Really Bad Chess
September 23, 2024
More About Really Bad Chess
5 out of 5 Stars "An essential puzzle experience for anyone even remotely interested in strategy games" - TouchArcade
Whether you play chess daily, or quit just after learning the rules, this small twist will open the door to an entire new world of chess.
------WHATS IN THE “BOX”?
The free version of Really Bad Chess lets you compete vs. an AI in Ranked, Daily, or Weekly Challenges. Improve your skills using the included Freeplay mode. A single in-app purchase unlocks Versus Mode so you can compete against your friends locally! It also removes ads, displays captured pieces, and adds soothing alternate color-palettes to choose from.
------REALLY BAD PRESS
"Makes chess fun even if you’re really bad" - The Verge
"Feels more modern than chess has ever felt" - Applenapps
"Really Bad Chess takes a really bad idea and somehow manages to make it a lot of fun." - Pocket Gamer
------A WORD FROM THE DEVELOPER
Chess is one of those games I always wished I enjoyed, but its commitment to beauty, elegance, and perfect balance always turned me away. Really Bad Chess removes these boring restrictions and flips chess on its head.
As much as random pieces change the game in some ways, I was really surprised to notice how much the game remains the same, and how powerful some pieces are — you've never truly struggled against a pawn until you've struggled against a pawn in the back row.
For chess pros, Really Bad Chess will give you a new type of challenge — the pieces & the moves are the same, but you'll have to throw out your openings and your understanding of normal patterns of play.
For novice chess players (like most of us), Really Bad Chess greatly opens up the game. Instead of starting by studying openings, in your first games you'll get to discover the joy (and challenge!) of learning how to checkmate.
I hope you have as much fun with Really Bad Chess as much as I did making it.
-zach
Latest Version
1.4.15
September 23, 2024
Noodlecake
Board
Android
2,864,461
Free
com.noodlecake.reallybadchess
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User Reviews
Skyler Taylor Windham
2 years ago
I love the concept of the game, I didn't know anything about chess but after playing free play for a while and it goes me understand what I can move where. However the ads are completely unreasonable... I understand having an ad after like every other round, but say you lose, the ai move so fast and ends the game just to load the ad so fast you have no idea who won or lost, how, or why. After every.. single... Round... only to click the X 3 or 4 times just to start a new round... Might delete..
A Google user
5 years ago
welp, it's all I imagined it to be: random pieces placed on the border in the initial composition. but if you try to think ahead instead of just to your next or current move, you can succeed at beating the AI. All they need is an online mode so you can play with other players. A Facebook connection, maybe? ah well. What's here is good...for now. 4/5 stars.
A Google user
4 years ago
Amusing. Biggest downsides are 1 Screen unreadably dark when you lose => can't see your mistake 2 no way to speed it up => some annoying wait (and even screen shutoff) 3 if interrupted, it sometimes forces a resignation instead of a resume 4 bad at recognizing end games. It treats stalemate as a loss for the mated player, insufficient material as game on unless you give up, sometimes just sits forever refusing to recognize your win, etc. Still 5/5 for fun. Do wish I could setup arbitrary starts.
Rob Johnson
3 years ago
If you miss playing chess before you knew strategy and opens, when it felt like a battle, then welcome to the thunder dome. This is brilliant, sometimes infuriating and definitely not repetitive, as far as I can tell. If you like chess but aren't good, this can help you get better. If you like chess and are too good and feel bad for stomping your friends, you can face new challenges. Undos can be replenished by watching an ad, which is a totally fair price to pay for 5 undos. Good app.
Parker Bond
3 years ago
I really like the idea behind this, but there are some annoying bugs. For example, whenever my phone goes into power saving mode, such as when my battery hits a certain percentage my current game gets lost. It wouldn't be so bad except when you're trying to keep a daily win streak alive and only have 2 tries to begin with...
Chris
3 years ago
Excellent game, loads of fun, nice achievements, AI isn't top Stockfish but makes smart moves. I have a few reasons to deduct a star though. -I recently switched to a new phone, and while it seems like the purchased status may have switched over, it's missing many of my achievements and all of my move undos. -similarly, there's no way to import ranking. -I'd love to be able to premove, though this is a minor complaint.
A Google user
5 years ago
Clever ideas, fun to play. Awesome is the sliding scale of difficulty. But the AI is incredibly weak. It hangs copious amounts of material. I am undefeated in ranked play, because it won't take my pieces in trades, or it places pieces where I can snatch them with impunity. The programming is faulty, automatically promoting Pawns to Queens without asking me; this is a violation of the rules. This app also burns through my phone's battery power.
Ricky Spires
6 months ago
This game is interesting. Playing chess with random pieces does change the strategy. Problem I'd, when I play ranked mode it is now stuck on the same game at the same move. I have surrendered the game, won the game, restarted the app, reinstalled the app, and restarted my phone. Nothing is working to get this back to being playable. OK, uninstalling
A Google user
5 years ago
bad: AI takes FOREVER to make a move. most board game apps are quick to do their moves. it will irritate you quick after you play. and sometimes the AI can do rookie moves (there is no difficulty modes. why?!) good: it offers variety of stuff to entertain you. overall: it's bad. the app needs to improve. fix these issues.
A Google user
5 years ago
I really love the concept of this game! It really keeps you on your feet as a chess player. However, there is one aspect that really keeps me from loving the game (and buying premium), and that's the combination of the AI and the no-draw system. The AI will occasionally repeatedly make the same move until it gets its desired outcome. The player however cannot do this to the AI. After awhile, it starts feeling like you're playing with your 6 year old nephew and it can get very annoying. Other than that, I love the challenge of this game and will continue to play (for free unless if the issue changes).
Matthew Norman
5 months ago
Been playing for years, love the concept and the challenge. Edit 2024: been buggy for a long time now. Even tried reinstalling. Games don't reset properly anymore. You should get two chances at the daily game but it doesn't reset, you can only undo one move. It's the same for weekly challenge and ranked too. I spammed ranked by playing the same three moves to win until my rank was >150.
Stephen Brown
5 months ago
Other people seem to be having this same problem Ive played the game for years, very fun concept for a chess game, however, whenever trying to load into a ranked match, it just loads a previous game, this is especially bad for me because it's one where I'm right about to lose I've tired uninstalling, clearing the catch, I even wiped all the data, clearing all of my progress, and somehow it's still bugged, idk what happened, but the game is practically unplayable now, which sucks
Tyr Hawkaluk
5 months ago
Da da da daa... And Really Bad Chess. Updated review (April 2024). Still a fun game, and a brilliant twist on classic chess, but the app has gotten worse for no good reason. There's no more victory screens (so it seems like the matches stall out), endless move loops by the computer (forcing surrender sometimes), my streaks keep resetting themselves, and more. The lack of ability to undo checkmate moves is still annoying too, but that's always been there. Such a sad fall from a 5 star game.
cody AlBright
5 months ago
I love this game. It's amazing. For some reason I can't restart my matches anymore. I make the winning move, and it just stays like that. My current daily wins is 6, it counts the win but I can't play it twice like I should be able too and my weekly match is stuck on one from weeks ago. Even if I pause and try to surrent to reset, it kicks me back to the current board.
Jenn N
2 months ago
Bought the original premium version so my friend and I can play while waiting for food at restaurants, at the park, etc. Recently received a message saying my premium version was "outdated" and I no longer met requirements to use those features. They increased the price and my original purchase doesn't even apply toward that amount. I'm not paying twice for features I thought I had already purchased.
Joy R
3 months ago
Pretty meh. Super low effort put into the game design. It's fun but a lot of it makes no sense. Like there being no draws, but you get penalized for surrendering even if all the opponent has is their king left. Could be better, but I play it pretty often now.
Blekeke
4 months ago
UPDATE : They finally fixed this app. it's now working again. Solid game, 4/5 for how long it took them to fix the issues. OLD : Don't even consider this until there's a fix. Recent update made the game completely unplayable. been playing for years, now suddenly it's unplayable and has been for something like a month with no communication from the Dev. Now the board doesn't reset after a win or loss or surrender, it just resets to the move before you won or a few moves back.
Jimi Holmes
4 months ago
I've been playing this game since sometime in mid-2017. Towards the end 2023 it got a bug that doesn't let you reset the board. I reached out to Noodlecake last year to report the issues and they said it's a known issue. My most recent communication was on 26Feb that they have a large backlog of requests and did not have an ETA for this. Sad this isn't a priority. This game is still amazing, but you only get one chance to solve a puzzle. I hope they get these bugs fixed soon. Downgraded to 1 ⭐
Kinuth Gelmo
3 months ago
Like I've seen others mention, the most recent update completely broke the game. UPDATE: seems like they've finally addressed the bug making the game unplayable, though they've also introduced a few more issues. Now the computer AI behaves differently and tends to repeat the same moves over and over, even when there are no other possible moves for me, resulting in an unnecessary stalemate that forces you to surrender, even if both players have multiple pieces still on the board.
Gavin Bollinger-Brown
2 months ago
Echoing another comment recently that an update has broken the game. I've submitted a ticket but have not received any response, not even a boilerplate message that it's a known issue they're working on. Edit: on January 18th, a month after submitting a ticket I received a response claiming that the issue was resolved. I gave the app another try, but it's still not resolved. Edit 2: the app seems to be partially fixed now, but major issues remain. It's astounding how a company be so bad.
