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Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

CM

Chessboardify is a game that transforms grids into chessboard patterns. Launched in 2016, it's designed for players who enjoy puzzle-like gameplay centered on grid manipulation. The core mechanic involves creating or… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Chessboardify – Make the grid a chessboard launched in 2016; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1LA

    Laser is a turn based game similar to chess, with different piece movement rules, starting position, and win conditions. It's named after the laser piece, which can shoot diagonally through every piece on the board except for the wall, which blocks it. The detailed rules are on the website. I made the website as a super minimal way to play online against friends. Nobody really knows about it so it might be hard to find a game, but maybe you will against someone on HN if people read this. It uses the lichess.org chessboard UI which is super pretty and allows you to draw on the board, make…

    2023 · playlaser.xyz · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    A seeded chess-pathfinding roguelite. Guide Prince Chazz across the board, dodging enemy pieces, and race the per-seed leaderboard.

    Jun 2026 · princechazz.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3CA
  4. 4

    I continue my experiment of transposing classic games onto an irregular grid. I've previously released variants of minesweeper and checkers. And now I'd like to share my variant of Chess. Chess can be a pretty punishing game, but I thought this was nevertheless a way to make it even more challenging by making it trickier to anticipate your opponent, even though both players still have the same information. From the playtests I've done, that challenge is pretty compelling. It also seems to be more fun at 2 people, where both players keep surprising one another.

    2024 · polyreplay.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5VC

    2024 · louisabraham.github.io · its alternatives →

  6. 6CE

    We built ChessBoss at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon this week. It didn’t make the top 10 but I thought Hacker News might think it’s pretty cool. https://devpost.com/software/chess-boss There are these really cool smart chessboards that can suggest moves and track your games... but they’re $400 and weigh 19 pounds. And of course there are apps that can analyze games but tracking and inputting games by hand is a huge pain. Or fully-digital chess apps... but board games are way more fun in real life! We wondered: “why can’t you just do that in software and bring the best…

    2019 · devpost.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Scan score sheets and generate chess games in seconds.

    2024 · chessscanner.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8
    ChessUp▲82

    An incredible chess board with a built-in chess instructor

    2021 · playchessup.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9AL

    Hello HN, For a few months I'm been working on a fun side-project to port the (awesome) chessboardjs library to an easily reusable and embeddable web component. The quarantine has finally spurred me to put the finishing touches on it. https://justinfagnani.github.io/chessboard-element/ It works in plain HTML files just by writing an HTML tag: And it works in any framework because it's just an HTML element. Styling is encapsulated and customizable with CSS properties and parts: chess-board { --dark-color: darkmagenta; } /* Highlight the e2 square in red */…

    2020 · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Play Chess in Slack with your fellow workspace members

    2023 · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    A virtual chess gym for everyone

    2022 · chesstent.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    blunderchess.net is an open source, peer-to-peer chess app where every five moves, players each get to make one blunder-move for their opponent

    2025 · blunderchess.net · its alternatives →

  13. 13R

    2014 · retichess.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14OC

    My personal project: https://github.com/leonidasdeim/chasse Goal was to build session based chessboard game without any rules - to play just like oldschool over the board. Just create new board and share link with a friend. I would appreciate any feedback and github star. Thanks!

    2023 · chasse.fun · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    2D chessboard scanner & analyzer to calculate the best moves

    2021 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Hello! I created SpicyChess(https://spicychess.com) because I wanted a tactics training app that would have the following features: - Spaced Repetition. - Countdown time to simulate blitz Chess where you have to find the best move quickly. - The ability to save puzzles for later review. I'd love to hear any feedback that you may have !

    2023 · spicychess.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Learn Chess notations to analyse, visualise and review games

    2021 · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    The first story-based Fantasy Chess game on Steam.

    2018 · dungeonlords.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Hi HN, Matle is a daily chess puzzle inspired by Wordle. You're shown a checkmate position with 5 hidden squares, and your goal is to guess what’s on them to complete the mate. Someone kindly shared it here a few months ago before I had the chance to post it myself. I’m the creator, and wanted to share a few new features based on feedback, and hear your thoughts. You can now view the original game behind each puzzle, get explanations for why a guess isn’t checkmate, and see daily solving stats. Would love to hear what you think: https://matle.io

    2025 · matle.io · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    A puzzling chess-like game

    2020 · notchess.crevasse.co · its alternatives →

  21. 21CB
  22. 22

    Easily explore, analyse and practice chess openings

    2021 · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Fun casual game to fill a board with cards.

    2016 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Test your skills and strategy with 1D Chess

    2020 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

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