Help & How to Play

1. Getting started

There are two ways to play, both reachable from the home screen:

• Solo — play against the MateStorm engine at ten strength levels. No account needed.
• Online — play real people: challenge someone in the live lobby, or create a private room and share the code. Sign in with Google to play online (it’s how ratings, history and your name work).

Signing in is optional for solo play but unlocks online games, a saved rating, and your game history. Use the Sign in to continue button (top-right on the home screen) — it opens a Google popup. Nothing is charged; play is free.

2. Moving pieces (tap to move)

You move by tapping — not dragging:

1. Tap the piece you want to move. It gets a glowing ring, and every square it can legally move to shows a gold dot (a gold ring means a capture).
2. Tap one of the highlighted squares to move there.

Tap the same piece again (or an empty square) to deselect. You can only move your own pieces, and only on your turn — the app only ever shows legal moves, so you can’t make an illegal one by accident. The last move played is highlighted in soft gold; your king flashes red when it’s in check. File letters (a–h) and rank numbers (1–8) are printed faintly along the board edges.

3. Castling, promotion & en passant

Castling

You castle by moving the king — never the rook. Tap your king, and if castling is legal an extra dot appears two squares to the side:

• Kingside (short): tap the square two files toward the h-rook — g1 for White, g8 for Black.
• Queenside (long): tap the square two files toward the a-rook — c1 for White, c8 for Black.

The rook jumps over automatically. If the dot doesn’t appear, castling isn’t legal right now (king or rook has moved, pieces are in the way, or the king is in / would pass through check).

Pawn promotion

When a pawn reaches the far rank, a picker pops up — tap Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight to choose what it becomes (Queen is the usual pick).

En passant

This special pawn capture is handled for you: when it’s available, the target square simply shows as a legal dot on your pawn — tap it and the captured pawn is removed automatically.

4. Solo — play the engine

Choose Solo from the home screen, pick your colour and a difficulty level, then start. The engine is calibrated to a target rating, so lower levels genuinely play weaker (they’ll miss tactics and hang pieces), not just “fast but perfect”.

Undo / takeback: solo is a practice mode, so the Undo button takes back your last move (and the engine’s reply) as many times as you like — great for trying a line again. Undo even works after checkmate, so you can rewind and explore. (Online games have no undo — moves there are final.)

Solo play is always free and never needs an account. Sign in if you want solo games saved to your history.

5. Online — play people

Sign in, then open Online. You’ll find:

Pick a time control

Choose one before creating a room or challenging someone:

• 3 + 2 · Blitz — 3 minutes each, +2 seconds per move
• 5 min · Blitz
• 10 min · Rapid
• 15 + 10 · Rapid
• 30 min · Classical
• No clock · Casual — no timer at all

Three ways to get into a game

• Challenge someone: the Players online list shows who’s available (green dot). Tap Challenge; when they accept, you both land in the game.
• Create a private room: tap Create room — you get a short code. Share it with a friend; when they join, the game starts. Rooms are free during the beta.
• Join by code: paste a friend’s code into Join room → Join match.

Rating & leaderboard

You start at a rating of 1200. Rated online games move it up or down based on the result and your opponent’s rating. The Leaderboard shows the top players; your own entry is highlighted.

During the game

• Draw: tap Draw to offer; the game is drawn if your opponent accepts.
• Resign: the Resign (flag) button concedes the game.
• Leave & rejoin: if you get disconnected or exit by accident, reopen the lobby — a gold “Match in progress — Rejoin” banner takes you back. Note there’s a short grace window; staying away too long forfeits the game.
• Presence: your dot is green when active, amber when idle, and red while you’re in a game. Turn on Appear offline in Settings to hide from the lobby.

6. In-game buttons

The action bar sits under the board. Icons and what they do:

Solo:

• Undo — take back your last move (and the engine’s reply)
• Resign — give up the current game
• New — back to setup to start a fresh game / change level
• Sound — mute / unmute move & capture sounds
• Menu — leave to the home screen (asks to confirm mid-game)

Online:

• Resign — concede the game
• Draw — offer a draw (lights up while your offer is pending)
• Sound — mute / unmute
• Leave — exit the match (mid-game this forfeits after the grace window)

7. History & replay

On the Online screen, open Game history to see your recent games in two tabs — Online and Solo (solo games are saved only when you’re signed in). We keep your most recent 25 of each.

Replay: tap any game row to open a replay — step through it move by move with the ⏮ ‹ › ⏭ controls to review what happened. (Solo replays are available for games played after the replay feature launched.)

8. Settings & privacy

Open Settings from your profile avatar (top-right when signed in):

• Display name — the name other players see; change it any time for privacy.
• Appear offline — stay hidden from the lobby (you can still see others).
• Sound — mute all game sounds.
• Graphics — Auto (recommended; the app detects your device and picks the smoothest setting), Cinematic (full effects) or Lite (fewer effects for older / slower phones). Available to guests too, on the solo setup screen.
• Privacy & analytics — a toggle to allow or turn off anonymous usage/performance analytics at any time.

MateStorm is free to play. For what data we collect and your choices, see the Privacy Policy and the Terms. You can review or withdraw your analytics choice anytime via the Cookie settingslink in the footer.

9. Installing the app

MateStorm is a Progressive Web App — you can install it to your home screen and it opens full-screen like a normal app, and even works offline for solo play.

• Android (Chrome): tap the Install prompt when it appears, or menu ⋮ → Install app / Add to Home screen.
• iPhone / iPad (Safari): tap the Share button → Add to Home Screen.
• Desktop (Chrome / Edge): use the install icon in the address bar.

You don’t have to install — the app runs fully in the browser. If your phone shows a “built for an older version of Android” message while installing, it’s a generic Play Protect notice about the install method, not a problem with MateStorm; you can continue safely, or just keep playing in the browser.

10. Chess rules refresher

New to chess? Here’s the short version — enough to start playing.

The goal

Checkmate the opponent’s king: attack it so that it cannot escape capture next move. White moves first, then players alternate.

How the pieces move

• Pawn — forward one square (or two from its starting square); captures diagonally one square. Reaching the far end promotes it (see above).
• Knight — an “L”: two squares one way then one square at a right angle. The only piece that jumps over others.
• Bishop — any distance diagonally; stays on one colour.
• Rook — any distance straight (ranks and files).
• Queen — any distance straight or diagonally (the most powerful piece).
• King — one square in any direction. Keep it safe — it can never move into check.

Pieces capture by moving onto an enemy piece’s square (except the pawn, which captures diagonally). You can’t move onto your own pieces or through them (knights excepted).

Check, checkmate & stalemate

• Check — your king is under attack; you must get out of it (block, capture the attacker, or move the king). The app flashes the king red.
• Checkmate — in check with no legal escape: the game is over, that side loses.
• Stalemate — not in check but you have no legal move: the game is a draw.

Other ways a game is drawn

• Insufficient material — neither side has enough pieces to checkmate (e.g. king vs king).
• Threefold repetition — the same position occurs three times.
• Fifty-move rule — 50 moves by each side with no capture or pawn move.
• Agreement — both players accept a draw.

MateStorm applies all of these automatically — you never have to claim them yourself.

11. Troubleshooting

• The board feels slow on my phone. Set Graphics to Lite in Settings (or leave it on Auto, which downgrades slower devices automatically after a few seconds).
• A move didn’t register / the app looks stuck. Online games auto-reconnect and self-correct; if a screen ever seems frozen after an update, refresh the page once.
• Sign-in popup closed or was blocked. Allow popups for the site and try again; make sure you finish the Google prompt rather than dismissing it.
• I got disconnected mid-match. Reopen Online and use the Rejoin banner — but do it promptly, as staying away too long forfeits.
• Still stuck? Email help@matestorm.com.