What's Next for Quantum Chess

TLDR: The Quantum Chess web rebuild is playable. Sandbox, VS AI, and online matches are live right now at chess.quantumnative.io. The core works. Now I need to build the product around it. I’ve posted a full roadmap so you can see what’s coming. The short version: accounts, ranked play, puzzles, an interactive tutorial, a new Steam build, mobile apps, and tournaments.

Where things stand

In my last post, I talked about why I’m rebuilding Quantum Chess from scratch: the Unity project had become too unwieldy to iterate on, and rebuilding for the web using Quantum Forge would let me ship features fast. That work has been moving quickly.

Here’s what’s playable right now:

• Sandbox mode: set up any position, try any move, experiment freely
• VS AI: play against the Aqaqaq engine (the same AI from the Steam version, now compiled to WebAssembly)
• Online multiplayer: create a room, share the code, play someone in real time

The game engine underneath all of this has been rebuilt on top of Quantum Forge. Superposition, entanglement, measurement, split and merge moves; it’s all there. The rules haven’t changed. It’s the same game, just rebuilt to be easier to work with and easier to access.

What’s coming

There’s a lot to do. I’ve put up a public roadmap so you can follow along. Here’s what I’m focused on.

Accounts and ranked play

This is the big one. Right now, games are ephemeral. Nothing persists between sessions. The next step is accounts (sign in with Google, Discord, Apple, or Steam) backed by a database. Once that’s in place, we can track stats, build a rating system, and turn on matchmaking.

We’re going with Glicko-2 for ratings, which handles uncertainty well. If you’ve only played a few games, the system knows it doesn’t have a good read on you yet and adjusts accordingly. There will be separate ratings for different time controls, a global leaderboard, and player profiles where you can see your history and trends.

Matchmaking will expand the search window over time, starting tight and widening if a close match isn’t available. Ranked and casual queues, so you can choose your stakes.

Puzzles and tutorials

Quantum Chess has always suffered from onboarding. The existing Steam version has a quick start tutorial, to teach people how to interact with pieces. But the quantum mechanics are real, and without guidance a lot of people bounce off it. So I’m building two things.

First, in addition to quick start, an interactive tutorial that walks you through the core concepts one at a time: superposition, measurement, entanglement, merge moves, etc… Each lesson puts you in a position and lets you try things, with guidance and highlights to keep you on track.

Second, a puzzle system with hints. Curated positions where you need to find the right quantum move or combination. If you’re stuck, hints reveal progressively more information: first a square, then the full move. Puzzles have their own rating, so you can track your improvement. We’re planning themed puzzle packs (quantum basics, entanglement tactics, endgame superpositions) and a daily puzzle that refreshes at midnight. A small disclaimer here though. Puzzles require a lot of hand development, so we’ll have a small selection to start but it will take some time to get to a consistent puzzle flow.

A new Steam build

Quantum Chess is already on Steam, but the current version is the old Unity build. Once the web rebuild reaches feature parity, we’ll push a new Electron-wrapped version to Steam that replaces it. If you own the game, you’ll get the new version automatically.

We’ll find a way to recognize the people who supported the game early. If you backed the Kickstarter or bought the game on Steam, that should mean something in the new version too. We’re working on what exactly that looks like.

Tournaments

This one has been on my wish list for years. Community-organized tournaments with different formats. Organizers will be able to create events, set time controls, manage pairings, and publish results. If you’ve ever wanted to run a Quantum Chess tournament in the Discord community, you’ll be able to do it properly.

Correspondence games

Not everyone can commit to a 15-minute game. Correspondence mode lets you play on your own schedule. Make a move, come back hours or days later when your opponent has responded. You’ll get a notification when it’s your turn. Great for playing friends across time zones or just thinking deeply about a position.

Mobile

Full touch support for all move types (including splits and merges) is already built into the web version. Mobile apps will wrap the same game with native features: push notifications for your turn, haptic feedback on captures and measurements, and an app badge showing how many games are waiting for you.

For the existing community

I know some of you have been playing Quantum Chess for years, through all its iterations. Your accounts, your game history, your ratings from the current version. We plan to migrate all of that. I’m still working out the details.

If you’re in the Discord, you’ll hear about all of this first. You’ve been shaping this game for a decade. That’s not stopping now.

Follow along

The full roadmap is at quantumnative.io/qc-roadmap. I’ll update it as things ship. If something matters to you that isn’t on the list, come tell me in Discord. And if you haven’t tried the web version yet: chess.quantumnative.io. It’s free, it runs in your browser, and you can be playing in seconds.