About Chess Blitz

Chess Blitz is a fully-featured neon chess game for PixPause. You play as White against an AI opponent that uses minimax search with alpha-beta pruning — the same algorithm that powered early computer chess engines. Three difficulty levels adjust the AI's search depth and piece evaluation, from a beginner-friendly Easy mode to a Hard mode that plans several moves ahead.

All standard chess rules are implemented: legal move validation, castling (kingside and queenside), en passant captures, pawn promotion, and full check / checkmate / stalemate detection. Each player has a 5-minute blitz clock that counts down on their turn — run out of time and you lose.

How to Play

1. Click any of your White pieces to select it — legal destination squares highlight in neon green.
2. Click a highlighted square to move. Captures glow in pink. Castling squares glow in blue.
3. If a pawn reaches the back rank, a promotion dialog appears — choose Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight.
4. After your move the AI thinks and replies. The blitz clock counts down only on the active player's turn.
5. Win by checkmating the AI king, or if the AI clock runs out.

Difficulty Levels

• Easy: AI searches 1 ply deep with light evaluation. Makes suboptimal moves and frequently misses captures. Great for beginners.
• Medium: AI searches 2–3 ply with full piece-square table evaluation. Plays solid positional chess and rarely blunders material.
• Hard: AI searches 3–4 ply with iterative deepening, prioritises king safety, and will sacrifice material for strong tactical lines. A real challenge.

Chess Tips for Beginners

• Control the centre: Move pawns and knights to e4/d4 (or e5/d5) early to control the four central squares.
• Develop your pieces: Get knights and bishops out before moving the same piece twice in the opening.
• Castle early: Castling moves your king to safety and connects your rooks. Try to castle within the first 10 moves.
• Don't bring the queen out early: An early queen is easily chased by pawns and minor pieces, wasting tempo.
• Watch for free pieces: Before every move, check if any of your pieces are hanging (undefended and can be captured for free).