On 30th March 2023, history was made when the first release poster was unveiled. Immediately, nearly 83 grandmasters from around the world erupted in denial and rejection of the change. However, it was short-lived, as a bullet-pointed slide containing all the features was flashed on screen, to great awe. Here are some of these features below:

An expansion of the playing field

We all understand the balanced playing area in the historical 64 squares. As Fischer once said, it’s not enough. So, the inventors have decided to make the ambitious upgrade to a 10x10 board that allows for two brand new pieces on the newly formed corners of the board. The new piece is called the "Ship".

This new piece can only move forward, one step at a time. However, at any point in the game, it can capture material of the opponent directly horizontally on the same rank while remaining on the same file. And any piece that comes in contact with the front face of the Ship will be captured, regardless of its colour. This brings us to our next Quality of Life Change:

New UI and Matchmaking System

The For the launch of the Chess 2 the online playing software is already fully functional. This is what the beta site looks like:

The playing site includes a "matchmaking queue" that allows players to select a ‘role’ they would like to fill before engaging in battle.

Community Reaction:

On March 30th, Garry Kasparov pointed to Chess 2 in a tweet, which garnered 2M likes:

Indian grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi expressed his opinion in a private, confidential phone call he requested not to be shared. Here are his words from that call: "I just don't see the point...all those years of work, preparation, theory, for nothing. I will not touch this game."  

We greatly anticipate the release of Chess 2, and hope to see the change that we in the chess community believe in. We look forward to seeing you in the arena!