Fog of War Chess: Rules and How to Play
Fog of War Chess is chess for 2 players, about 15 minutes, where you see only your own pieces and the squares they can reach. No check: capture the king to win. Free. No account.
Setup
- Two players, an 8×8 board, and 16 pieces each in white and black, set up as in ordinary chess.
- White moves first. Most of the board is covered in fog, so you cannot see where the enemy pieces are.
How to play
- Take turns moving one piece. Pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, queens and kings move exactly as in ordinary chess.
- You see only the squares your pieces stand on and the squares they can move to right now. An enemy piece on one of those squares is visible, and you can take it.
- The square straight in front of a pawn is visible when it is empty. When something blocks it, it stays fogged and you only learn the pawn cannot advance. The diagonal squares show only when there is an enemy piece to take.
- There is no check. Your king may move to an attacked square, and it does not have to escape when attacked.
- You may castle whenever the king and rook have not moved and the squares between them are empty, even if the king or the squares it passes are attacked.
- En passant is allowed. On the turn you could take, the pawn and the square it passed are visible to you.
- A pawn reaching the far rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight of your choice. Your opponent cannot see it if it happens in the fog.
- When one of your pieces is taken, the square is marked.
Winning and scoring
- Capture your opponent's king to win.
- There is no stalemate. If the king can only move to attacked squares, it must still move.
- The game is drawn when the same position appears three times, when fifty moves each pass with no capture and no pawn move, when only the kings are left, or when a player has no move at all.
- You may resign at any time. The player who resigns loses.
- When the game ends, the fog lifts and the whole board is shown.
Defaults on this site
| Item | Default on this site |
|---|---|
| Players | 2 players (set automatically by the party size) |
| Turn time limit | None by default (the host can set 30 or 60 seconds) |
| If someone drops mid-game | Reopening on the same device returns you to your seat. If you do not return, the CPU plays in your place. |
| Draws | In ranked play, a draw counts as halfway between a win and a loss for your rating. |
| Source of the rules | Based on the standard reference rules |
Rules supervised by Qdan, Inc. (based on the standard reference rules)
House rules
Defaults follow the standard reference rules. The party can change these.
| Name | Description | Default | Changeable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show legal squares | Mark where the selected piece can go. | On | Yes |
| See in front of pawnsSee in front of pawnsIn fog-of-war chess you only see the squares your pieces stand on and the squares they can move to. A pawn cannot move forward into an occupied square, so normally the piece blocking it stays hidden. With this on, the square directly in front of each pawn is always visible, even when blocked. | Always show the square directly in front of each pawn, even when it is blocked (sites differ on this rule). | Off | Yes |
| Swap who starts | Swap who plays white after each game. | On | Yes |
Terms
- Fog
- A square you cannot see. An enemy piece there is hidden from you.
- Visible squares
- The squares your pieces stand on and the squares they can move to right now. They are counted the same way on your opponent's turn.
- Capturing the king
- Instead of checkmate, you win by actually taking the enemy king.
- Dark Chess
- Another name for this variant, first devised in Denmark in 1989.
FAQ
Am I told when I am in check?
No. Nothing warns you, so read the danger from the enemy pieces you can see.
Can my king move into an attacked square?
Yes, but if it is taken on the next move, you lose.
Why can't my pawn advance?
A piece hidden in the fog is blocking the square in front of it. You cannot tell what it is.
Are there draws?
Yes: threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule, kings only, and having no move at all. There is no stalemate.
Can I see my opponent's last move?
Only the parts on squares you can see. When one of your pieces is taken, that square is marked with an ×.
Play now with these rules
Last updated 2026-09-25 · Run by Qdan, Inc.