Kingsmere: Chess Master In testing

Pull up a chair in the castle library. The candles are lit, the walnut board is set, and four rivals are waiting to test you. Kingsmere is a chess game for every kind of player: someone learning how the knight jumps, someone chasing a better rating, someone who just wants a calm game before bed.

♔ PLAY CHESS OFFLINE AGAINST THE CASTLE

Ten levels, from a page who still forgets to guard his queen to a grandmaster king who punishes every slip. Each rival has a face, a voice and a style: Tobin the Squire, Maren the Librarian, Sir Aldric the Knight and King Oswin. The weaker levels make the mistakes real beginners make; the strongest ones play sharp, patient chess. No internet needed.

♔ A RATING THAT GROWS WITH YOU

Every game against the castle moves your rating. Watch it climb on the rating chart, earn a wax seal for every level you beat, and see your record level by level.

♔ CHESS PUZZLES EVERY DAY

Thousands of chess puzzles: mates in one, two and three, forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, sacrifices, promotions and endgames. Climb the rated puzzle ladder, try a puzzle streak that gets harder with every solve, and come back for a new Daily Puzzle, with a calendar that keeps your streak.

♔ LEARN CHESS FROM THE FIRST MOVE

Fifteen short lessons cover how every piece moves, check and checkmate, castling, en passant, promotion, forks, pins and the basic mates. Each lesson ends with a little exercise on the board, so the idea sticks.

♔ SEE WHAT YOU MISSED

After every game, a full review marks inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders, shows the better move with an arrow, names the opening you played and gives both sides an accuracy score.

♔ THE FEEL OF A REAL SET

Ivory and ebony pieces that lift and glow when you pick them up, glide across hand-finished wooden squares and settle with a soft wooden knock. Tap a piece and tap its square, or drag it there. Legal moves are marked, the last move is lit, and promotion lets you choose your piece.

♔ A CASTLE THAT BREATHES

Firelight in the library, banners stirring in the great hall, roses on the sunset terrace, stars over the astronomer's tower, snow drifting through the courtyard and golden light in the throne room.

♔ MORE TO ENJOY

• Pass & Play: two players on one phone, the board turning for each side
• Clocks: 10 minutes, 5 minutes or 3 + 2, or play without a clock
• Hints that draw the best move, two free takebacks per game, draw offers the castle actually considers
• Collect boards (walnut, honey maple, tournament velvet, ebony and brass, night library) and piece sets, including a clean classic flat set
• Saved games: leave mid-game and continue later

Kingsmere is free and kept free by ads; nothing in the castle is for sale.

Chess puzzles come from the Lichess puzzle database, which its authors have released into the public domain.