
THIS IS NOT CLASSIC CHESS! Dark Chess is an asymmetric puzzle-strategy game featuring fog of war. Survive a story-driven campaign filled with custom boards, traps, and rule-breaking Kings and Queens of the past. Stealth, calculated risks and outsmarting the unknown are your only ways to win.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
Discounts
Every price cut of more than 20% we have observed, in each market that quoted one, with this game's chart position on either side of it. These are episodes, not a model: a sale is one event, and one event cannot tell you what the next one will do.
Reviews, worldwide (the counter carries no country): 0/day in the week to Aug 25 → 0.14/day in the week after.
For scale, across Steam · Top Sellers · Brazil over the last 30 days: the 25 chart moves that followed a price cut of more than 20% went a median of 10 places towards #1, and the 2,413 moves with no price cut behind them went 2 away. One store, one chart, one country — it is the only place we have enough observations to say even that.
Prices outside the United States have been collected since 6 August 2026 and chart positions since 19 July 2026, so a cut older than that has no market to compare and a market that joined later has no history yet. Nothing here is converted between currencies.
About
THIS IS NOT YOUR STANDARD CHESS!
Dark Chess takes the core rules of the world's most famous board game and throws them into the unknown. The Fog of War hides the enemy army. This is no longer a game of memorized openings; it's about stealth, tactical risk-taking and making educated guesses before stepping into the dark.
Note: If you are a chess purist looking for a perfectly balanced, zero luck simulator, this game will frustrate you. But if you love asymmetric puzzles, rule-bending mechanics and brain-teasing strategy, welcome to the dark.

Fog of War: Analyze what you can see, predict what is hiding in the shadows.
Story-Driven Campaign: A fully narrated adventure against legendary masters.
Asymmetric Boss Battles: Enemies have unique abilities and cheat the rules. Outsmart them.
Brain-Bending Puzzles: Levels designed to test your spatial logic and survival skills.
Customization and Rewards: Earn achievements by solving difficult puzzles to unlock visual upgrades and customize your avatar.
THE CAMPAIGN: ASYMMETRIC BOSS FIGHTS
Step into a fully narrated, single-player story campaign where you fight Queens and Kings of the past. Do you dare to challenge Genghis Khan, outsmart King Solomon or terrify Ivan the Terrible?
Be warned: they do not play by the rules.
Historical leaders act as boss fights with unique and unfair abilities, from infinite piece respawns to randomized traps and poisoned boards. You cannot win by playing standard chess. Use whatever it takes to your advantage, slip past heavy defenses and assassinate the King or the Queen.
Expect the unexpected after the very first move.
Every hard-fought victory deserves a prize. Dark Chess actively rewards your tactical brilliance! For every complex puzzle you solve, difficult boss you defeat, or clever trap you set, you will earn achievements that unlock new visual upgrades. Build your collection and fully customize your in-game avatar to show off your progress.
Whether you are a board game enthusiast, a fan of tactical games or a puzzle-solver looking for a thrilling mental challenge, Dark Chess will test your ability to adapt and survive.

Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 41 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
fun for a minute till u realize the AI doesnt have fog of war. i dont see myself putting anymore time into this game.
Close, but can't recommend. Overall it's fun and there are a lot of great puzzles. There's an ok amount of customisation, but some elements are relatively limited and I don't think the resource allocation all makes much sense e.g. you can unlock dozens of "collectible cards", which don't feature outside the "collections" window, while there are only 4 sets of pieces and 4 boards. The voice acting is mostly worth a negative review on its own - travel around the world to meet leaders from history... with really strong USA accents. The two main opponents are very well voiced (ironically, these are the two that are not linked to any particular old world civilisation), almost making up for it, but not really. The AI opponents can crash or take an eternity to make their move. This really shouldn't happen.
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Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English*, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish - Latin America*languages with full audio support
Hours played at review time, across 41 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
I can't play any of the online modes, it shouldn't have those types of tags
[h1]Теперь, я мамин гроссмейстер. [/h1] Кто бы мог подумать,что игра в шахматы может быть настолько интересной. Я как большой любитель шахмат, решил поискать подобные игры в стиме и наткнулся на настоящий " Hidden gem". [h2]Геймплей [/h2] Игра представляет собой как классические шахматы, так и режим " Тёмных шахмат". Именно во втором режиме игра раскрывается по полной программе- Хотели бы вы сыграть в шахматы с "туманом войны", где буквально не видно вражеских фигур и вы должны ,ходя фигурами, разведывать территорию. Или наткнуться на противника, чьи фигуры заменены на коней кроме короля. Так вот, игра вам это предоставит. Кроме того на игровом поле порой появляются ловушки, которые могут как "испортить вам жизнь", так и перевернуть игру в вашу пользу, вроде специальных клеток , где ваши фигуры просто исчезают. Помимо этого походу кампании вы будете решать шахматные задачи, по типу "поставить мат в 1 ход". По началу они покажутся лёгкими, но ближе к концу вы будете сидеть долго сидеть над их решением, благо в этом режиме есть подсказки(видимо решили совсем не упарываться в хардкор). [h2]Графика [/h2] Приятна глазу, игрушка не требовательна к железу, так что вы сможете поиграть в неё на древних калькуляторах. По итогу скажу, игра топчик, однозначно стоит своих денег(правда я брал по скидке). Играется буквально "на одном дыхании", прошёл с удовольствием и выбил все ачивки. [h1]Хотя, может, я просто задрот, любящий шахматы) [/h1]
So, I initially disliked this game, and gave it a poor review, but then I regretted it because I said to myself. Maybe I'm giving it a bad review just because I'm bad at it and I should spend more time with it. Well....I spent a bit more time with it and if anything I like it less? I feel like the AI in this game is really dumb, because I feel deep down that I am terrible at this game and yet I can still win again it. To compensate for that the campaign lets the AI cheat. There's no other word for it. I intentionally sacrificed pieces to kill all of one of the opponents' queens (they had more than one) and then the game just gave them another queen. I mean maybe if they had told me that rule (that the particular opponent could never be without a queen) I MIGHT feel differently. I MIGHT feel that this was just a very hard annoying puzzle to kill the king while the opponent traipses around the board with multiple queens. But it did not. It made me waste time and effort to pull a trick on me. So, no, I don't like the game.
5/10 + chess - fog of war can eat a full on bag of ♥♥♥♥♥. it just makes every game slower and longer with way more guess work - dont know what power enemy has until it procs the 1st time. good chance your not winning 1st fight. what do you mean you get a new free queen every time i kill your queen??? - just about every level is you get normal chess and enemy team gets random ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. something like enemy team gets random piece every 7 turns. cool thats a free queen im dead or fog that blocks random spaces. and thats mate in 3 cause fog moved that way randomly and locked all the pieces i needed - you can move into check without knowing your moving into check and lose the game....thats some real ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that makes me hate this game. same for the enemy. i feel like im just winning some games by luck and chance. + 13$ - AI voice acting for some reason, doesnt really add anything to the game - no undo
Гарно, а головне — правильно реалізовані шахи з нетрадиційними правилами. Хоча основна "фішка" — туман війни, насправді тут багато інших цікавих механік: зараження фігур, контроль точок, battle royale тощо. Дуже незвично грати як із нетиповою розстановкою (наприклад, коли суперник має сім коней), так і з обмеженою видимістю, коли частина поля прихована. Навіть дрібні візуальні елементи змушують мозок працювати — мені найбільше запам’яталося, як після ходу суперника його фігури зникають буквально за дві секунди. Окреме захоплення викликають рівні, де правила змінені кардинально — через нову ціль гри або додаткові обмеження, про які не хочеться спойлерити. Це повністю змінює сприйняття, і гра захоплює несподіваними підходами до знайомих механік. Гра має приємну графіку, хороші ефекти й музику. Українська локалізація присутня, хоча охоплює не всі тексти й містить кілька помилок (але нічого критичного). Завдання чергуються з головоломками (які мені швидко набридли), проте вони мають підказки й не заважають основному геймплею. Є мультиплеєр і кілька рівнів складності. Хотілося б лише більш гнучкого підбору параметрів складності — кілька разів на низькому рівні було неочікувано складно, і я використовував сторонню шахову програму з підказками, щоб проаналізувати партію. Я не шахіст і не підготовлений гравець, але як розробник можу сказати: щоразу, коли хтось пропонує зробити шахи з новими правилами — це означає переписування рушія та новий баланс. У Dark Chess більшість нестандартних правил пов’язані з візуальними ефектами або розстановкою фігур — і цього виявляється достатньо, щоб повністю змінити відчуття від гри. Якщо ви хочете спробувати щось подібне або самі подумуєте про свої варіанти шахів — спершу пограйте в цю гру.
- AI cheats - Basically just chess puzzles with unfair advantage - Worst game in chess Humble Bundle
Terrible game. Dark patterns nestled throughout the menus. Chess bots playing at a skill level above the difficulty selected. Don't download this game.
I MAY keep trying for a little while, but as of now, the game is dogsh*t. Before i paint you the picture, let me clarify that the most important aspect for games for me is the campaign, if i dont like that, i dont like the game. I enjoy my friends face to face and while i may play anything with friends i rarely buy a video game thinking of playing with them. NOW, as you probably know, this chess gives you visibility only so far as your pieces can attack, meaning put a bishop on a corner and you it will only see a pointless line of diagonal squares as far as the next obstacle on its line of fire. Fun, right? well, maybe if the field is leveled, meaning PvP. Because on the capaign mode, the enemy has habilities (YOU dont). Another thing to account for, you dont checkmate here, you have to actually TAKE the King (meaning you need that one more move). So there i am, just acing this game like a "champ" untill i come across Cleopatra. Her skill? if you take her queen, she automatically respawns another queen on HER side of the field (meaning more than likely protected). How many times can she do that? every time you take her queen. - in a well designed game (Majestic Chess comes to mind) there would be a few possible ways to cover that power gap: tools, skills of your own character, limiters to her skill. So i go to the community page and i search for an inkling of what the game has in store for me if i keep trying. Heres the two hints the community provides: 1- its just luck 2- her king sometimes becomes suicidal I was about to take her king twice, both times i got denied by a respawned queen. Just because you gave it fog of war doesnt mean chess should lean heavy into luck. For now, this games goes into the "when theres nothing else to play Steam collection"
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Players by region
Where this game's players are, estimated from review languages.
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