Facebook Messenger Has a Hidden Chess Game; Here’s How to Get Started
Facebook Messenger Has a Hidden Chess Game
Facebook Messenger has gained a ton of useful features in the past few years. It’s no longer just a simple chat program. You can send stickers, GIFs, voice messages, money and even play games. The latest game is Chess, which you can now play against a friend in a one-on-one chat with a simple command.
All you need to do is open Facebook Messenger, start a chat with the person you want to play against, type @fbchess play and hit enter. Oddly enough, Android Central said that hawk-eyed Messenger users may have had access to this feature for the past several weeks. It’s new to me, though, and I’ve already started a few games with friends. Keep in mind, however, that you need to have the Messenger application installed. It doesn’t work in a browser window.
Also, movement isn’t very easy. You can’t just slide your pawn around the chess board, for example, and instead need to use standard chess moves using commands like:
- Start game with random colors: @fbchess play
- Pick the colors: @fbchess play white/black
- Pick the opponent: @fbchess play white John
- Make a move: use Standard Algebraic Notation
- @fbchess e4 or @fbchess Pe4 moves pawn to e4
- Nbd2 to move knight from b-file to d2
- B2xc5 to take on c5 with 2nd rank bishop
- e8=Q to promote pawn to queen
- 0-0-0 or O-O to castle
- Claim draw (e.g. 3-fold repetition): @fbchess draw claim
- Offer a draw in the current position: @fbchess draw offer
- Offer an undo of the last move: @fbchess undo
- Resign: @fbchess resign
Still neat, though! Try it for yourself now.
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