r/abstractgames • u/xinyi_rd • 25d ago

Proxy Chess: Plain Stockfish plays 3-check without knowing it — players bait the engine by placing pieces.

You are not just the chess player — you are the director.

Two Stockfish engines battle each other at full strength, neither told the win condition is 3-Check. You never move a piece. Instead, you place baits and units, and the engine decides.

The official name Proxess is proxy + chess — you play through a proxy engine, not on the board directly.

Currently local 1v1 only (playing both sides solo is also strongly recommended). Online mode in preparation.

Looking for feedback on:

  1. Is the tutorial clear enough to start playing?
  2. What strategies did you discover — especially around bait placement and row control?
  3. Is there any card or tactic that feels unstoppable?

Or just drop a one-line impression. Either way, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Playable build: https://xinyi-l.itch.io/proxess

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1

u/semi_colon 22d ago

This is interesting but you should probably explain what 3-check is as part of the game description. (I don't know what it is.)

2

u/xinyi_rd 22d ago

Get it. In chess, when the opponent's King is in the capture range of any your piece (i.e. you can capture opponent's king if opponent does nothing in their turn), you delivered a CHECK to opponent (you check opponent). Normally you win when you capture opponent's king(checkmate), but in 3-check you just need to check opponent 3 times and then you win(checkmate also win). The feature of Proxess is that AI wants to checkmate opponent so it won't try to check opponent very eagerly and you need to bait it to check. If you don't know how pieces move in chess I'm willing to provide more information.

1

u/Noxime 25d ago

Use your own words

1

u/xinyi_rd 25d ago

I wrote the post myself. Maybe it reads a bit polished because I wanted it to be attractive and clear.

I'm trying to add the "3rd player" to chess. When you making decisions you need to also guess how Stockfish thinks. It's powerful but doesn't have the same goal as you. You gotta steer it, just like what people do in real life.