Welcome to our campaign for Chess Joker, a 2-player game based on the classic game of Chess. It's the latest from Carl Chudyk, who we've teamed up with in the past to make Innovation, Mottainai, Red7, and others! We're thrilled to bring it to you, after demoing it lots on the convention circuit throughout 2025.
Quick summary: The core rules are simple. Play Chess! After every turn, you'll draw a card from the 256-card deck and place it face-up in front of you. On your next turn you can either take a standard Chess move and discard the card, or perform the card's unique effect, and place it in your score pile. You win either by checkmate, or by scoring 800 Elo points worth of played cards.
It's a thrilling experience for novices and experts alike - and while a seasoned veteran will still have an advantage, they'll need to be clever and innovative to win.
Every copy of Chess Joker includes all the premium items shown above. We wanted this game to look great on your table and feel great to play. The smooth wooden discs slide effortlessly on the neoprene board, and thick enough to easily pick up when you need to warp a piece across the board. The board is 11.5"x11.5", and each square is 1.4" wide.
The cards are designed with utility in mind, but with a great splash of color that matches the pieces on the board. Large fonts and two-directional text mean you can read your opponent's card easily to know what might be coming next!
The board and pieces are production factory samples, the cards are from a local printer, and the text will be sharper and colors more vibrant on our factory's press.
The core of Chess Joker is the classic game of Chess. You and your opponent will take turns back and forth, moving pieces in the hopes of checkmating the enemy King. What we've added to this equation is a deck of 256 Joke cards, each with its own unique effect that can be used instead of a standard chess turn.
At the end of your turn, you will flip the top card of the deck face-up next to your side of the board. This card is an option for your next turn. On that turn, you can either take a standard chess move, or you can take the joke move provided by the card. The card's effect might be beneficial, neutral, or even detrimental to your position -- but if you choose to use it, you'll move it to your score pile. Every Joke card has an Elo point value, and if you accumulate 800 points, you win immediately!
If you take a standard chess move as your turn and don't use your card, it's discarded. Either way, you'll draw a new card at the end of your turn. Even though the cards provide fascinating new options that disrupt standard chess positions, you can always see what options your opponent will have available on their next turn.
But what if you run low on pieces? Is your neat card useless simply because you're out of a piece type? It is not, thanks to the Masquerade rule. Many effects have a piece name in bold. If you have such a card, and you have no pieces of that type, you can masquerade any of your pieces to substitute. You'll score the card face-down for 25 points instead of its normal value, but you'll still get the benefits of a cool move!
You'll also score face-down cards each time you're placed in check (unless it would cause you to win), and each time your opponent starts their turn with 3 or fewer pieces on the board. These extra points keep the game moving toward a conclusion, and they're crucial situations to plan for! Creating a strong position is important, but you'll need to bring down the checkmate hammer decisively when the time comes.
The full rules are available by clicking the link above, including detailed diagrams and examples, a keyword list, and a refresher on basic chess rules.
You can try out the game right now via on Screentop, a browser-based game simulator. No downloads required, and you can play instantly, with or without an account! Screentop doesn't enforce rules, it simply allows you to move around the pieces and cards.
You can also join the Asmadi Games Discord server to look for players, and even play against us. Chris and Carl will both be around often during the campaign to play games - it turns out we like playing Chess Joker a lot!
We're happy to help teach you the game and/or Screentop when we're around. It's pretty simple to use, although we do advise using it on a laptop or desktop.
We will be streaming games on our Twitch channel at times throughout the campaign as well!
Shipping rates are volatile around the world - below are our best estimates given how things are right now. Taxes and shipping will be charged during the pledge manager.
Tariffs are an unknown, but if there are charges to pass along, they will only be to affected regions. (Non-US backers would not pay for US tariffs, for example).
If you also backed Mystic Curling Club, we will be shipping both games to backers at the same time! We'll have a special discounted shipping tier available in the pledge manager for this situation. Mystic Curling Club is also available here as an add-on, if you missed out on that campaign.
To match the simple elegance of Chess, we have a very simple set of options to choose from! You can back for $40 to receive the game, $129 to receive four games, or $299 to receive twelve games (good for stores!). For school + university chess clubs, we're offering the four-pack at $99.
There isn't anything else to put into the box - everything we want to be in the game is in the game, and we've chosen the components we want the game to have. We've reviewed samples from the factory of cardstock, the wooden disc pieces, and the neoprene mats, and we love them!
You can add-on additional copies or cases, and also our upcoming game Mystic Curling Club, which will be printing and shipping to backers at the same time as Chess Joker.
Everything in this campaign was made by our team of humans, from artwork to card text. We strive to create unique experiences, and we feel that good old people-based creativity is the best way to do that!
Game Design: Carl Chudyk Game Development: Chris Cieslik Art Direction & Graphic Design: Robert Simmons Cover Illustration: Sam "Crowbar" Henry Playtesting: Joe Kim
