MelioChess

How to play Chess

1. 1
   Tap a piece, tap a square

   Tap one of your pieces to see every legal move as a dot, then tap a destination. The same two taps work with a mouse or a thumb.
2. 2
   Pick your bot

   Easy sees one move ahead and blunders like a beginner. Medium punishes free pieces. Hard calculates several moves deep and rarely forgives.
3. 3
   Watch for check

   When your king is attacked the square glows red and you must answer the threat. Checkmate ends the game; stalemate is a draw.
4. 4
   Promote your pawns

   March a pawn to the last rank and a picker appears: queen, rook, bishop, or knight. Queen is almost always right, but underpromotion wins some puzzles.
5. 5
   Challenge a friend

   Create a game and share the link. Your friend joins from any device, no account needed, and you play live with moves synced instantly.

Tips & strategy

• •Develop knights and bishops before moving the same piece twice, and castle early to tuck your king away.
• •Before every move, ask what your opponent's last move threatens. Most beginner losses are one-move oversights.
• •Control the four center squares. Pieces in the center attack more squares than pieces on the rim.
• •Against the Easy bot, just take the free pieces it leaves; against Hard, trade pieces when you're ahead in material.
• •Stuck in the endgame? King activity wins: bring your king toward the center once the queens are off.

Frequently asked questions

Is Melio Chess free?

▼

Yes. Free, no ads. Playing the bots and puzzles needs no account; creating a 1v1 invite link takes a free signup, and the friend who joins needs nothing.

Does Melio Chess have game review like chess.com?

▼

Yes, and it is free. Every move is graded live from brilliant to blunder with an eval bar while you play the bots, and every finished game lands in your match history where one tap runs a full review with accuracy scores, an evaluation graph, key moments, and the engine's preferred moves. It all runs on your device.

How strong are the bots?

▼

Easy plays like a casual beginner and blunders often. Medium plays a solid club-night game. Hard searches several moves deep with no intentional mistakes; most casual players will lose to it.

Can I play chess with a friend online?

▼

Yes. Create a game on the chess page and send the invite link. They join as a guest from any browser and moves sync live, like Melio's multiplayer sudoku.

What kinds of puzzles are there?

▼

Three tiers: mate in 1, mate in 2, and win-material tactics. Every puzzle is machine-verified to have a unique correct first move.

Can I undo a move?

▼

Against bots, yes: Undo takes back your move and the bot's reply. In 1v1 games there are no takebacks, same as over the board.

Does it follow all the real rules?

▼

Yes: castling, en passant, promotion, threefold repetition, the fifty-move rule, stalemate, and insufficient-material draws are all enforced.

More games on Melio

• Chess puzzles
  Mate-in-1, mate-in-2, and tactics.
• Sudoku
  Five difficulties. Solo, race, or co-op.
• Minesweeper
  Classic logic. First click is safe.