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The Board is Yours

About this game

A WAY-TOO-COMPLEX INCREMENTAL GAME

It looks like chess, it feels like an idle game, but it plays like: "How do I even optimize this?". Forget upgrades that give 5% here and 10% there, this new take on incremental games forces you to actually think about the perks you buy and adapt how you play in consequence.

HOW TO ACTUALLY PLAY

  • Buy squares of the board, chess pieces, and place your pieces to generate resources.

  • Focus way too hard on seemingly unsolvable optimization problems and question your sanity.

  • Go grab a coffee. Maybe take a nap.

  • Come back to billions and invest in upgrades to gain more.

  • Stack prestige perks and restart with new ways to gain even more. Always more.

    And repeat, until the board belongs to you.

YOU'LL PROBABLY LIKE THIS IF YOU:

  • Enjoy incremental games and know about chess

  • Like to solve "how far can I push this?" challenges

  • Appreciate when upgrades are meaningful and entirely change how you play and think about the game

  • Don’t mind restarting runs to test new ideas

  • Are just looking for a couple of hours swinging between despair and satisfaction

YOU'LL PROBABLY HATE THIS IF YOU:

  • Want a low-effort idle game you can ignore in the background

  • Don't like diving deep into dense stats tooltips

  • Get upset when some official chess rules are missing from a chess-inspired game

  • Expect a profound story, dialogue, cinematic cutscenes, or a battle pass

A note from the dev

I built this game to see how far I could push strategic thinking in an incremental game. Well, I think the honest answer is: a bit too far. Mixing these genre was definitely a strange idea, but I hope some of you will enjoy picking systems apart and finding disgusting optimizations. I'm genuinely curious to see what you'll do with it.

The Board is Yours

The Board is Yours is a strategic chess-based incremental game: buy squares, unlock upgrades, and chain synergies through defended pieces. It plays as a demanding idle game where you’ll constantly reposition pieces and optimize your production until the board belongs to you.

Developer

Draelent

Publisher

Draelent

Release Date

01 January, 2026

Platforms