Your first game at Gambit

Invite a friend

1. Open the play page, choose a table and create your game.
2. Copy the invitation link and send it privately to your friend.
3. Your friend opens the link and accepts the available seat. White moves first.
4. Select a piece and its destination. Available guidance depends on the selected play mode.

How the pieces move

• King: one square in any direction, without moving into attack.
• Queen: any unobstructed distance along a rank, file or diagonal.
• Rook: any unobstructed distance horizontally or vertically.
• Bishop: any unobstructed distance diagonally.
• Knight: two squares in one direction and one across. It can jump over other pieces.
• Pawn: one square forward into an empty square, or two from its starting square if both squares are clear. It captures one square diagonally forward.

Three special moves

Castling moves the king two squares towards an unmoved rook, which moves to the square beside the king. The intervening squares must be empty; the king cannot be in check or cross or land on an attacked square. Both pieces must retain castling rights.

En passant lets a pawn capture an opposing pawn that has just advanced two squares past its capturing square. It is available only on the immediately following move.

Promotion replaces a pawn reaching the last rank with a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour. You do not need to have lost that piece first.

Check, checkmate and draws

Check means your king is attacked: the next move must remove the attack. Checkmate ends the game when the checked player has no legal reply. Stalemate is a draw when the player to move is not in check and has no legal move. The game engine also recognises other draw conditions, including repetition and move-count rules; its automatic handling should not be confused with an over-the-board tournament claim procedure.

A useful routine before every move

1. Ask what your opponent's last move threatens.
2. Look for checks, captures and direct threats for both sides.
3. Before confirming your move, check whether your chosen piece or king becomes exposed.

Leaving and returning

Before any legal move, abandoning the game removes it without a scored result. After play starts, resignation gives the opponent the win. Keep the game link and use the same browser for a guest seat. Temporary guest records are not a permanent archive.