Covenant Chess 2026

Covenant Chess is an original two-player strategy board game on a 14×14 field. Designer David Shiguang Zhu created it first as a physical board game — 3D-printed armies that pack into carrying boxes — played at the table with family and friends, and later gave it a home on the web so more people could play.

Each side commands an army drawn from 23 kinds of units in three tiers: a royal court, soldiers of the line, and seven legendary figures that must be earned in play rather than owned from the start. The goal is to capture the enemy King — though a kingdom with an Heir on the board crowns its successor and fights on. Victory flows through the Holy Grail economy: Grails won on the field recruit new units mid-game, so every battle bends toward a different army than it began with. Formation matters — shield walls protect, bands march under a leader, and facing is real. Openings are chosen from a book of named historical set-ups, each one proven to be its own 180° rotation so no field ever favours a side; a Free Play mode lets both sides build secret armies around Holy Cities instead.

The complete Rule Book and Game Cards are free PDFs at the official site, where the full game is also playable free in any browser — hot-seat, against the computer, or online in the Gaming Hall — in nine languages. The 3D-printing files for the physical edition are being prepared for publication.

—description from the designer