UNLOCK THE BOARD BEFORE IT FIGHTS BACK

Build a deck of chess pieces and deploy them directly from your hand onto shifting tactical boards.

Find the line of attack, chain captures through every target and clear each configuration before your turns run out. Most boards contain two interlocking layers. Pieces used to open the first become Bound, holding it in place while the board rearranges beneath them.

The next layer must be solved with whatever you preserved.

Every piece is a key. Every key you use must remain behind.

DEPLOY YOUR DECK

Your pieces begin in your hand, not lined up against an opposing army.

Choose what to deploy, where to place it and how its movement can connect the targets. Every card is a tool to solve unlock the board. Even the humble pawn can make all the difference when placed and aligned correctly while others can clear a board alone but still need to be be deployed perfectly. 

The challenge is not only finding a solution, but deciding which pieces you can afford to commit.

THE FIRST CLEAR IS ONLY HALF THE PUZZLE

The easiest solution may not be the best one.

A queen might dismantle the first layer, but once Bound it is unavailable for the next. A less obvious route using weaker pieces could leave you with exactly what you need when the board rebuilds.

Spend too much and the next configuration may become impossible. Hold too much back and you may never open the first.

Find a line that works and preserves the tools you still need.

BEND THE POSITION

When ordinary chess movement is not enough, change the puzzle itself.

Reposition enemies to create better sweeps. Destroy troublesome pieces, promote modest ones into sudden threats, or teleport across the board to complete an impossible line.

Upgrade your arsenal and graft skills onto individual pieces ; transforming familiar chess movements into specialised tactical tools - beware , their power is a double edged sword. 

THE BOARD FIGHTS BACK

Delve Deeper and the board arms itself. Fail to clear a configuration in time and the board retaliates.

It summons hostile pieces, raises obstacles, spreads Fog of War and warps the battlefield beneath you. Each response compounds the last as the lock tries to close again.

A clean tactical puzzle can quickly become a desperate fight to regain control.

BREAK THE LOCK. CLAIM THE SHARD.

Open every layer and recover the shard sealed at the board’s heart.

Shards unlock new decks and expand the strategies available to you. Build around efficient capture chains, powerful pieces, enemy manipulation, promotion, teleportation or other ways of forcing the board open.

The board presents the lock. Your deck determines how you pick it.

ENTER THE ENDLESS

Every recovered shard leads deeper into the corruption.

Enter the Endless, adapt as its boards become stranger and more hostile and confront the Gestalt Kings who guard their secrets.

Power alone will not carry you. You must know what to deploy, what to preserve and when to break the rules entirely.