Cheatmate

Play real chess against seven back-room hustlers who each cheat their own way — Vex slides pieces, Marlow crowns pawns early, Odile pockets them, Sable hides a queen inside a pawn, Mott buys your men off you — and every trick leaves its own giveaway animation on the board. You get twelve dirty tricks back: slip a piece, swap two of your own, pocket theirs, crown early, plant a secret queen, buy a rival piece so it plays for you, smuggle a dead piece back, take two moves, buy a cover story or a tip-off, grease the house, or read a memorised opening off a sleeve card. Catch their tell and call it out, but three strikes and you are thrown out. Seven ways to play include one-on-one duels, a straight game, crowded four-, six- and eight-handed tables, the Circuit, and Rulebreaker: 100 uncallable cheats against an AI-written house rule. Twenty-one trophies track every clean win and every perfect hustle.