About Ply Yard

Ply Yard is a free browser board-game site. A ply is one move by one player in chess and other strategy games. Our goal is simple: choose a game, start a board, and play without creating an account or installing an app.

1. Why Ply Yard Exists

Most online board games today are buried beneath heavy app-store downloads, mandatory account registrations, invasive tracking, and cluttered multi-game portals. Finding a simple, clean board to practice an opening or play a quick casual match with a nearby friend often takes minutes of navigation through popups and ad walls.

Ply Yard takes the simpler route. A shared link or search result should open the game you want, not a menu you need to navigate first. This page lists the games; each game page is where you play.

2. How the boards are made

We build each game around a few practical promises: it should open quickly, respond when you move, and keep its game calculations on your device:

• A sharp board on any screen: Lines, the river, and the pieces stay clear on a phone or a large monitor. Nothing turns into a blurry picture when you pinch or stretch the window.
• The computer thinks in the background: While it looks for a move, the board still answers your finger or mouse. You are not waiting for the page to unfreeze.
• A live room is a temporary table: Two people sit, play, and leave. When the last tab closes, the room is gone. We do not keep a match history in the cloud.

3. What you can play now

• Xiangqi — A full board in your browser—no app, account, or setup.
• Chess — A standard 8×8 board. White plays first.
• Checkers — English draughts on 8×8. Black plays first.
• Reversi — 8×8 Reversi. Black plays first.
• Gomoku — Five in a row on a 15×15 grid. Black plays first.
• Go — 9×9, 13×13, or 19×19. Surround, capture, pass.
• Shogi — 9×9 hon-shogi. Sente moves first.
• Nine Men's Morris — 24-point mill board. Place, mill, and fly.
• Tic-Tac-Toe — 3×3 board. X moves first.
• Chinese Checkers — Star board. Red moves first.
• Jungle Chess — 7×9 board. Red moves first.
• Aeroplane Chess — 15×15 cross board. Red rolls first.
• Makruk — 8×8 board. White moves first.
• Halma — 16×16 board. Red moves first.
• Four in a Row — 7×6 board. Red drops first.
• International Draughts — 10×10 board. Black moves first.
• Banqi — 8×4 hidden board. First flip claims a color.
• Connect6 — 19×19 board. Black places one stone, then two a turn.
• Janggi — 9×10 board. Cho moves first.
• Hnefatafl — 11×11 Fetlar. Attackers move first.
• Hexagonal Chess — 91-cell Gliński board. White moves first.
• Backgammon — 24-point board. White moves first.
• Mancala — 6 pits × 4 seeds. South moves first.
• Ludo — 15×15 cross board. Red rolls first.
• Royal Game of Ur — Reconstructed board. White rolls first.
• Senet — Reconstructed 3×10 board. Black rolls first.
• Hex — 11×11 hex board. Black joins west–east.
• Shatranj — 8×8 Persian chess. White moves first.
• Sittuyin — 8×8 Burmese chess. Place, then play.
• Oware — 12 houses. Capture 2s and 3s.
• Dots and Boxes — 5×5 boxes. Blue moves first.
• Turkish Draughts — 8×8 orthogonal. White moves first.
• Alquerque — 5×5 lattice. Black moves first.
• Bagh Chal — 5×5 points. Goats place first.
• Fox and Geese — 33-point cross. Geese move first.
• Russian Draughts — 8×8 dark squares. White moves first.
• Dominoes — Double-six draw. Black moves first.
• Snakes and Ladders — 10×10 race. Black rolls first.

Xiangqi, Chess, Checkers, Reversi, Gomoku, Go, Shogi, Nine Men's Morris, Tic-Tac-Toe, Chinese Checkers, Jungle Chess, Aeroplane Chess, Makruk, Halma, Four in a Row, International Draughts, Banqi, and Connect6 are ready to play here. More board games will be added over time.

Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)

A full-featured 9×10 board implementing canonical Chinese chess rules: river boundaries for elephants, 3×3 palace constraints for generals and advisors, cannon screen jumps, horse leg blocking, flying generals, and automatic 3-fold repetition with perpetual check loss adjudication. Includes four calibrated AI difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard, Master), shared single-screen two-player mode, and instant room invites for remote play.

Chess

A standard 8×8 board with castling, en passant, and promotion. Play four local Stockfish strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Checkers (English Draughts)

An 8×8 dark-square board with forced jumps, multi-jumps, and kings that still step one square. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Reversi

An 8×8 board where a legal play must flip at least one line of discs. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Gomoku (Five in a Row)

A freestyle 15×15 board where five or more in a row wins. Play against four AI levels, pass one device for local play, or open an online room. Undo, hints, and replay help you study the turn that decided the game.

Go (Weiqi)

Play on a 9×9, 13×13, or 19×19 grid against the computer, pass one device, or open an online room. Hints, undo, scoring after both sides pass, and replay are on the same table. No account is required.

Shogi

A 9×9 hon-shogi board with drops, promotion, and pieces in hand. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Nine Men's Morris

A 24-point mill board with placement, mill captures, movement along the lines, and flying with three stones. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Tic-Tac-Toe

A 3×3 board where X moves first and three in a row wins. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Chinese Checkers

A star board where Red moves first. Slide to an adjacent empty point or hop over a neighboring piece, including hop chains; hops do not capture. Fill the opposite camp to win. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Jungle Chess (Dou Shou Qi)

A 7×9 board where Red moves first. Animals move one square by rank; a rat may capture an elephant, and lions or tigers may jump a river. Enter the opponent den to win. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Aeroplane Chess

A 15×15 cross board where Red rolls first. A 6 leaves base; landing on an opponent outside a safe square sends that plane back. Get all four planes home to win. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Makruk (Thai Chess)

An 8×8 board where White moves first. Bia start on the third rank and promote to a met on the sixth. The met steps one square diagonally; a khon also steps one square forward. There is no castling. Checkmate wins. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Halma

A 16×16 board where Red moves first. Each side has nineteen pieces in opposite corner camps. Slide to an adjacent empty square or hop over a neighboring piece, including hop chains; hops do not capture. Fill the opposite camp to win. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Four in a Row

A 7×6 board where Red drops first. Each disc falls to the lowest open slot in one of seven columns. Four in a row, column, or diagonal wins; a full board without one is a draw. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

International Draughts

A 10×10 dark-square board where Black moves first. Men capture backward, kings fly along a diagonal, and the longest capture is mandatory. Play four local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Banqi (Chinese Dark Chess)

An 8×4 board where every piece starts face-down. The first flip claims a color. Pieces move one square by rank; a soldier may capture a king, and cannons capture by jumping. Capture the army or leave the opponent with no legal move to win. Play multiple local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

Connect6

A 19×19 board where Black places one stone first, then each turn drops two stones. Six or more in a row, column, or diagonal wins; a full board without six is a draw. Stones never move and are never captured. Play multiple local AI strengths, pass one device, or open a room with a link. Hints, undo, and replay stay on the same table. No account is required.

4. Open Artwork & Engine Credits

We believe in transparent attribution and supporting open-source software and creative commons heritage:

• Piece Artwork (Xiangqi): The red and black circular piece designs (the hnz SVG set) originate from the open-source pychess-variants project by gbtami and contributors, used unmodified under the GNU AGPL-3.0 License. Copies and the license note sit on the Xiangqi page at xiangqi.plyyard.com/xiangqi-pieces/.
• AI Engine (Xiangqi): Versus-AI move generation incorporates the battle-tested XQWLight (XiangQi Wizard Light) engine by Morning Yellow / xqbase, utilized unmodified under the GNU GPL-2.0 License. A full text copy of the license is available at xiangqi.plyyard.com/xq/xqwlight-LICENSE.txt. Legal movement, perpetual check, and the game state are decided by that page’s own rules code.
• Piece Artwork (Chess): The Chess board draws Unicode chess symbols on the canvas. It does not use a third-party SVG piece set.
• AI Engine (Chess): Versus-AI search uses the Stockfish engine and the stockfish.js browser packaging, unmodified under the GNU GPL-3.0 License. A copy of the licence is at chess.plyyard.com/brand/chess/stockfish/COPYING. Legal movement and the game state are decided by that page’s own rules code.

5. Contact & Feedback

Have a rule question, found a game problem, or want to suggest another board game? Email contact@plyyard.com or read our contact guide for bug-report details.