Live Rust Open source 2026

Terminal Chess Chess in your terminal · Nothing to install

One command puts you at the board: against the engine, a random opponent, or a friend.

ssh -p 2222 chess.lakshaybhatia.com

Paste it into Terminal on macOS, PowerShell on Windows, or any Linux terminal. No account needed.

§ 01 / Play

Keys on the home page

Engine

wbr

As White, Black, or a random side. Four levels, Beginner to Strong; set the level and the clock in Settings s.

Online

p

Paired with the next person looking. Colours are drawn at random; each side gets 10 minutes plus 5 seconds a move.

Online, private

oj

o creates a game and shows an invite code. Your friend connects the same way and presses j to join.

One keyboard

t

Both sides on one screen, taking turns.

Account a: Optional. Sign up once and your SSH key signs you in from then on, with your finished games kept.

Mouse or keyboard

Move: Click a piece, then its target. Or type it: e4, Nf3, O-O, e2e4. Or steer with the arrow keys and Enter.
Look back: PgUp PgDn step through the game; Home goes to the start, End back to now.
Buttons: Tab reaches them. Esc always steps back one level.
Commands: Type help for all of them. The ones you will want: hint, undo, draw, resign.
Game over: Rematch with colours swapped, review the game, or show it as PGN. You land back on the home page; q there leaves.
Looks best: In a big window, and in a terminal that shows images, such as iTerm2. size small gives a compact board.
First connection: ssh asks you to trust the server. Its fingerprint is SHA256:2A5y9edyzUL8rDBgFDZZuyaxpEOGDBYLVUyvomqqy9g.

No chess libraries

Rules, engine, game server and SSH gateway, written from scratch in Rust. How it works, and how to run it yourself, is on GitHub.