Your first army
Beginner strategy for chess with coins
Spend with a purpose. Earn while improving your position.
In Chesspoly, saving coins only helps if your king survives long enough to spend them. Every turn asks two questions: what does the board need, and what can your purse afford?
1. Give your first purchase a job
A pawn costs one coin, and buying it also earns one coin. Starting with three coins, your balance is still three after buying a pawn. You now have a piece that can earn income when it moves on a later turn. A knight or bishop costs three, leaving one coin after the purchase income. Either gives you a different way to develop, but less money immediately available.
Match your opening purchase to a job on the board. Look at the squares your piece will influence and the moves it will have after your opponent replies. A low price alone does not make a purchase useful.
2. Earn by improving a piece
Moving a non-king piece adds one coin. Moving your king adds none. If you can safely advance a pawn or develop a knight, you can improve your position and save in the same turn. A needed king move is still worth making: avoiding a threat matters more than collecting one coin.
You need the full purchase price before the turn begins. A queen costs nine; eight coins cannot buy it, because the extra income arrives after the purchase. Buying a pawn repeatedly will not increase your balance: its one-coin price cancels the one-coin income.
3. Check your purchases when you are in check
A legal purchase can block a sliding attack if the piece lands between the attacker and your king. The square must be an empty starting square for that piece, and the placement must leave your king safe. You cannot buy a piece on an arbitrary square or ignore a second attack.
Buy a knight
White buys a knight on g1: 3 − 3 + 1 = 1 coin. Black moves next; the knight can move on White’s next turn.
White: 1 coin · Black to act
4. Spend before the position slips away
A large balance is potential, not protection. Buying costs a whole turn, and the new piece cannot move until your next turn. Before saving for a queen, check whether a cheaper piece can meet the immediate threat or open a useful route for your king.
After a game, use the replay to examine where you saved, spent, or moved your king. Try a different purchase next time and compare the position you reached. The examples above help you recognise legal purchases and keep track of your coins.