Open now · By request
Chess Pit playtest
by Gregory Eggathy
Two teams. One giant chessboard. Every kill earns your team a move, then you climb inside a hundred-foot chess piece and drive it across the arena, crushing anyone where it lands. Real-time chess with no turns, no waiting, and a whole lot of gunfire. Take the enemy king to win.
It's free to ask. The developer chooses who gets in.
- Access
- By request
- On playtest since
- Oct 22, 2026
- Planned release
- 2026
- Developer
- Gregory Eggathy
- Platforms
- Windows
- Players
- LAN, Multiplayer, Online PvP, PvP, Single-player, Split-screen PvP
- Languages
- English
How to join the Chess Pit playtest
- Open the game's Steam page with the Request access button. Sign in to Steam if it asks.
- Request access to the Chess Pit playtest there. It's free and doesn't commit you to anything.
- The developer lets players in, often in batches, so it can take a while. Steam emails you when you're in, and the playtest appears in your library.
New to playtests? How Steam playtests work
How AI is used
Placeholder clothing and logo.
The developer's own words, from Steam.
About Chess Pit
Chess, but everyone has a gun.
Chess Pit is a team shooter on a playable chessboard the size of an arena. The pieces are real, they're huge, and they belong to whichever team earns the right to move them.
Kills buy moves
Every elimination fills your move meter. A full meter is a move you can spend on any piece your team owns. Falling behind? Comeback and uneven-team bonuses keep the game close.
No turns. Ever.
Moves happen in real time. Each piece has its own cooldown, so both teams move at once, all match long. Walk up to a piece, take control, and send it across the board. When it lands it stomps the square, and anyone standing there is flattened.
The board fights with you
Every piece powers up the squares it controls for its own team:
- Pawns: move speed
- Knights: armor
- Bishops: damage
- Rooks: health regen
- Queens: heavy damage
Where you choose to fight matters as much as how well you aim.
Pick a class, own a piece
- Vanguard: pistol, pawn specialist
- Cavalier: shotgun, knight specialist
- Castellan: rifle, rook specialist
- Sovereign: the King Breaker, queen specialist
Each class moves its favored piece on a shorter cooldown.
Plan as a team
Hold Tab to open the team planning board. Sketch moves, endorse or veto a teammate's idea, and coordinate a push without stopping to type.
Level up mid-match
Spend what you earn on upgrades for yourself, your grenades, and your bots. Hosts can tune nearly everything: damage, health, cooldowns, buff strength, upgrade costs, and weapon stats, with saved presets.
Features
- Online team PvP
- Bots join every match. The host sets how many, from none to a full army
- Real-time Chess: capture the enemy king to win
- Four classes with their own weapons and favored pieces
- Full host match settings with saved presets
From the game's Steam page.
