Tavern Chess

Pull up a chair. Tavern Chess lets you play chess inside World of Warcraft against a friend, against the tavern, or with someone sitting next to you.

Play anyone, anywhere

Pick a friend from the lobby, type a name, or target a player and hit Challenge. They get a popup with Accept and Decline, and the game opens on both screens. You can keep questing between moves. When it's your turn, the minimap knight glows and a chat line tells you what they played.

• Your online friends and Battle.net friends are one click away
• Optional chess clocks: 3+2, 5+3, 10+5 or 30+0
• Works across realms (Name-Realm)
• Games survive /reload, logouts and disconnects, and pick up where you left off
• Every move is confirmed on arrival and resent if it gets lost
• Offer a draw, resign, or ask for a rematch with colors swapped

Both players need Tavern Chess installed. If you challenge someone who doesn't have it, you'll know within a few seconds and can whisper them where to get it.

Or play the tavern

Three opponents are waiting at the bar:

• Tipsy Patron (Easy) has had a few too many
• The Barkeep (Medium) knows the game
• Old Grandmaster (Hard) has been sitting in the corner since the Second War

The AI thinks in the background, so your game never stutters while it plans its move.

Pass & Play puts both sides on one screen, if you want to teach someone at the next seat.

A board worth sitting at

• Hand-shaded ivory and ebony pieces with gold inlay
• Pieces glide between squares, knights hop, captured pieces shatter, and a checkmated king tips over
• Click to move or drag and drop, with legal moves shown on the board
• Four board themes: Tavern, Marble, Tournament and Frost
• Adjustable window opacity

Full rules

Castling, en passant, promotion (you pick the piece), check, checkmate, stalemate, threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule and insufficient material. Every move from your opponent is checked before it is played.

Commands

You can also open the options from the game's AddOns settings.

Supported versions

Retail and WoW Forever. One download works on both.

Made by the creator of VoidSim, a WoW simulation site.