♔ ♕ ♘ ♗ ♖ ♙
Now in public beta

SSH into
Chess Mastery

Play chess entirely in your terminal. No installs, no accounts, no nonsense. Just pure chess over SSH.

Terminal — ssh
$
→ Start Playing View on GitHub
Features

Everything you need to master chess

🤖

AI Opponent

Challenge Stockfish at any difficulty. From beginner-friendly to grandmaster-crushing.

⚔️

PvP Matchmaking

Real-time multiplayer with ELO ratings. Find opponents at your skill level instantly.

📚

Interactive Tutorials

Learn from absolute basics to advanced tactics with step-by-step guidance.

🧠

Move Analysis

Understand every move. AI explains why it's brilliant—or a blunder.

👀

Spectate

Watch live games in progress. Learn from the best players on the server.

🏆

Leaderboard

Climb the global rankings. Track your progress with detailed statistics.

Beautiful chess in your terminal

A clean, responsive TUI that works in any terminal emulator. Unicode pieces, intuitive controls, and zero latency.

Try it yourself →
a b c d e f g h ┌───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┐ 8 │ ♜ │ ♞ │ ♝ │ ♛ │ ♚ │ ♝ │ ♞ │ ♜ │ 8 ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤ 7 │ ♟ │ ♟ │ ♟ │ ♟ │ ♟ │ ♟ │ ♟ │ ♟ │ 7 ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤ 6 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 6 ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤ 5 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 5 ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤ 4 │ │ │ │ │ ♙ │ │ │ │ 4 ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤ 3 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 3 ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤ 2 │ ♙ │ ♙ │ ♙ │ ♙ │ │ ♙ │ ♙ │ ♙ │ 2 ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤ 1 │ ♖ │ ♘ │ ♗ │ ♕ │ ♔ │ ♗ │ ♘ │ ♖ │ 1 └───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┘ a b c d e f g h
Quick Start

One command. That's it.

Play a game
ssh play@shellmate.sh
Learn chess
ssh learn@shellmate.sh
Spectate games
ssh watch@shellmate.sh
Self-host
docker compose up -d