Mystic Chess: chess with unique powers
Familiar pieces. Unexpected powers. Meet your army and discover a new way to play.
What is Mystic Chess?
Mystic Chess is a chess variant played on the normal 8×8 board with the normal rules: the same moves, check, checkmate, castling and en passant. The difference is the army. Alongside standard pieces, each side fields power pieces: 29 kinds in all. 20 have an active power you can use once per game, and 9 have a passive ability that is always on.
A piece keeps its familiar silhouette, so you always know how it moves. A gold star marks an active power and a silver star a passive one. Once a power is used, the piece plays as a standard piece for the rest of the game.
You can practise against four computer opponents, Mystic Warden (easy), The Oracle (medium), Archmage (hard) and The Grandmystic (boss), share one device with a friend, or sign in to play friends online with your own army. Every game uses a chess clock of 1, 3, 5 or 10 minutes per side.
Common questions
What is Mystic Chess?
A chess variant that keeps all the rules of chess and adds pieces with special powers. You play on a standard board, and you win by checkmate, resignation or on time, just like chess.
How is it different from regular chess?
Some of your pieces carry a power. The Cannon Rook, for example, can once per game fire over any pieces at an enemy 3–5 squares away along a rank or file. The Storm Queen can make one knight-style jump. A Shield Soldier survives the first capture attempt against it. Everything else plays exactly like chess.
What powers do the pieces have?
There are 29 power pieces. Active powers are used once per game: the Serial Knight makes two knight moves in one turn, the Laser Bishop moves up to 3 squares diagonally and hits every enemy in its path, and the Guardian King may move like a queen once. Passive powers are always on: soldiers and plain knights cannot capture an Iron Rook. If a power reaches the enemy king, it gives check and the opponent must move the king.
Can I play with friends or against the AI?
Yes. Three computer opponents need no account: the Mystic Warden (easy), The Oracle (medium) and the Archmage (hard). The fourth, The Grandmystic, is the boss: it is for signed-in players, who bring their own Vault army. You can also share one device with a friend on a local board, or sign in, create a room and send the invite code to play a friend online.
Who is The Grandmystic?
The Grandmystic is the hardest computer opponent in Mystic Chess. It fields the strongest power pieces, brings a different army each game and calculates every power, yours included. You need to know both chess and the Mystic rules to beat it. Sign in to challenge it with your Vault army.
Read the full rules · Browse all the pieces · About Mystic Chess