How to Play Draft Chess
Draft Chess adds a strategic setup phase to chess. Players draft and place their pieces, creating unique starting positions shaped by both their own choices and their opponent’s. Once setup is complete, play proceeds much like standard chess.
New to Draft Chess? Try the interactive tutorial.
1. Draft Your Pieces
Players take turns choosing groups of pieces, using equal point budgets.
- Piece values: queen 9, rook 5, bishop 3, knight 3, pawn 1. Kings cost nothing.
- Point budget: 39 per player by default, or 37 or 41 under Extra Draft Options.
- Draft groups: each turn offers three randomly generated groups of equal value. Choose one; the others are discarded.
- Group count: three groups per player by default (8–17 points each), or four (6–14 points each). The final group uses the remaining points.
- Turn order: White starts, followed by alternating double turns: WBBWWB with three groups, WBBWWBBW with four.
The game clock runs during drafting. Choosing a group and placing it each count as a move.
2. Place Your Pieces
Pieces occupy your first three ranks: 1–3 for White, 6–8 for Black.
After selecting a group, choose between three highlighted placement options. Pieces fall into their selected columns, filling the lowest available squares first. Each column can hold up to three of your pieces.
1
a
b
c
d
2
1
a
b
c
d
King placement
By default, kings are placed after drafting. Place your king on the back rank of a column containing fewer than three pieces; existing pieces in that column shift forward. In a column containing two pieces, you can also insert your king on the second rank.
1
d
e
f
g
2
1
d
e
f
g
King placement can dramatically change your position by opening diagonals, repositioning defenders, or protecting vulnerable pieces.
With Pawn (optional): place your king with a pawn directly in front of it, using one point reserved from your budget.
3. Play Chess
Once setup is complete, normal chess rules apply, with a few adjustments.
- Pawns: pawns starting on the first or second rank can advance two squares on their first move. Pawns starting on the third rank can advance only one. En passant applies after any legal two-square pawn advance.
- Castling: kings can castle with an unmoved rook on the same rank, including the second rank, following Chess960-style rules. Both pieces stay on their starting rank. Move your king onto the rook to castle.
4. Placement Variants
Placement variants change how you create your starting position.
Place Own
The default mode. Draft and place your own pieces, then position your king. Supports ranked play.
Bunker
Place your king before drafting, then build your position around it. Supports ranked play and shares a rating with Place Own.
REVERSE!
Draft and place your opponent’s pieces while they do the same to yours. Each player places their own king afterward. Unranked.
Alternating
Alternate between drafting and placing your own pieces and your opponent’s pieces. Unranked.
All Random
No choices to make: every group and placement is picked at random, with kings kept out of check and off open files where possible. To compensate for potentially vulnerable starting positions, White cannot capture or give check on the first move. All Random has its own rating.
5. Other Ways to Play
Automate
Test your drafting skills without controlling the pieces afterward. Draft and place your army, then watch the chess engine play both sides. The clock runs during drafting and stops when automated play begins.
Automate supports Place Own, Bunker, REVERSE! and Alternating, against another player, against the AI, or locally. Ranked Automate uses a separate rating.
Saved Draft Position
Replay a favorite starting position saved to your profile, without drafting again. Unranked.
Standard Chess and Chess960
Both are also available for players who prefer traditional or randomized starting positions without drafting.