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Obsidian Chess

A beautiful place to think. Explore an interactive 3D chess board, challenge five adjustable Stockfish levels, play a friend locally or in an online invite room, and watch engine-versus-engine matches in the Engine Arena. Import browser-compatible UCI JavaScript/WASM engines to run on your own devic

Made by @pisty

About this app

A beautiful place to think. Explore an interactive 3D chess board, challenge five adjustable Stockfish levels, play a friend locally or in an online invite room, and watch engine-versus-engine matches in the Engine Arena. Import browser-compatible UCI JavaScript/WASM engines to run on your own device. Includes full chess rules, legal move guidance, clocks, hints, notation, takebacks and PGN export.

Requirements

Modern browser; WebGL 2 for 3D (2D fallback included). JavaScript, Web Workers and WebAssembly for Stockfish and Engine Arena. Online matches require signed-in Hackemist accounts. Imported engines must be single-threaded browser UCI JavaScript with optional matching WASM; native executable files are unsupported. Imports use the player's device, remain in memory and are not uploaded.

Credits

Stockfish.js 19.0.1 by Nathan Rugg / Chess.com and Stockfish contributors (GPLv3). Three.js (MIT). chess.js (BSD-2-Clause). Procedural chess pieces, board and original interface. Source and licences available in About & credits. Noto Sans Symbols 2 (SIL OFL 1.1) is bundled for consistent chess glyphs.

Release notes

Version 1.1: seven matching 3D/2D board themes; improved Three.js lighting, reflections, procedural materials and beveled frame; responsive camera fitting with balanced, immersive and overhead views; board focus. Blitz (3+2, 5+0, 5+3), Rapid (10+0, 10+5, 15+10, 30+0) and Classical (30+30, 60+0, 60+30), plus Untimed. Timed games start immediately, apply increments after legal moves and export PGN time controls. Saved clocks and appearance are preserved. Read-only preview startup no longer waits for unavailable account saving; account-read failures preserve originals and offer explicit recovery. 17 automated tests pass. Reflections use a smaller procedural panorama; portrait-tablet framing and engine-download timeouts are improved. Existing listing media predates this visual update; the original auto-recorded demo stalled during save restoration and is not gameplay evidence.

Obsidian Chess
Desktop Obsidian Chess with its sculpted 3D board, five computer levels and notation panel.
Actual desktop browser view of the initial game with the rotatable procedural 3D set and computer game controls.
Phone layout with White's e2 pawn selected and legal destinations highlighted.
Actual portrait phone layout showing move guidance, player bars and the responsive game controls.
Tablet layout showing the optional 2D chessboard after White plays e4.
The readable 2D board, move history and computer settings in the tablet layout while Stockfish prepares its reply.
Engine Arena with two Stockfish engines playing, move history and engine output.
Actual local engine-versus-engine play with a check on the board, captured pieces, SAN notation and UCI output. Both engines run on the player's device.
Phone layout showing an Engine Arena match paused, with resume, single-move and stop controls.
The complete portrait phone Engine Arena layout, including engine selectors, local imports, search time, strength, pause controls and the output log.
Landscape tablet view of the in-game guide to moves, camera controls, game modes and engine importing.
The game's readable help dialog describes keyboard/touch moves, the 3D camera, difficulty levels, friends and the Engine Arena.
Actual browser gameplay in the local two-player mode, showing legal destination markers, piece movement, a developing opening and castling. This recording does not demonstrate multiplayer or engine importing.

Launch Obsidian Chess