Random first layout. Every mode has 200 audited variants. Select 1–5 shots per collected laser before playing.

Classic 5D Chess

Five standard chess setups with no ladders or travel between boards. Each board has its own turn and one life per king. Win three boards to win the match. Finished boards are locked; draws do not count as wins. Guns and lives follow the checkboxes. Enabled tank and airstrike pickups appear on empty squares after each side has made three moves on that board.

Release rules

Each non-king piece may use each specific ladder only once per game. Both departure and arrival ladders are recorded for that piece. Kings are exempt. On level 0, the bottom ladder goes toward +1 and the top ladder toward −1. Entering level 0 lands at the ladder that continues forward, preventing a return through the same ladder.

Modes

Ladders

Every floor has two ladders. End floors lead inward; middle ladders allow both directions. Inner floors use one upward and one downward ladder to avoid immediate opening shortcuts. Each ladder shows its paired destination on hover; the paired ladder glows gold while choosing an exit. Inner arrivals use the connected return route. Arrivals on −2, 0 and 2 use your side's ladder. Every exit must be adjacent to that paired ladder and on your half: ranks 1–4 for White, ranks 5–8 for Black. Select an exit to finish the same move. No piece stops on a ladder. Entering activates that floor for both teams permanently. Locked positions remain visible.

Pawns may step diagonally forward onto a ladder or pickup. Escape's kingside bishop starts on a3/a6 to leave f1/f8 as a ladder. Castling is supported, with the rook completing ladder travel during that turn. Kings attack adjacent squares on their own floor only; they never give check through a ladder. A king cannot exit beside the opposing king.

Lasers and ammo

Press Weapon to aim immediately, then click a red crosshair. Firing consumes one shot and ends your turn; the firing piece stays still. A loaded piece cannot collect another laser pickup. In Hunt, capturing an armed piece replaces the killer’s weapon with the victim’s weapon and remaining ammunition. Friendly pieces cannot be captured. In Escape this capacity restriction follows the armed category; Siege tracks each piece separately. Ammo is set to 1–5 per laser pickup; it is separate from range and king hit points.

Friendly pieces block ordinary lasers. Non-kings stop at the first enemy; a king's laser pierces enemies along its allotted range. Hover to inspect paths. Mystery mode hides uncollected laser type; Command shows both teams' collected weapons, ammo, tanks and lives.

Lives

Two life pickups start on each floor. Spend one life to summon three pawns near your king, or one rook, bishop or knight on your home two rows on an unlocked floor within two levels of the king. Three lives summon a queen on the king's floor in your first three home rows. In Capture the Flag, two lives summon three pawns in the closest empty squares around the opponent's flag. Summoning consumes your turn; pieces summoned onto a locked flag floor remain inactive until ladder entry.

Two banked lives automatically block one laser hit on your king. Otherwise a laser hit removes one pregame king life. Checkmate ignores shields and remaining hit points.

Airstrikes and tanks

Both are on by default and remain present at every gun density unless switched off. Among each mode's 200 layouts, 190 have one airstrike and 10 have two. Tanks: 130 layouts have one, 50 have two, and 20 have three. Airstrikes replace weapon slots; tanks occupy additional empty squares. Layouts reject placements reachable in the first three moves—there are no temporary square locks.

A held enemy airstrike makes both entire middle rows unsafe for your king on every floor, including ladder exits. A strike destroys all pieces in ranks 4 and 5 of the chosen floor, friendly or enemy. King shields do not stop it.

A tank pickup belongs only to its collecting piece. One call sends four tanks outward in every rook direction from that piece. Rays follow ladders automatically and stop at a board edge or before repeating a square. Friendly and enemy non-king pieces are eliminated. A king is killed only when it is the sole victim of the call. The carrier stays still and spends one call-in. Ladder traversal activates destination floors.

Next game and timers

The first game uses a random layout. Bot/pass-and-play New game offers Repeat same layout, Swap sides, New layout, New rules, or Quit. Repeating resets the original positions and pickups. Swapping changes player colors while retaining that exact layout.

Online, the winner proposes the next game or lets the loser choose. The other player accepts, finds a new opponent, or quits. Each selection or acceptance step has 1:45. Expiry closes the rematch request and releases both players to find another game; it never silently accepts new rules. A draw lets the room host propose. First-opponent colors are random. New rules require acceptance before starting.

Layout audit and graphics

All four pools have 200 distinct layouts, matching team material, valid ladder endpoints and checked opening safety. Gun reductions round to whole pickups and prefer paired removals; special pickups can still be asymmetric. This reduces structural advantages; it is not proof of equal winning odds. Escape removes two of each team's 14 opposing-floor reserve pieces (about 14%); Hunt removes one (about 7%). Siege and Capture the Flag use Hunt's reduction. Click move records for board snapshots, and use the orange borders to follow the opponent's last movement.

Tank and explosion sprites: Kenney, CC0. Bomber: Sujit Yadav / Unlucky Studio, CC0. Flame particle: Kenney, CC0. Metal chess pieces: original CC0 vector art. Full source credits and license files are included in the download. Enable Sound for synthesized radio, aircraft, explosion and tank sounds.