a piece you haven't collected yet. Learning chess and building your collection are part of the same journey.

Find a piece you like. Solve its puzzle. Bring it with you.

A wild encounter puts a real chess position in front of you. Your goal is to find checkmate, from a simple finish in one move to a sequence that takes five. The opposing pieces defend themselves as you play, so you get to see why the solution works.

There are 272 pieces to collect, each with its own artwork. Catch wild pawns, knights, bishops, rooks and queens, while kings come from town elders and story rewards. Your collection book records the pieces you've met, giving you a reason to keep exploring even when you're not heading for the next match.

Build your team, raise its levels and choose the pieces you want beside you. There are also 589 chess boards, including the starting board, to collect and play on. Find new designs in shops, through stories and as lesson rewards. The board and pieces you play with can become as personal as your collection.

Work your way towards the World Championship

Each of the six Club Masters has a different style. Defeat them in chess matches to earn their Sigils: the badges that mark your progress towards the Championship. Giant chess boards also stand across the roads, with a king you must checkmate before you can continue.

Your opponents use Stockfish, a real chess engine. Six difficulty settings range from Pawnling for complete beginners to Regicide for players who want a much tougher challenge. The two hardest settings are unlocked by completing the game and working towards full mastery. Collect all six Sigils and take on the eight-round World Championship. The full adventure also includes the twelve-board Rookwood Invitational.

Learn chess, then use what you've learned

Never played before? The universities begin with how each piece moves. Their 202 lessons across 23 subjects go on to cover tactics, opening ideas, checkmate patterns, endgames, notation and chess history. Read the explanation, try the position and work through the exercises without a lesson timer rushing you.

If you already know the rules, you can focus on the topics that interest you and test your ideas against stronger opponents. Across the game, 5,890 checked checkmate puzzles give you plenty to practise. The Puzzle Explorer lets you work on puzzles outside the main journey, while the illustrated Field Guide explains the game's systems when you need a reminder.

Explore a world that changes around you

Travel from Openfield's windmills and fields to snowy Frostford, a clockwork town, a harbour, a desert oasis and stormy heights. Each town has its own surroundings, people and places to discover. There are 39 stories to follow and nine homes to buy, one in each town.

The world has a day and night cycle, changing weather and seasons. Rain gathers in puddles with reflections and ripples. Snow covers the ground and takes your footprints, which gradually fade. Sunlight and moonlight move across the landscape, changing the direction of the shadows. Returning to a familiar road can feel different in the rain, in winter or after dark.

A game day lasts one real hour, and the calendar follows a 365-day year. Rest in a bed to move the date forward instead of waiting through every day. These details give you something to enjoy between matches, whether you're walking to a university or taking the long way home.

Take a break at the Chessino

The Chessino is a casino inside a volcano, where every game uses in-game chips, never real-money bets. Play Chessjack, try the roulette wheel and slot machines, bet on a knight race or see how long you dare stay in the flight game before cashing out.

There are VIP ranks to climb, rooms to rent and a bar where the drinks affect how the room looks. It's another place to spend time when you want a change from puzzles and club matches.

Make yourself comfortable

• Play with mouse and keyboard or a controller, with adjustable text size, remappable controls, colour options and reduced-motion settings.
  
• Enjoy an original soundtrack and an in-game music player. Weather ambience has its own sound toggle, separate from the music.
  
• Play in ten languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), German, Korean, French, Japanese and Turkish.
  
• Earn 26 Steam achievements and use Steam Cloud to carry your saves between computers.
  
• Continue a demo save on the same Steam account when starting a new full-game journey, keeping your progress rather than starting over.

Whether you're learning your first checkmate or looking for a new way to enjoy chess, Pocket Pawns gives you a world to explore, opponents to work towards and a collection that grows with you.