A chess variant

Antipode ChessChess on a square globe

The board has no edges.

Two 8×8 faces wrap into one closed world. Every piece you know still moves the way you know — but the edge of the board, the thing every chess habit is built on, simply isn’t there any more.

See how the board works Ways to play
128 squares Free to play No ads, ever Ages 4+
The Antipode Chess main menu, showing the square-globe board and the learn and play options

The board

Two faces, one world

You see two 8×8 boards on screen. They are not two boards — they are the two faces of a single closed surface, 128 squares with nowhere to fall off.

The square globe: two 8 by 8 faces joined at the poles, with columns forming one continuous loop Face Two holds columns 9 to 16 and Face One holds columns 1 to 8. They meet along rank H, which is a pole. A white rook on D2 can reach a black pawn on D14 by travelling left, wrapping from column 1 round to column 16, or by travelling right from column 8 round to column 9. FACE TWO 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 A B C D E F G H H — THE POLE — H H G F E D C B A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 FACE ONE 1 1 2 2 R P attacked from both sides

Your rook on D2 attacks the pawn on D14 — twice.

Not by two different pieces. By the same rook, along the same rank, arriving from opposite directions. That is the antipode, and it is where the game gets its name.

  • 1Columns are a loopTravel left off column 1 and you come back on at column 16. There is no left-hand edge, so a file is a circle, not a line.
  • 2Or go the other wayTravel right off column 8 and you arrive at column 9. Same rank, same rook, same target square — the long way round the world.
  • 3Ranks A and H are polesCross one and you step onto the far side of the world: eight columns away, now heading back the other direction.
  • 4Nowhere is safeNo corner to tuck a king into, no back rank to hide behind. Every square has eight neighbours and the board never runs out.

What changes

Everything you know about chess still applies

Everything you know about the edge of the board does not. Six rules behave differently — and every one of them is a consequence of the same thing: the surface is closed.

Rooks attack from two sides

Over the pole, and the long way around the world — the same rook, the same square, two routes at once. Blocking one does nothing about the other.

Bishops stay on their colour

A light-squared bishop is light-squared everywhere on the globe, pole crossings included. The old rule survives the new geometry intact — which is exactly why it is worth checking.

Pawns have no forward

There is no “up the board” on a globe. A pawn steps one square in any orthogonal direction and captures diagonally in any direction — so a pawn chain can face you from behind.

Promotion at the antipode

A pawn promotes at the point directly opposite its own starting square, through the centre of the world. Every pawn has its own goal, and every goal is as far from home as a square can be.

Corners flip you

Cross a pole exactly at a face corner and both of your directions reverse at once. It is the one move that still surprises us, and the tutorial makes you do it on purpose.

The familiar parts stay familiar

Checkmate wins. Stalemate draws. No castling, no en passant. The pieces are the pieces — you are learning a board, not a new rulebook.

Learn it in two minutes

Six real moves on a real board

No wall of text. “Learn the globe” hands you a board and walks you through the six things that are different — one move at a time, each one drawing the route the piece actually took.

The Learn the globe tutorial, explaining that columns form one loop so a rook on D2 can reach a pawn on D14 in either direction

Learn the globeThe loop, the pole crossing, omnidirectional pawns, the colour-bound bishop, the corner bounce, and the two-front attack — six moves, about two minutes.

The Winning strategies lesson, advising you to watch the pole diagonals from move one

Winning strategiesWhat a thousand-plus engine games actually taught us — which openings hold up, where material changes hands early, and why the pole diagonals matter from move one.

A game in progress against the computer, showing both faces of the globe, the shared pole, the clocks and the move controls

And a rules reference you can open mid-gameStuck on why a move is legal? The rules are one tap away without leaving the board — along with the full move history and undo.

Ways to play

Across the table, or across the world

Antipode Chess is built for the two ways people actually play chess: with someone sitting opposite you, and with someone you may never meet.

  • Two players, one deviceEach face is drawn from that player’s own side of the table, so you both read your own half the right way up.
  • The computer, three waysEasy, Normal, and a Hard opponent that searches five plies deep and will beat you for a while.
  • Online, turn-basedA move a day, at your own pace, through Game Center — with a notification when it’s your turn.
  • Clocks, or none at all3, 5 or 15 minutes when you want the pressure — untimed when you are still learning the board.
  • Full move history and undoReadable notation for every move, the route it took, and a way back if you want one.
  • An Elo rating, if you want oneRated online games feed your rating and two Game Center leaderboards. Ignore them entirely and nothing is missing.

iPhone & iPad · iOS 16 or later

The main menu, with the learn and play options and the time controls

On the bigger screen

Both faces, no squinting

On iPad the whole world fits comfortably at once — which turns out to matter, because reading a two-front attack means reading both faces at the same time. Same game, same save, same purchase.

Antipode Chess on iPad, showing both faces of the globe side by side during a game

What it costs

Free, and we mean the useful part

Antipode Chess is free to download. There is exactly one optional purchase, it is a single payment, and we would rather tell you plainly what is on each side of that line than have you find out later.

Free forever

Everything you need to learn it

No account, no trial, no timer.

  • Both tutorials — “Learn the globe” and “Winning strategies”
  • Two players on one device, as many games as you like
  • The computer opponent at Easy and Normal
  • Every clock setting, move history, undo and the rules reference
One optional unlock

The full game

A single purchase. No subscription.

  • The Hard opponent — five plies deep, and genuinely hard
  • Online turn-based play with friends or strangers
  • Rated games, an Elo rating and both leaderboards

Bought once, restorable on your other devices through the App Store. There is no second purchase, no currency, no energy meter and nothing else to buy.

Fair by design

A chess app that just lets you play chess

We built this one for ourselves first, and the thing we wanted was a board and an opponent — not an account, a daily streak or a shop.

No ads, no subscription

Not between games, not before a hint, not anywhere. One optional purchase and that is the whole business model.

No account to create

No sign-up, no email, no password. Online play uses the Game Center account already on your device, and only if you choose to play online.

We collect nothing

No analytics, no tracking, no advertising identifiers, no third-party SDKs. Your games and settings live on your device. Read the policy.

The opponent runs on your device

Easy, Normal and Hard all think locally. Everything except online play works with no connection at all.

Rated 4+

No violence, no chat, nothing objectionable. If a seven-year-old can learn the loop — and ours did — they can play the whole game.

Leaderboards are opt-in

Play every mode, never touch a rating, and nothing nags you about it. Competition is a feature here, not the point.

Coming soon

Be there when the world closes

Antipode Chess is on its way to iPhone & iPad. Leave an email and we’ll send exactly one message, the day it lands.

Coming soon on theApp Store Soon! Get help →
Made slowly, by a family, in the same house as the dragons.