Play · chess without your hands
Hands-free chess
Play Stockfish with your head and eyes. An ordinary webcam follows where your face points, a ring follows on the screen, and you choose a piece by resting the ring on it. A long blink, a smile, an open mouth or raised eyebrows can do the clicking instead.
Made for players who can't use their hands. How it works.
01 · Play
you against Stockfish 19, in your browser
Setting up the board…
02 · Make it yours
kept in this browser only
Calibrate and settings
Without calibration the ring starts in the middle and follows your head from where it rests. Calibration shows dots across the screen; turn your face to each one and the pointer learns how far you move. Five dots take about 15 seconds; nine take longer and can use your eyes as well.
03 · How to play
- Sit facing the camera, with light on your face and the board in front of you. Press Start the camera and keep still for a second while it finds where your head rests.
- Move the ring by turning your head gently. Only the squares that make sense can be chosen: your pieces that can move, and, once one is picked up, the squares it can go to. The ring jumps to the nearest of them, so it doesn't need to be exact.
- Choose by resting the ring on a square until it fills (0.8 seconds to start with). Pick up a piece, then rest on a lit square to move it there. Rest on the piece again to put it down. To choose with a gesture instead, pick one under Choose with and tune it to your face.
- Take back your last move with the button, or with the gesture you picked under Take back with.
- Need a break? Rest the ring on Pause: nothing is chosen until you rest it on Resume. If you shift in your chair, rest on Re-centre and face the dot that appears in the middle, or rest on Calibrate to go through the dots again.
Pawns promote to a queen. The opponent is Stockfish 19 running in your browser at the same four levels as Chess Ghosts. A mouse, touch or the keyboard work on the same board. The camera is read in your browser and never leaves your computer; your settings and calibration are kept in this browser only.