Indie video game studio found the purrfect way to get people playing chess again, putting cats paw and center on the board

Ayala Sorotsky • Writer and Editor

Jun 14, 2026 8:45 AM EDT

Who else wants to play chess again now? Raise your paws.

We have to admit, we were never big chess fans here. We love games - video games, board games, and table-top - but chess has always felt too repetitive, too pristine and clean. Maybe it's the ADHD dopamine-searching brain talking, but… here we are admitting it fully - chess always seemed boring. But bring cats into a game, and everything changes. We love games, and we love cats - they're silly, soft, lovely, and very opinionated. And we love all that about them.

So what happens when you bring chess and cats together? That's exactly what @IndieGameJoe on X found out - people are queuing up to play chess just because it has cats in it, in this new game called Cat Chess. It's basically chess, nothing in the rules has changed, but everything seems different when all the pieces on the board are animated cats who bonk each other on the head.

Apparently, the combination of cats and gaming is a purrfect way to get people to play basically what you want. Whether it's chess or anything else, if the game has cats in it - we're sold. Meow up and take our money.

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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @bossfightgamesX
Well, technically speaking, no one is sacrificing anything in this game. All the animations are silly and wholesome, and a “piece” on the board that just lost its place is just a cat walking away, waiting outside the board. So cute.
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @Menachem222
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via @PlayCatChess | @Menachem222
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via @axolotian
That's definitely the spirit! If you're not here to see absolutely adorable cats bonking each other on the head, what are you even here for? This is cat chess. We're here to see cute cats (with some chess on the side). Otherwise, just go and play chess - nothing stops you.
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @ZendigoPlayz
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via @Morganthrax
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via @MadamPickles83
We heard so many people here saying they want to play the game, and they don't even know how to play chess to begin with. That's the power of cats, though - they'll get people who were not interested in chess to learn the rules of one of the smartest and most complex games in human history. That's some real power, if you ask us.
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via @atmopixel
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @hopprbro
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via @baraka66z
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via @Megchan871
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via @IndieGameJoe
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via @HackerDragon10K
If we discover that when we play, cats can “knock” other cats off the board, as they do with cups, pens, and anything else you dare leave unsupervised next to the edge of a table, we'll lose our minds. It's going to be so funny.
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via @ChristinDancer
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via @JiyanMehta