How to Play CoreSquares

The core idea

Every chess piece lights up the squares it controls. Place pieces on the board so that their combined coverage lights every target square. That is the entire game in one sentence.

Self-lighting means each piece lights two things: the squares it would attack in chess, and the square it sits on. A rook placed at the center of a row lights the entire row plus the entire column plus its own square.

Controls

Two ways to place. Drag a piece from the tray onto the board, with a live preview showing exactly which squares it will light so you can line it up before you let go. Or tap to place: tap a piece in the tray to pick it up, tap a square to preview it there, and tap again to drop it. Tap to place works the same in the campaign, the Daily, and Clocks, and if you prefer one tap you can turn the confirm step off in Settings. On a phone the dragged piece floats one row above your fingertip so your thumb never hides it.

One queen, five stars: drag it to the hub square and every ray finds a target
One queen, five stars: drag it to the hub square and every ray finds a target
Three pieces on a Burger board: pawn, rook, then knight, until every square is lit
Three pieces on a Burger board: pawn, rook, then knight, until every square is lit

There is no undo, drawn from the chess principle of committing to a move. If a placement is not working, tap Restart to clear the board and start the attempt over. Restarting never erases your completion record, and the campaign has no lives and no timer, so you can try as many times as you like. Stuck on one level? Skip it and come back later; it will not block the rest of the world.

The pieces

Six chess pieces, each introduced in the School world. You do not need to know chess to play. The early levels teach each piece by feel.

PieceAttack PatternLearned in
RookStraight-line control along ranks and filesKindergarten
BishopDiagonal sweeper across the board3rd Grade
QueenThe most powerful piece: rook and bishop combined4th Grade
KnightL-shaped jumps that leap over everything6th Grade
KingTight local control in all 8 directions8th Grade
PawnForward diagonals only, the most limited piece10th Grade

Detailed piece guides →

World mechanics

School teaches the pieces. Every world after it bends one rule:

Tech brings the obstacles back at the game's peak difficulty, Aqua mixes five piece types, and Burger scales the boards up to 12x12. See every world →

Night, start to finish: sweep the flashlight, find the moons, place, then submit
Night, start to finish: sweep the flashlight, find the moons, place, then submit
Lava: a rook slides past the boulder and lights both flames in one move
Lava: a rook slides past the boulder and lights both flames in one move

Hints

A hint is a nudge, not the answer. The game solves the board behind the scenes and shows you the first move of a winning line; you place the rest yourself. You begin with a few free hints and earn more by solving the daily puzzle and clearing worlds. If you would rather not spend one, the drag preview is always there to help you read the board.

Game modes

Settings and accessibility

In Settings you can lock the screen to Portrait or Landscape (or leave it on Auto), turn on Reduced Motion to cut the animations, and toggle sound and vibration independently. Turn on Hard mode to hide the light beams while you place, so you solve by calculation and the board lights up only once you have it. You can also reset your progress, which keeps your earned badges, lifetime stats, and hint balance.

Tips

See also