2022Richard Garfield, Justin Gary
- Videos
- 64
- Creators
- 26
Mainly playthroughs
2 - 4 players25 - 60 minMedium weight
Chess Rivals
2025
2 - 4 players
90 - 120 min
From BoardGameGeek
The year is 1840, the Victorian era and the beginning of the industrial revolution. You'll need to beat out your other Chess Rivals by either becoming the most famous chess prodigy, develop chess projects or become the ultimate chess master to win! You'll start the game by drafting your chess deck, which will be what you will play in the Chess Game to try to beat your opponent and raise your ELO score. You'll want to balance your deck between opening, middlegame and endgame cards to ensure that you have what you need to crush your competition. Each player will match up against their opponent to battle it out in the chess game. In each of the 5 rounds, you'll only be able to play opening, middle or end game cards, depending on the round. When you play a card, it will move the token toward your side of the EVAL board a certain number of spaces, based on the strength of the card. The cards can also increase other factors that will affect the game, such as Checkmate, Queen Side Synergy, Center Control and more. These will give you bonuses or special powers during the game. At the end of this tug of war, you'll look at your EVAL score to see if you've managed to exceed the required number to win the game. If not, the game ends in a draw. After each player faces off against each other in the Chess Game, you'll move onto the Map Phase, where you will be moving around the map picking up bonuses, like adding cards to your deck, earning money, or developing projects. Each space that you move costs you $1. At the end of four rounds, you'll need to move back to the starting space so that you can make it back to the Chess Game! Make sure you keep enough money in reserve to move yourself back to the starting space, because if you don't, you'll be late to the game and will not be able to play in the first round! Play continues until someone wins by either achieving the highest fame, becoming the ultimate chess champion by raising their ELO score to the necessary level, or by completing the required amount of projects! -description from the publisher
Watch first
Which Chess Rivals video should I watch?
Chess Rivals has 3 videos from 3 creators: 2 how-to-play guides and 1 playthrough. They date from September 2026.
To learn the rules, start with "Chess Rivals - Start Playing in 15 minutes - Concise Board Game Tutorial" by Meeple University, which runs 15 min.
To see it played, watch "Chess Rivals Playthrough - Build Your Deck, Outplay Your Opponent, Move Up The Rankings!" by BoardGameCo.
If you like it, try SolForge Fusion, Flesh and Blood, Riftbound: The League of Legends Trading Card Game or Cheating Moth, which share several of its mechanics.
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BoardGameCo
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Meeple University
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About Chess Rivals
From BoardGameGeek:
The year is 1840, the Victorian era and the beginning of the industrial revolution. You'll need to beat out your other Chess Rivals by either becoming the most famous chess prodigy, develop chess projects or become the ultimate chess master to win! You'll start the game by drafting your chess deck, which will be what you will play in the Chess Game to try to beat your opponent and raise your ELO score. You'll want to balance your deck between opening, middlegame and endgame cards to ensure that you have what you need to crush your competition. Each player will match up against their opponent to battle it out in the chess game. In each of the 5 rounds, you'll only be able to play opening, middle or end game cards, depending on the round. When you play a card, it will move the token toward your side of the EVAL board a certain number of spaces, based on the strength of the card. The cards can also increase other factors that will affect the game, such as Checkmate, Queen Side Synergy, Center Control and more. These will give you bonuses or special powers during the game. At the end of this tug of war, you'll look at your EVAL score to see if you've managed to exceed the required number to win the game. If not, the game ends in a draw. After each player faces off against each other in the Chess Game, you'll move onto the Map Phase, where you will be moving around the map picking up bonuses, like adding cards to your deck, earning money, or developing projects. Each space that you move costs you $1. At the end of four rounds, you'll need to move back to the starting space so that you can make it back to the Chess Game! Make sure you keep enough money in reserve to move yourself back to the starting space, because if you don't, you'll be late to the game and will not be able to play in the first round! Play continues until someone wins by either achieving the highest fame, becoming the ultimate chess champion by raising their ELO score to the necessary level, or by completing the required amount of projects! -description from the publisher
Publisher
XL Games
Mechanics
Deck ConstructionHand ManagementArea MovementKing of the Hill