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Dark Chess

Dark Chess

THIS IS NOT CLASSIC CHESS! Dark Chess is an asymmetric puzzle-strategy game featuring fog of war. Survive a story-driven campaign filled with custom boards, traps, and rule-breaking Kings and Queens of the past. Stealth, calculated risks and outsmarting the unknown are your only ways to win.

Released Feb 28, 2023 Developer Tall Troll Games Publisher Tall Troll Games, Hawthorn Games Platforms Windows · Mac · Linux ChessStrategyTurn-Based StrategyPuzzleTurn-Based Tactics
View on Steam ↗ $12.99 (US · as of 2026-09-25)

What players say

Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-14.

75.6%positive213 reviews
Recommended · 3 found this helpful

“5/10 + chess - fog of war can eat a full on bag of ♥♥♥♥♥. it just makes every game slower and longer with way more guess work - you can move into check without knowing your moving into check and lose the game....thats some real ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that makes me hate this game. same for the…”

— a player, Steam review · 5 hrs played
Recommended · 2 found this helpful

“*Dark Chess*, developed by Tall Troll Games and published by Tall Troll Games alongside Hawthorn Games, takes the rigid, perfectly transparent structure of traditional chess and deliberately breaks it apart to create something far more uncertain and experimental. Instead of…”

— a player, Steam review · 11 hrs played
Not recommended · 3 found this helpful

“So, I initially disliked this game, and gave it a poor review, but then I regretted it because I said to myself. Maybe I'm giving it a bad review just because I'm bad at it and I should spend more time with it. Well....I spent a bit more time with it and if anything I like it…”

— a player, Steam review · 1 hrs played
Read more reviews ↗

Player activity

Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2024-06 via SteamCharts.

24all-time peak
0 2 5 2023 2024 No data collected for this period No data collected for this period 5 avg · Mar 2023

Achievement stats

Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-19.

61achievements
11.7%median completion
0.6%rarest: Level God
64.9% of players 63.3% of players 61.2% of players 54.0% of players 53.4% of players 53.0% of players 43.6% of players 36.1% of players 34.2% of players 33.5% of players 32.4% of players 27.6% of players 27.0% of players 25.1% of players 25.1% of players 23.6% of players 23.1% of players 22.4% of players 22.2% of players 21.3% of players 19.9% of players 19.4% of players 18.7% of players 17.3% of players 17.1% of players 16.8% of players 16.2% of players 13.1% of players 13.0% of players 12.9% of players 11.7% of players 7.7% of players 7.7% of players 6.3% of players 5.8% of players 4.7% of players 3.8% of players 3.5% of players 3.3% of players 3.1% of players 3.1% of players 3.1% of players 3.0% of players 3.0% of players 2.6% of players 2.6% of players 2.4% of players 2.2% of players 2.1% of players 1.9% of players 1.8% of players 1.7% of players 1.6% of players 1.6% of players 1.4% of players 1.3% of players 1.2% of players 0.9% of players 0.8% of players 0.7% of players 64.9% 0% most earned rarest
Almost everyone has
64.9%Early to rise! — First win
63.3%Wonderful the mind of a child is! — Finished Tutorial
61.2%First blood — First lose
Rarest badges of honor
0.6%Level God — Finish the Campaign on 3 difficulty levels
0.7%Epaulette Mate — Deliver checkmate where the King is blocked on both sides by his own Rooks
0.8%Run Forest, Run! — Finish the Campaign in one run

Price tracking

US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-08-13. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.

$12.99current · sampled 2026-09-25 21:36 UTC
$5.19lowest since tracking began2026-08-24
US12.99 USD
EU12.99 EUR
UK10.99 GBP
Australia18.99 AUD
Canada16.99 CAD
Japan1,500 JPY
Brazil25.00 BRL
China43.00 CNY

Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.

Brazil≈$4.8 China Japan Canada US Australia UK EU≈$15

Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-25). Relative comparison only.

$0 $10 $20 08-13 08-21 08-30 09-08 09-16 09-25

Latest official news

Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.

May 16, 2025
A Milestone Achieved

Greetings Dark Chess players! Today we’re releasing what is going to be our final major update for Dark Chess. A game that started as a dream and became our first Steam release. We spent a few years d

Apr 26, 2024
Dark Chess - Eastern Game Fest!

Dark Chessians, We are honored to participate in this year's Eastern Game Fest hosted by Steam China. Dark Chess is a unique twist on chess that introduces fog of war mechanics which shrouds the enemy

Feb 07, 2024
Dark Chess -- Lunar New Year Sale

Hello everyone！ Dark Chess is now participating in the Lunar New Year Sale 2024 with a 40% discount. The discount will run from February 12th to February 19th. Hope you can enjoy our game!

Dec 24, 2023
Merry Christmas and a Troll-Tastic New Year!

Tall Troll Games wishes you a Christmas so Tall, it'll make you shout, "Ho ho ho!" and dance like a troll in a boot. May your upcoming year be trolltastic, full of laughter and green-leafy delights. M

Dec 19, 2023
Winter Wonderland Update

Greetings, fellow travelers. We've been actively listening to your feedback over the past few months, and we're excited to announce a significant game update! This update focuses on enhancing your gam

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Screenshots

Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.

Facts & details

From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-14.

GenresIndie, Strategy
Player tagsChess · Strategy · Turn-Based Strategy · Puzzle · Turn-Based Tactics · Tabletop · Board Game · Time Travel · Singleplayer · Narration · Dark Fantasy · Casual (SteamSpy community voting)
FeaturesSingle-player · Multi-player · PvP · Shared/Split Screen PvP · Shared/Split Screen · Steam Achievements · Steam Cloud · Remote Play Together
LanguagesEnglish * , Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish - Latin America *
Achievements61
Official sitehttp://www.darkchess.com
Minimum system requirements (PC)

Minimum: OS *: Windows 7/8/10 32-bit Processor: Intel Core i3 or faster Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: DirectX 9.0 Compatible GPU DirectX: Version 9.0 Storage: 1200 MB available space