Make No Mistakes

Board Control for iPhone

Who controls
the board?
Chess synesthesia.

Board Control colors every square of a chess position by which side attacks it, so you can see the whole board at once.

Coming soon · Patent pending

The whole board,
at once.

Most chess apps show you one piece at a time. Tap it, get a few dots for where it can go. Board Control colors every square each side attacks, all at the same time. Not where the pieces can move. What they control.

Squares White attacks are green. Squares Black attacks are blue. A piece under attack is red, a defended piece is gold, and a piece that is both is orange. The more pieces attacking a square, the more saturated its color.

Where both sides attack the same square, the two colors blend, and the mix shows which side has more there.

The Immortal Game after White’s 18th move in Board Control: green squares across the bottom half, blue across the top, blended squares through the middle, and orange and red squares under attacked pieces
  • d6Anderssen has just offered this bishop. It’s attacked and defended at once, so it’s orange.
  • a1Kieseritzky’s queen attacks the rook and nothing defends it, so it’s red.
  • e5Both sides attack this empty square, so green and blue blend.
  • g3Queen, rook, and bishop all attack this square, so the green is fully saturated.
The Immortal Game, London 1851, after White’s 18th move.
White’s territoryWhite attacks this square
Black’s territoryBlack attacks this square
AttackedA piece is under attack
DefendedA piece is protected
ContestedBoth sides attack this square
Attacked and defendedA piece is both at once
The Board Control Free Board, with every square colored by which side attacks it
01

Watch a game unfold

Replay games from a hand-picked library. Step through every move and watch the colors change.

02

Play with the position

Move any piece anywhere on the Free Board. No turns, no rules, no judgment. Just a quick answer to “what if?”

03

Play chess, too

Pass the phone, play against Maia-2, a neural network trained to play like a human, or play a friend over Game Center. The colors stay on while you play.

04

Built for red-green color blindness

A dedicated mode remaps the palette so the colors that mean different things still look different.

Board Beat

The whole game,
at a glance.

Board Beat is a timeline of the game. Six rows run under the board, three for each player: territory, defense, and attack. Each column is one move, and brighter means more.

Here it is for game one of Deep Blue against Kasparov, Philadelphia 1996, the first time a computer beat a reigning world champion at a classical time control. Kasparov held more territory for most of the game. Deep Blue’s attack row brightens at the end, when the game turned.

Board Beat for Deep Blue vs Kasparov, 1996 game one: Kasparov’s territory row stays bright blue for most of the game and his attack row is red early, while Deep Blue’s attack row brightens toward the end
Deep Blue vs Kasparov · ACM Chess Challenge, Philadelphia 1996, game one. Three rows per player, top to bottom: territory, defense, attack.

Board Control

Coming soon to iPhone.