4 Piece Mini Chess Puzzles

This free version is limited to a population of four Chess pieces. Otherwise, it is fully functional.

No ads, nags, or in-app purchases. No internet connection required. Fully offline puzzle game app.

This is a solitaire variation game of Chess. You are presented with a 4x4 Chess board populated from a pool consisting of 9 pieces: 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, 1 Pawn, 1 Queen, and 1 King. You may populate the board with 2-8 pieces.

Using the movement rules of standard Chess, your goal is to clear the board of all but 1 piece with the highest possible score. Each board presents a unique puzzle. Boards are not just randomly generated or preset, but go through a complex algorithm to generate a solvable scenario.

Tap on a piece to lift it from the board (it will glow blue), then tap on the piece you wish to capture. If you make a mistake and wish to choose a different piece, tap on the piece you originally chose and it will release (it will not glow blue).

Alternatively, although you cannot drag or fling the pieces, you can sort of slide your finger from the attacking piece over to the capture piece and lift without highlighting either piece.

Here are the rules:
1) Each move must result in a capture.
2) There is no Check rule for the King.
3) To win the board, capture all but the last attacking piece.

Points are awarded depending on which piece you use to capture, and are assigned as follows:

Queen = 1 point
Rook = 2 points
King = 3 points
Bishop = 4 points
Knight = 5 points
Pawn = 6 points

For example, if you capture another piece with the Knight you are awarded 5 points.

Boards will usually have more than one solution. However, your goal is to try to solve the board with the most points for that scenario.

If you get stuck on a board, you may request another configuration by selecting Population and choosing your desired board. You may adjust the volume and backflash either On or Off. You may also choose black or white pieces.

One approach to these Chess brain game puzzles is to initially solve the board any way you can without regard to score. This will give you a goal upon which to improve. After subsequent retries you will oftentimes find other solutions which result in higher scores, even if only by 1 or 2 points but sometimes as much as 8 or 10 points. You may retry a board as many times as you wish.

Recent changes:
TargetSDK=36, per Google requirements.