Maple Chess Guide – How to Beat the Computer on Easy, Medium and Hard
Maple Chess is a free 3D chess game set in an autumn garden. You can play against the computer on three levels or against a friend on the same device. It follows the full rules of chess, including castling, en passant, promotion, stalemate, the 50-move rule and threefold repetition. This guide explains how the computer plays at each level and how to beat it.
How the computer thinks at each level
| Level | How far it looks ahead | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 1 move, with a lot of randomness | It often misses threats and makes loose moves. Perfect for learning. |
| Medium | 2 moves (its move and your reply) | It sees simple captures and threats, but not deeper combinations. |
| Hard | 3 moves, plus all the follow-up captures | Solid tactically in the short term, weaker at long-term plans. |
On every level it also looks through any chain of captures before it decides, so it rarely drops a piece to a simple capture. It judges a position only by material and where each piece stands. It has no special idea of passed pawns, pawn structure or king safety. That is its weakness: the long game, and plans that pay off more than three moves later.
Opening principles that beat the computer
You don’t need to memorise openings. Follow these five rules and you’ll reach a good middlegame:
- Control the centre with a pawn on e4 or d4 (e5 or d5 as Black).
- Develop knights before bishops, towards the centre (f3, c3 / f6, c6).
- Castle early. It’s the best way to keep your king safe.
- Don’t move the same piece twice in the opening without a reason.
- Don’t bring your queen out early. It just becomes a target.
Beating Easy
- Look for free pieces. Easy often leaves pieces undefended. Before every move, ask: “Can I capture something for free?”
- Practise basic checkmates: queen and king against king, then two rooks against king.
- Use Undo (Z) to take back a blunder and find a better move. It’s the fastest way to learn.
Beating Medium
Medium sees one reply ahead, so it falls for two-move tactics:
- Forks: a knight or queen attacking two pieces at once, especially king and queen.
- Pins: attack a piece that can’t move without exposing a more valuable piece behind it.
- Discovered attacks: move one piece out of the way to reveal an attack from another.
Set up a fork that needs one preparing move. Medium usually doesn’t see it coming.
Beating Hard
Hard is tactically sharp for three moves, so play positionally:
- Trade pieces when you’re ahead. Every trade makes your extra material count for more.
- Create a passed pawn (a pawn no enemy pawn can stop), and push it towards promotion. The computer doesn’t treat passed pawns as special, so it often notices the danger only once promotion is within its three-move horizon.
- Attack the king slowly. The computer doesn’t weigh king safety, so it won’t always keep enough defenders near its own king. Bring more attackers than defenders before you strike. Combinations more than three moves deep are where Hard goes wrong.
- Avoid early tactics with your own king unsafe. Hard punishes loose positions quickly.
Endgame reminders
- Stalemate is a draw. When you’re winning, make sure the enemy king always has a legal move until you deliver mate.
- Promotion: when a pawn reaches the last rank you choose the piece. A queen is almost always right, but a knight can sometimes give an instant check or fork.
- The 50-move rule and threefold repetition end the game in a draw, so keep making progress when you’re ahead.
Two players on one device
Choose 2 Players to pass the device between turns. Press F to flip the board so each player sees it from their side. The move list in standard notation lets you go over the game afterwards.
Controls
- Mouse: click a piece, then a highlighted square. Right-drag to rotate the camera, scroll to zoom.
- Touch: tap a piece, then a square. Pinch to zoom, drag with two fingers to rotate.
- Z / Backspace: undo. F: flip the board.
Ready for a game? Play Maple Chess free in your browser.