Player FAQ
Quick answers to the questions new and returning players ask most.
Getting started
How do I get in? Right now you can be one of the very first cohorts of the game as an alpha tester at chessvs.club/register. Sign up there, then confirm it: join the Discord, or confirm by email. Either one works. We let new testers in every day, so once you've confirmed, your invite comes with the next day's group. Have a friend's referral link? It lets you in right away, no wait.
Do I need to buy anything to play? No. Free players can play matches, earn FOCUS, open card packs, solve puzzles, join community events, and enter tournaments. Tournaments may charge a small entry fee in FOCUS, which you earn by playing and cannot buy, so nothing costs money. You can play and improve for free indefinitely.
Do I need any special technical knowledge? No. Sign up with email, Google or Discord and your account is created for you automatically. Everything technical is handled behind the scenes.
What is a club board? A collectible board is planned for later. It will record your wins, rank and club. You don't need one to play anything in the game, ranked included.
Bring a friend
How do I get a friend in during the alpha? Share your referral link. From the lobby, open Rally, then Referrals, and copy your link. A friend who signs up with it is admitted right away, no wait: they get an invite link on screen and by email, good for 7 days. Someone already in the tester queue can use your link too. Each link admits a limited number of people per week, and you need one real match played (or an account a few days old) before your link works. See Bring a Friend.
What do I get for a referral? Once your friend has played 3 matches against 3 different real opponents (you don't count, and neither do very short games), the referral qualifies. You get 250 FOCUS and your friend gets 100 FOCUS plus one Common Battle Card. Up to 10 referrals pay out per season. Referral FOCUS spends normally but does not count toward tier or rank progress, and it doesn't use your daily earning cap.
What is a Herald? A Herald is a player who has brought in enough friends. Herald is 5 qualified referrals lifetime, Herald Prime is 10 in a single season, and Herald Eternal is 20 across the two seasons of an arc. The badge shows on your Referrals page and comes with a Discord role. Heralds keep counting past the 10-per-season reward cap.
Do badges like Herald come with anything else? Permanent badges do more than sit on a profile. From time to time, badge holders are rewarded with in-game cosmetics, invitations to tournaments, and bonus Battle Cards. Herald is one of those badges.
Gameplay
Can my King capture pieces? Yes, and it is better at it than you might expect. The King deals 2 damage, so it takes any piece that is down to 1 shield or less. Against a healthy piece it wounds instead of capturing, and the piece strikes back.
The King carries 5 shield and survives its first fight against anything on the board. The danger is the second one.
"A crown is armor. It was never a sword."
What happens if my King loses a fight? You lose the match, immediately. If your King attacks a piece and the counter finishes it, your King is eliminated and the game ends there. This is called the Honeypot, and it is always in effect.
A piece left undefended next to your King may be bait. A Knight is the most dangerous bait of all, because a Knight never gives check from an adjacent square, so attacking one always looks safe.
"The crown that swings can fall."
Can I use cards from any club on any board? Every ability is open to every club. Your starter cards, and every card from a Standard Pack or a Battle Box, are universal, so anyone can play them. A club edition, from a Club Pack, is played by that club's members only.
What happens to my card when my piece is captured? Losing the piece costs the card nothing. Its charges belong to the card for the whole match, so it can still fire on another piece of that type. Whether the game uses up one of the card's uses depends only on the game, never on what happened to the piece. See Battle Cards.
Can I activate two abilities in one turn? No. Every player in every club activates one ability per turn. Club passives never add a second activation.
What happens to a Pawn's card when the Pawn promotes? Nothing moves, because charges belong to the card, not to one piece: your Pawn card keeps working on your other Pawns. The promoted piece is a real Queen (or Rook, Bishop, Knight) from then on, so your cards for that piece apply to it, and any Pawn-only bonus it carried, like Vanguard's extra attack, ends.
Can I use a Gambit Card and a Battle Card on the same turn? Gambit Cards are arriving in a later season. Full rules will be published when they launch.
FOCUS and currency
Can I buy FOCUS? No. FOCUS is earned only through play, in matches and quests. It cannot be purchased anywhere. That's deliberate: progression is earned, not bought.
Is there a daily FOCUS limit? Yes, there's a daily cap on the FOCUS you earn from Quick, Casual and Ranked matches. FOCUS from quests doesn't count toward it, and tournament earnings are not capped. Puzzles don't pay FOCUS on their own; the Daily Gauntlet pays only through its quest, when that quest is running.
Can I win money? No. Everything you earn is in-game: cards, rank badges, a permanent record on your board, and FOCUS, which you earn by playing and cannot buy. There is no cash prize and nothing to cash out. Prized tournaments are on the roadmap, and a prize pool is only announced once it is funded.
Seasons and cards
What happens to my cards at season end? You keep every card. What its uses do depends on its rarity: Common and Rare cards reset to zero, Epic cards bank up to half their remaining uses (at most 5) to claim next season, and Omega cards keep all their uses. A card at zero uses can be refocused with FOCUS. See Battle Cards.
What resets at season end? Your XP never resets — it is a career total, and a rank you reach is permanent. At the start of each season, your Tempo drops one level (Finale to Midgame, Midgame to Debut). Season rewards are earned fresh, from the highest rating tier you reach. Your ELO, all cards and boards, cohort, and badges stay forever.
Are there permanent badges for competitive play? Yes. Some badges are earned only through ranked wins and are permanent. They can't be bought — they're pure proof of competitive history. Permanent badges do more than sit on a profile. From time to time, badge holders are rewarded with in-game cosmetics, invitations to tournaments, and bonus Battle Cards.
Can I buy cards? Yes, with FOCUS. Open the Card shop from the Cards screen: a new shelf of packs goes up every Monday at 10:05 UTC, and every pack shows its exact cards before you buy. Nothing is random, Omega cards are never sold, and FOCUS itself can never be bought. You can also buy cards from other players on the Market, for FOCUS. See The Card Shop and The Card Market.
Physical hardware
Will there be a physical chess board? A physical board is planned. Details are announced through the official channels.
Still stuck?
→ Card Interaction Rules — official edge-case rules → Ask in the official ChessVS Discord