3Chess — Press Kit

3Chess is a three-player hex chess game — a chess variant where it's you against two opponents on a 127-cell hexagonal board with three 120°-rotationally-symmetric territories. Play the free demo in your browser, or buy the full game for a one-time $9.99.

Fact sheet

Title

3Chess (a.k.a. Three Kingdoms Chess)

Developer

Round Online · Thai indie studio

Status

Pre-launch · free browser demo live · paid online multiplayer in playtest · full launch later in 2026

Genre

Turn-based strategy · chess variant

Players

3 — vs AI bots, vs friends (pass-and-play or online), or mixed

Board

Hexagonal · 127 cells · 45 pieces (15 per player) · 120° rotational symmetry

Modes

Single-player vs AI · local pass-and-play · online multiplayer (timed)

Platforms

Windows · macOS · Linux (desktop client) · Web browser (in-browser play, no install)

Languages

English · ไทย · 日本語 · 中文 · 한국어 · Deutsch · Español · Русский

Price

One-time $9.99 (via Stripe) · free browser demo available

Website

3chess.online

Play

3chess.online/play (free demo)

Buy

3chess.online/buy

Description — short

3Chess is a three-player hex chess game: one board, three sides, every move a dilemma. Strike one opponent and you hand the game to the other; strike neither and you fall behind. Free browser demo, full game $9.99.

Description — long

3Chess takes chess to three players on a hexagonal board of 127 cells, with three 120°-rotationally-symmetric territories so all three sides play a structurally identical game. It addresses the classic "kingmaker" problem of three-player chess — where an eliminated or hopeless player's choice of whom to attack decides the winner instead of skill — through cascading checkmate (a single move can checkmate two opponents at once), territory-based scoring, and a 20-move endgame rule, keeping games decisive and fair. Play against AI bots, against friends in pass-and-play, or online; try it free in your browser, or buy the full desktop game for a one-time $9.99.

Key features

• Three-player chess on a 127-cell hex board — 120° rotational symmetry so every side plays the structurally identical game.
• Cascading checkmate — a single move can checkmate two opponents at once. The kingmaker problem of 3-player chess solved by the rules themselves.
• Territory scoring — the board is divided into three coloured zones; pieces in opponents' territories count for win conditions, pushing players to advance instead of stall.
• 20-move endgame rule — once two players remain, the clock starts; no infinite-stall positions.
• Browser-first — full game runs in your browser via WebAssembly, no install. Desktop binaries for Windows / macOS / Linux available separately.
• Bot opponents + online multiplayer — single-player vs AI bots, local pass-and-play, or timed online ranked play.

Studio

Round Online is a Thai indie studio · solo developer · founded 2026. 3Chess is the studio's debut and only title. Game engine, rendering, online infrastructure, art direction, and the press kit you're reading are all handled in-house.

Studio links: About Round Online · itch.io

Development & AI disclosure

The game engine and rendering are written in Rust with custom wgpu/WebGPU shaders; the web stack runs on Rust (Hyper) + PostgreSQL; the visual identity, board geometry, rule set, and axiom system are original to the studio.

In-game AI — the bot opponents you play against — uses classical paranoid-search algorithms with a hand-tuned evaluation function. It is not generative AI.

Generative-AI use during development: AI assistants were used as everyday coding and writing tools during development — code suggestions across the engine and web stack (including initial scaffolding for shaders and procedural visual code, like the starfield rendering), copy drafts, translation reviews, and prose like this disclosure. The game has no illustrated art assets and no AI-generated images. All visuals are rendered procedurally through code. Every aesthetic decision (color, composition, lighting and shadow tuning, motion feel) was made and refined by hand.

No single shipped asset (the game engine code, visuals, board geometry, rule axioms, or game content) was generated wholesale by AI. Each piece was authored, reviewed, edited, and composed by hand into the final game. The studio's position is that AI is a research and drafting tool; the design judgement, code architecture, and the chess variant itself are the developer's work.

Logos & colours

Use the SVGs — they scale cleanly and carry no font dependency (glyphs are baked as paths). The three-colour version is for dark backgrounds; use the dark variant on light. The three stacked hexes are the “3” — never set a “3” beside the wordmark.

Browse all brand assets — covers, banners, favicons →

Screenshots

Key art

Trailer

The same gameplay clip the homepage uses. Higher-res cuts, b-roll, or the raw capture available on request.

YouTube: watch on YouTube · Channel: @3chessonline · Direct file: hero.mp4

Press assets bundle

Everything on this page is downloadable individually above. For outlets that prefer one archive, the full kit is also mirrored as a single zip on our media CDN.

Download: press-kit-bundle.zip · ~12 MB · contains 10 logos, 10 screenshots, 2 key art (16:9 + 1:1), gameplay trailer (.mp4), and a README.

Contact

hello@3chess.online — press inquiries, review keys, interviews, higher-res assets.

This press page is kept current — anything you need that isn't here, just ask.

Social

• Instagram · @3chessonline
• Threads · @3chessonline
• X (Twitter) · @3chessonline
• YouTube · @3chessonline