Gambit Guard

Gambit Guard is a chess-based maze-defense game. It is not chess with tower-defense enemies pasted on top: your legal chess moves are the weapons, and every move also changes the paths the enemy can take.

How it plays

You start with a full 16-piece army in the standard two-rank formation. Enemies, called creeps, march through open squares toward your King.

• Command the move. Select a piece and preview a legal destination. The preview shows the damage footprint, every piece that will be hit, predicted knockouts, and any secondary effect. A second tap confirms the strike. Your army never attacks on its own.
• Shape the siege. Creeps route through open squares. Seal a route and they attack whichever defender they can reach until they break through.
• Guard the King. Survive nine timed waves, pick permanent Gambit upgrades along the way, and face the Checkmate Golem without losing your King.

Each piece hits hardest on the square where it lands, deals reduced damage beside it, and leaves a lighter strike along the path it traveled. Knights trace their two-square leg first, then the final step. Each wave runs on a 60-second clock, and survivors carry pressure into the next one.

There are nine challenge tiers. Clearing the highest open tier unlocks the next, from an approachable first breach up to expert-level pressure.

Platforms

Gambit Guard runs in the browser and as native builds for Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android (8.0 or newer). It is built with Stasis Lang, my own language for deterministic games, which is why the same game runs everywhere from one codebase.

Status

It is in a friends-and-family beta, with frequent releases. Play online, download a native build, or read the changelog. I would love honest feedback if you try it.