*sigh*
We have a problem here: The fundamental gameplay logic of the Zen Chess series necessarily breaks down as the # of moves increases.

• Zen Chess: Mate in 1? Brilliant. Strategic chess under clear, sensible constraints.
• ZC: Mate in 2? A bit spotty, some occasional brute-forcing, but mostly sensible if you play strategically according to the basic rules of chess.
• ...Mate in 3? Good luck getting anywhere on many/most levels without resorting to simple brute force. There are just too many possible paths that could work, and only one of them will be counted as a solution. The game that's being sold here simply cannot sustain basic coherence in the face of the many gameplay possibilities that are licensed by the rules of the game upon which it has been built: actual chess.
• Mate in 4? I honestly don't even want to know at the moment.

As a clear illustration: there are MANY levels in Zen Chess: Mate in 3 where you could get checkmate in 1 move or 2 moves, but those are (of course) not the "solution." What this tells you is that you're not playing chess or operating according to the strategic logic of chess: you're playing a game that's built carelessly on top of chess, and the rules of good chess-playing no longer apply. That's frustrating. On many levels, your first move is required to be an un-strategic move simply to prolong the # of moves you use -- e.g. sacrifice your queen to the king on level 9 (!!!?!?). That's not challenging, it's bone-headed.

I'm not even all that good at chess, and I find this game a maddening chore to play, far less interesting than the earlier games in the series. I wish I had never played past level 10, because now I might have to muck my way through the whole thing to get all the achievements.

+ Fast and responsive
+ Multiple design elements
+ 100 chess tasks to solve

Your turn is taken back if You try to go another way than game makers thought. So, You need to find the correct move to start.

The user interface is pretty straight forward, the game provides exactly what it offers, mate in 3 puzzles. However, I question if there are multiple solutions to some of these puzzles and the program only allows the answer it is programmed to accept.

What I like:

1) This game is a great excuse to pull myself into looking at a chessboard.

2) So far every time I have thought "oh this was a badly designed puzzle" I have proven myself wrong.

3) Some of the puzzles are very clever and it's a satisfying feeling to succeed.

What I don't like:

4) Because this isn't a chess engine, you can brute force by trying moves and getting the "nope try again" sound, and the board reverts back to the puzzle start. So by brute forcing, you can find ideas for the solution. This isn't terrible - and hopefully by playing more, the alternatives will become more clear with practice, so that such cheating won't be necessary. Hey, item 1) above is the most important on this list - so I don't care if I'm not GM material!

5) It would be nice if there were a somewhat elaborate scoring mechanism that penalized bad moves to force me to think harder before attempting that first move.

6) I am pretty sure these are all canned puzzles and none of them are generated on-the-fly. This means anyone can follow a guide and not really learn anything from the game. But it also means, I will make it my life ambition to write such a puzzle generator to make a game like that!

7) It would be enormously helpful if bad moves showed the resulting response "oh if I move there I didn't see they would take me with that piece". I think this confusion has led some people to say this game is bad, when it's easy to overlook why a move is bad, and the game doesn't show you why.

I have certainly gotten my money's worth out of this. It's nice for a short 5-10 minute break from everything else, and it's not as torturous as playing a real chess game.

And some of the puzzles are really funny - when you see the moves that lead to checkmate it's quite fun and I go and replay it several times.

Also, if anyone tells you that the puzzles in this game are bad (or somehow not correct chess), ask them to please provide examples, because every puzzle I've done has been legitimate and good. Please back up your claims with hard evidence - show the board layout, make a youtube video - anything to explain exactly what is wrong with this game. I think it's fine so far.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2443470548

I get the most enjoyment knowing in 3 moves I should see a bound path to mate, and then I try to find the sequence before I allow myself to move a single piece.

THERE ARE NOT MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS!! DON"T LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE SAYING THERE ARE!! Remember your first move will almost always put the king in check. Your second move will have to check the king again, and with the third move you can checkmate. You should not have to brute force anything with this in mind. The Zen Chess series are some of the best on Steam. Buy them all!

Played on Steam Deck.

Mate in Two was ok because you could more directly see how to set up a mate in One, but three moves introduces too much variability. I'm sure in theory it's helping you become better at seeing multiple steps ahead, but without the proper mechanics in this game such as enemy movement showing HOW they would sidestep a mate in three it just resets the stage and ends up being a lot of guessing. I fear Mate in Four or beyond: mate in 10 where the board is just fresh on both sides and you have to guess from the start...

I want to like this game, I do, but so far it feels less like a clever puzzle and more of a guess-the-solution simulator. If any move you make is not the move the puzzle is waiting for, it will reset. Instead of encouraging unique solutions and experimentation, this only drives the player to start spamming moves until the find the combination the game is looking for. The visuals are beautiful and the music is nice to listen to, but I found myself getting frustrated with the gameplay.

game sense

Another version with multiple solutions to puzzles. It'd be one thing if there was an engine built in that accepted many lines. But this only accepts their lines despite not being unique.

Sound is also too loud on start up with no volume control in-game.

Cannot recommend as puzzles do not offer unique solutions and require you to find the developer's line of play instead of any winning one.

There's only one solution, and you don't even have the ability to make your own three moves in your attempt... If you don't get the right move, that's it, the turn doesn't progress. It's not interactive.