Rookhallow

Chess squeezed onto five by five squares. Gardner minichess keeps every piece and every rule that fits (no castling, no en passant, pawns step one square) and turns the opening into a knife fight from move one.

Your opponent is an alpha-beta engine with quiescence search, a transposition table and three strengths. Beat Novice, then Adept, then Master to fill the ladder, or hand the device to a friend and play on one screen.

• Gardner minichess: the standard 5x5 setup, promotion to any piece, checkmate and stalemate
• Three engine strengths: Novice plays loose, Adept reads three moves ahead, Master searches deeper with iterative deepening
• Ladder: wins against each strength are recorded; beating one offers the next
• Helpers: legal-move dots, a hint arrow, a threat view, an evaluation bar and unlimited undo against the engine
• Draw rules: threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule and bare kings end the game
• Two players: local hot-seat games with the same move list and undo

Code and text written with AI assistance; checked by PN Scripts with automated tests. Every shape is drawn and every sound synthesised by code; there are no AI-generated image or audio files.

Controls

• Tap or click a piece, then a highlighted square; or drag the piece
• Arrow keys / WASD: move the cursor; Enter / Space: pick up and place
• U: undo, H: hint, T: show threatened pieces
• 1-4: choose Novice, Adept, Master or 2 Players; C: switch side; N: new game
• P / Esc: pause, M: sound

Made by PN Scripts.