Real chess
Castling, en passant, promotion, checks and mates — full rules, not “chess-like.”
Desktop alpha · Windows x64
OBSIDIAN CROWN
A dark-fantasy chess arena where every match feels like a champion duel. Real chess rules. Animated isometric armies. Train and face your own APEX bot.
White Order · near-side view
What this game is
Obsidian Crown Chess is not a browser toy or a reskin of a stock chess UI. It is a self-contained Windows desktop game that keeps full chess legality while presenting the board as a red-and-black tactical arena.
The fantasy
- White Order — ivory knights and banners of the light court
- Black Court — crimson-armored champions of the dark crown
- Isometric battlefield with faction-facing armies
- Minimal black/red UI built for focus, not clutter
The systems
- Legal chess rules with regression-tested move generation
- APEX Champion AI (Stockfish hybrid when available)
- Train-vs-your-bot single-player loop — no shallow difficulty menu
- Local profiles, captures, move history, undo, fullscreen
What you get today
This public build is a playable desktop alpha focused on local single-player polish.
Animated armies
Isometric unit sprites for every piece on both factions, with board depth and capture timing.
APEX opponent
Face your local APEX champion. Progress and identity live on your machine under LocalAppData.
Two battle views
Play as White Order or Black Court — your chosen side starts nearest the camera.
Portable package
Self-contained Windows x64 zip. No installer required — extract and double-click the exe.
Open source
C# / .NET WinForms client with modular Core, Engine, Data, and packaging tooling in-repo.
Gallery
In-game captures from the current desktop build.
Install & play (Windows)
The easy path for players: download the portable release zip. No Visual Studio, no .NET SDK install required.
Download the latest release
Open
Releases → Latest
and grab ObsidianCrownChess-0.2.0-win-x64.zip
(or the newest *-win-x64.zip).
Extract the zip
Unzip to any folder you own (Desktop, Games, etc.). Keep the whole folder together — assets, vendor tools, and the exe need to stay side by side.
Run the game
Double-click ObsidianCrownChess.exe.
If Windows SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway
(unsigned private/public alpha builds are expected for now).
Start a match
Choose White Order or Black Court, then play. Press F11 for fullscreen. Use the sidebar for turn state, captures, history, reset, and undo.
| OS | Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit |
|---|---|
| Package type | Self-contained portable zip (~280 MB) — .NET runtime included |
| Settings location | %LocalAppData%\ObsidianCrownChess\ |
| Engine | Bundled Stockfish (UCI process) when present; fallback engine otherwise |
| Auto-update | Not in the portable zip yet — grab new releases from GitHub |
How a session works
Short, focused loop designed for “one more duel.”
1. Pick a side
White Order or Black Court. Your faction starts closest to the camera so the board reads as your front line.
2. Command the army
Click a piece, then a legal square. Captures resolve with combat timing; the sidebar tracks history and material.
3. Train your APEX
Single-player is train-vs-your-bot: improve by playing your champion, not by picking Easy/Medium/Hard from a menu.
Honest status
Shipped as a public playable alpha — not a finished Steam product.
Ready now
- Local desktop matches vs APEX
- Legal chess + animated isometric presentation
- Portable Windows release zip
- Source, docs, and packaging scripts on GitHub
Still cooking
- Friends multiplayer (server scaffold only)
- Signed installer + live auto-update
- Extra camera angles and richer combat art
- Broader public-alpha soak / DPI matrix QA
Play Obsidian Crown
Grab the latest Windows x64 portable build, unzip, and run
ObsidianCrownChess.exe. Source and issue tracker live on GitHub.
Stockfish is free software under GPLv3 and is launched as a separate process.
See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md in the repo and release package.