Chess on a Rubik's Cube

Here it is! htwins.net/rubikschess/
GitHub repo: github.com/carykh/rubiksChess

[@chess]

INSANITY

[@marc_frank]

hehe

[@MHGvids]

IT'S THE MAN HIMSELF!

[@jericsaeyoung69]

Bfdi person cary made your game into cubing

[@Sylveon2589]

WHAT

[@KronosAnimates]

YES INSANITY

[@DemonRobotUnicorn]

Now we just need 5D chess on a Rubik’s cube with multiverse time travel

[@theflyingtoaster1316]

Psychological horror chess

[@CMan185]

make it 6d while we’re at it let’s travel to the 4th temporal AND spacial dimension

[@modahabbab4576]

technically with the added dimension for the cube, it becomes 6d already​ 4th temporal and spacial dimensions would now make it 8d @CMan185

[@kezzyhko]

@@modahabbab4576 Even though the cube is 3d, you can only use it's surface, and the surface is still 2d

[@modahabbab4576]

@@kezzyhko oh that makes sense, you're just playing on a folded net

[@steveValtan]

Bishop sniping is gonna be even crazier

[@Kore153]

send a bishop into orbit around the cube straight into the back line

[@andrisoone]

The ICBM gambit is going to be even truer to its name

[@chris1229sonic]

Holy crap it is

[@simonwillover4175]

check yourself before you snipe yourself

[@cloverisfan818]

Holy hell! New response just dropped!

[@lirachonyr]

congratulations, you made the nerdiest game of all time

[@Artoym]

privet lirah

[@lirachonyr]

@@Artoym п

[@jdh9419]

Yes

[@malte291]

Years ago, I started watching Cary to see funny triangles learn to walk to the right. Now I find myself lost in the labyrinth that is his mind palace

[@brewHamm]

4D Chess is a thing

[@ghal4]

Finally chess has an update, I've been waiting for decades

[@arska-pelejavlogejajaautoj5030]

millennia*

[@Wilker_uwu]

​@@arska-pelejavlogejajaautoj5030centuries actually

[@lilyofluck371]

Tbh, Chess has an update every few years. There's that one goblin chess game where the rules differ, you have that interdimensional time travelling one, and a frick ton of fairy pieces. Hell, I'm making a Chess card game; there's a lot of chess updates if you know where to look

[@user-vw4xp5nt9f]

get on my level ive been waiting for millenia

[@oluwafunmiwosholola7108]

Google en passant.

[@fernozzle]

I always wanted Splatoons added to chess

[@blueberyramune]

hi michael huang

[@drawing_two]

hi

[@diezelleprozo6047]

hi Michael (i thought you stopped making videos 3 years ago, whaaaa)

[@Joeball_7]

imagine trying to play chess when all of a sudden half of the pieces fall off the cube

[@micellaragua]

Get a magnetic one

[@yeetrepublic9142]

@@micellaraguaOk but how would u hold the cube?

[@stevenhthe21st]

@@yeetrepublic9142 You just do it. It’ll be heavy, but you just do it.

[@RodhiShartedHarded]

​@@micellaraguadont think that how it works

[@vytah]

@@yeetrepublic9142suspended on a thread attached to a corner

[@DjSapsan]

Ultimate move of the Universe - solving the Rubik's cube and checkmate at the same time

[@MouseGoat]

true future versions of this should have "solving the cube" be a wining move. I would suggest the cube starting with a checkerboard pattern on all sides, then chess masters and "Rubikscube" masters can battel it out

[@and_I_am_Life_the_fixer_of_all]

​@@MouseGoatwouldnt work, the cube record is 3s... so chess master makes 6 moves and its ggwp

[@MarsheIIo]

@@and_I_am_Life_the_fixer_of_all if they move the king row chess player has to get creative

[@NinF37]

I love how you just call them “splatoon”, made me laugh way to much, like calling every video game console a “Nintendo”

[@Green24152]

also they're literally just inklings T-posing

​@@Green24152It's more menacing this way

[@ego-lay_atman-bay]

To be fair, my family calls video games, nintendo (or at least when I was younger).

[@MarsheIIo]

that actually used to be a problem and nintendo could have lost its trademark, genericide is pretty interesting

[@Pumpkin-man]

I gotta say, having the pieces take the longest route possible feels like an over the top flex on the opponent. (IE the bishop going all the way around just to kill the queen, the squid just zooming around in the color,etc) This game, if developed further, would definitely be extremely complicated… and definitely should have ways to mark which tiles are being attacked. I would never be able to win otherwise @~@

[@MrxstGrssmnstMttckstPhlNelThot]

Yeah he should keep it, it's very funny

[@chedo191]

"Aha, you fool, you will be checkmated in 37 moves with 17 rotations in-between!"

[@NXTangl]

the nature of humanity is just that every so often someone accidentally invents homestuck again.

[@blueberyramune]

me when i prototype the kernelsprite with a splatoon amiibo

[@alekseiklimovskikh5406]

Was looking for that comment

[@stylextv]

At 2:45 the knight could technically also move down one square onto red and then onto the adjecent green square followed by moving in that direction onto the next green square. In regular chess it doesn't matter wether you allow the knight to move two squares in one direction and then one square in any orthogonal direction or first moving one square then two squares. However, in the chess on the surface of a cube it does seem to make a difference which exact type of movement you allow. That being said, the third version of defining a knight move: first going one square in any of the four cardinal directions followed by one diagonal move does seem to be entirely covered by the first two mentioned versions.

[@ferociousfeind8538]

I think a reasonable definition is "move three spaces through two axes", which collapses to one axis getting one move and the other axis getting two moves (although it allows more freedom when one axis might, for example, change because of the one move through the other axis)

[@tobiaslunte6992]

Also, even with the "two in one direction, then 1 orthogonal" definition, it should have one more possible destination by moving two into green and then one orthogonally into red

[@WackoMcGoose]

"The rules are the same as regular Rubik's Chess, except for these changes... wait, what."

[@cloverisfan818]

haha i get the reference

[@novachromatic]

wuz da reference? sounds familiar

[@cloverisfan818]

@@novachromatic board game tutorial youtuber called triple s games

[@balala4641]

homestuck pfp? i bet you clicked because something something battlefield something something sprite something something 2 prototyping blah

[@supercat765]

I was initially mildly disappointed by how the knight interacted with the corner, as there were other ways an L shape can be folded and laid around the corner. I also wondered how a bishop would handle a direct hit on the corner. As that case was not in the video, pulled up the website myself. the answer is that it just stops at the corner. But this gives some logic that also explains the knight's movement as well. When unfolding the cube always have it be a cross centered on the side the piece is currently on. The Bishop would be moving off the board if it continued straight into the corner, and it blocks any double edge crossing paths the knight would otherwise be able to make, allowing only the ones shown.

[@alexortiz9777]

Yeah at 2:47 it feels like the knight should be able to go two down the green side and then one right to the red square

[@wirelessbaguette8997]

Alternatively, you could decide the bishop moves by picking a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to the first. The bishop can land on any space where the number of steps in the two directions is equal. A cornered bishop could pick 1:down 2:right. 1d1r would put it in the right face's near corner, 7d7r would put it in the right face's far corner. In this way, I believe it is justified to make a cornered bishop able to travel along any of the center diagonals of the 3 adjacent faces.

[@tciddados]

Yeah, interactions at the corners where the meaning of "diagonal" becomes muddied was what I was curious about starting the vid, and I was kinda bummed to see how the knight resolved it.

[@ashleyhamman]

This is a really fun concept. One criticism I have is that I think the white and black squares need marked edges or arrows indicating what is the opposing side at the start of the game. This way pawns aren't omnidirectional AND can do their two-long initial move. I hope to see this playable as an actual multiplayer thing at some point instead of a solo chess toy at some point.

[@RobertMilesAI]

You could also just say "Pawns can move two (in any direction) as long as they've never been moved before"

[@squiddler7731]

What happens when the pawns are moved around by the hand rotating slices of the cube? I don't think there's any good way of keeping track of their direction here

[@ashleyhamman]

@@squiddler7731 Hmm, I guess the alternate way to go about it is borrow a page out of shogi's book and have the pieces have an arrow shape to indicate directionality. Interestingly you could theoretically have diagonally oriented pawns, where their normal move is along a diagonal, and then capture along the grid.

[@torgranael]

I'd have the centre of edge face be the equivalent to the classic opposite edge. Have some sort of crown symbol on the black and white tiles representing a destination square the pawns must move toward as close to orthogonally as possible. This would keep the directional movement and account for shifting board positions. I'd also set up the pieces in the centre of their coloured face, rather than along an edge as he's done.

[@CodeParade]

This is awesome! Looks great!

[@noahhathaway9435]

This is reminding me of my perennial desire to play Wizards’ Sudoku Chess from MSPA’s Problem Sleuth. Only recently, I obtained wooden checkered polyominoes to play “Broken Chess,” a game of my own invention. But an 8x8x8 cube would be the perfect 3D sudoku grid! And if the pieces could rotate after being placed, that adds the Rubik’s element… it also reminds me of Nitrome’s “Numbskull” Flash game. Of course, the Problem Sleuth version also includes Mario Kart and incomprehensible symbol systems, which would be… difficult to “take seriously.”

[@fetch300]

Sounds incredibly silly.

[@quantumblur_3145]

I knew this vid would draw your kind in droves

[@julianbello8376]

This is what Skaia looks like

[@TheFinnish1]

FINALLY CHESS BATTLE ADVANCED

[@nataliexists]

chess battle advanced

[@brightblackhole2442]

chess battle adjective

[@MrBrineplays_]

​@@brightblackhole2442Chess battle adverb

[@Hyperboid]

webkit for gameboy advanced when

[@infrences]

Icely puzzles will be impressed

[@ferociousfeind8538]

10:34 what appears to have happened is youve searched the possiblebspace depth-first? Or something like that, when it should be searched width-first (do multiple passes, on each pass only add tiles which are adjacent to tiles we already know are accessible (and bonus, are the same number of tiles as the pass #, from the inkling), and then do multiple passes, until there are no more accessible and unprocessed tiles) By doing that in explicit passes, the linked list will be ordered in such a way that each accessible tile will point backwards to the one space that is closer-est to the inkling (unless there are two, in which case the choice depends on how you ordered the checks within each pass and doesn't ultimately matter), at large resulting in the inkling always choosing the shortest path, because we searched the whole move space in a distance-saving way I know this because I did this for a grid-based fire-emblem-like game prototype with turn-based movement like this. Another trick is to do two passes with the same tiles to get particularly desirable movement behavior. First, add all the orthogonally-accessible tiles, and _then_ add all diagonally-accessible pieces, to the linked list (and the "to check next pass" list) This causes the inkling to "move diagonally first", AKA it will align itself with holes-of-accessibility from afar so that it can moge like a rook, rather than like a bishop, through them. This isnt important here because the inkling has an infinite move speed, but this is important jn my game prototype where your pieces have a limited "speed" and I wanted them to take sane, human paths, and splitting the one pass into two passes in series was the only way I could make the linked list turn out that way. As for the queen's movement, instead of using the linked list each step to determine movement, have the linked list instead determine how you will determine the queen's movement (AKA not a linked list at all, but a list of orthogonal or diagonal directions), where a direction will tell the game which way to "trace backwards until it finds the original piece", carving out the piece's visual movement path, allowing the piece to pass over the same tile in different ways if you choose different destination tiles

[@Myalnyblth0]

I like splatoon, I like my hands, I like chess, I like cubing this is the best!

[@Vaaaaadim]

hands are great, you can pat the moose, SLAP the bongo drum, shake stick at God, oof ouch the water is too hot

[@FoxBlocksHere]

Cary is just the kind of guy to make this, and I love it

[@braydensonaslaughtmbve545]

We gonna summon a boatload of communities with this one

[@PaynesGamingGalaxy]

Three

[@PaynesGamingGalaxy]

Actually 4

[@ok-tr1nw]

1

[@Austin_Playz27]

uhh rubic cube community splatoon chess and beefy die?

[@cathiegarson2272]

-BFDI (obviously) -Board Games / Chess Community -Splatoon -Minecraft -DC heroes -Wednesday (possibly due to the hand) -Cubing community - -Racism-

[@TheJamesM]

I think that there are arguably four additional moves rather than the stated two in that knight corner case. In traditional chess moving 2-then-1 is indistinguishable from moving 1-then-2, so one could argue that both should be allowed. This would mean the knight could access the squares diagonally adjacent but around the corner by moving one space onto one side followed by two into the other.

[@Kirbman]

I love Splatoons. My favorite Nintendo characters next to Zelda, Metroid and Kid Icarus.

[@DankShawn]

So awesome! Have you thought about adding another game-option that allows players to use their turn to twist one of the rubiks cube slices INSTEAD of moving a piece? That way you could also use this to set up a "normal" game of chess, with just the addition of a cubic board, moving pieces around corners and manipulating slices instead of moving. I could imagine lots of chess players making content about that version!

[@alexanderbrady5486]

9:07 In standard chess, you can assume the player being "checked" passes their turn (even though pass is not a valid option in Chess) for the purposes of determining check. There are plenty of positions in standard Chess where blocking check is the defender's only legal move (even without assuming the "you must block check" rule didn't exist). In short, you would only need to check 1-ply to determine if an enemy is in check. 2-ply is only needed for determining which defender moves are legal. However, for a reasonably optimize script even that 2-ply check should be doable quite quickly.

[@ChiEsp619]

Bro created chess³

[@Sylveon2589]

Cary mentioned Splatoon My life is becoming more complete every day

[@thebestfishinthesea]

huzzah!

[@nile6076]

you are the second person i've seen with both a korok profile picture and an odd obsession with splatoon. weird that it happened twice.

[@Sylveon2589]

@@nile6076 I'm honoured c:

[@jumbledfox2098]

When you said 'Black Knight' and showed a picture of Batman instead of Monty Python and the Holy Grail's 'Black Knight' my soul hurt

[@nepunepu5894]

it might be to you, but to the black knight, 'tis but a flesh wound

[@rafaelarevalo8047]

so many years watching your videos and you continue to surprise me. amazing video, what a fascinating concept!

[@MrBodydriver]

I love it. Every time i see youve made something new i just know its going to be 🔥

[@Dystdotmp4]

as someone whos been a huge fan of yours for a long time, and, unrelatedly, super into speedcubing, this was a super cool video to watch. this is a super cool concept and i cant wait to see what people do with it :D

[@thomaseichler920]

I like how you made this version of chess, although I had a similar idea where it was just a Rubix Cube puzzle, and the solved state is 5 of the 6 sides show different forms of checkmate.

[@828chrys]

Cary just does things and i love it

[@INSANEcuber]

Love this. Been getting into chess the last few months, great timing!

[@PerfectionReincarnated]

Ikr

[@ego-lay_atman-bay]

One feature I think would be really good is to make a custom rubiks cube size, like, what if I want an 8x8, or an 8x16x4. Although you would probably have to add some checks for if the pieces hit a backfase.

[@huhneat1076]

2:47 Along with the 2 options you mentioned you can also go 1 down the red and 1 across. This is because you could go 1 down on green and 2 right towards red. But again... code lol

[@HarrisonWhite-wi4ns]

The classical piece makes it sound like there is something tragic about this game you made. It really gives a lot of the video a somber tone.

[@EliWernigg]

I wish Cary got as many views as he deserves. He might be the KZbinr I get most excited about when I see a new video

[@SOTminecraft]

You should make the color intensity alternate or something like that so to have a chess-like board visual again even with colors. This would help with moves, especially the diagonal ones

[@justjames4]

Wow, great job. 👍 If someone were to become very skilled at this version of chess, they would probably trick me easily.

[@user-uk4xh7dw8d]

On corners, I think pawns should be able to eat a piece on the same space in the opposite side, I.E under it directly because pawns can eat diagonally and that space is actually missing, if you look at it. I also think this should apply to bishop and queen whenever they are on a diagonal line from the middle

[@ExTess]

I would love to see this with other variations of "chess-like" games, like Hnefatafl (viking chess), Martian chess, tank chess, etc. and seeing how people could provide unique variations to those games

[@MeesterTweester]

This is so cool! I like the new splatoon pieces :)

[@nicularstar]

i love how he calls them Splatoons and not inklings

[@amirPenton]

That’s incredible! Great idea & execution! (Okay the execution could use some work 😂 but it’s actually incredibly impressive!)

[@GIRGHGH]

I love that pieces always take the longer of the two paths, extra style points.

[@MrKohlenstoff]

Yeah that's definitely a feature and not a bug. 👌

[@geokou7645]

It would be fun if, graphically, if a piece had multiple ways to get someone it got split up and parts of it went one way while the others went the other way

[@davisdiercks]

This is really similar to a version I was trying to make in Unity several years ago, except my "extra sauce" was the board is volumetric. Meaning the pieces can traverse INSIDE the cube, making all kinds of weird 3D diagonals and such, with new pieces being better suited to that, like ninjas etc. It's so cool to see a (mostly) working version of this with a whole different twist! (Literally 😂)

[@hvglaser]

I think it would be fun to try a version of this that is only 3x3 with a few pawns that can only go forward, like normal chess. That would be more simple, but allow for some tricks with twisting the cube to move the pawns around. But you would have to indicate their direction somehow

[@Greennoob2]

I have been obsessed with cubing, Splatoon 2 and Chess at different points of my life. I never could have possibly imagined they can be combined. Just wow I'm impressed you even managed to build it

[@diondredunigan5282]

such interesting videos. gotta love this channel

[@pneumonoultramicroscopicsili]

You just put my two favorite hobbies together. You’re officially the coolest person ever.

[@TheStellarMars]

Chess. On a Rubik's Cube.

[@jacobcarter6332]

Chess. On a rubik's. Cube.

[@MichaelOfficial1M]

Chess. On a Rubik's Cube.

[@zai-tm]

Chess. On a Rubik's Cube.

[@Spicy_Coconut]

Chess. On. A Rubik's. Cube.

[@pamslashpenny]

Chess. On a Rubik’s Cube.

[@SmallChia633]

The memes in this video sent me Great job Cary!!

[@Cubeorithms]

This is the game I didn't know I needed

[@chris1229sonic]

Yes

[@dysop]

You're playing checkers while I'm playing 3D chess. "Don't you mean 4D chess?" "No."

[@Eraser104]

Very cool! I saw that giant cube there! :D

[@AA-pw5ni]

I'm not a smart person or a coding person or a rubiks cube person. I'm the dingy who just watches Cary in amazement but dawg THIS IS ANOTHER LEVEL

[@YellowBunny]

I find it kinda weird that the horsey is the only piece whose moves can only go around edge of the cube. I get that taking different paths along the square grid that usually lead to the same target can land on different squares if they go around different 3d edges. But if we assume that the horsies move along a straight line from their starting square to their destination, like any other chess piece, those destinations stay unique on the 3d cube. So horsies would once again have 8 squares they can move to, regardless of where they start.

[@trwn87]

The long wait for a new game of yours was worth it!

[@hkayakh]

Hey if you polish this up a bit and make each side checkered with their respective color, I could see this being the new chess! Naviary is making an infinite chess game and it’s so fun to see even cooler chess versions!

[@cyndaquilpikachu6603]

Can’t wait to play this in a real life tournament

[@treppy_]

funny little thing people never noticed: when you move pieces, they appear for a millisecond and re-appear for a millisecond again

[@Fibero-Fibero69_420]

5D Chess on a Rubik's Cube with Multidimensional Time Travel

[@AleclivesinOhio]

Cary really loves doing anything💀

[@hoppingiconcentral826]

That’s exactly why we should enjoy him 😅 he is a great guy making great content

[@Gumshoesamurai]

I'm glad that you made that note at 2:45. Because I was going to call you out on this. But apparently you were aware of the additional spaces.

[@qu765]

6:00 certified banger video moment your videos are so funny and interesting and inspiring i love it!

[@sillypuss6861]

Bro, you combined my two favorite things of all time. It's like a wet dream come true

[@brandonmack111]

This is awesome. Thanks for making such a weird fun crazy thing!

[@DoomRater]

I'm already playing 5D Chess and as a result the movement of these pieces seem so ordinary even on new surfaces. It's the same dimensional moveset they've all had all along aside from the pawn who definitely got an upgrade since it doesn't have any promotions.

[@NIGHTY-NITE]

this is such a good concept omg

[@carykh]

Thanks, nighty-nite! i appreesh it

[@NIGHTY-NITE]

​@@carykh I absolutely wrecked my friend in it 🔥🔥🔥

[@goldd7390]

Cary 20 years later: I programmed REAL LIFE!!!

[@gr33ntimer15]

cool game would love to see it a bit more fleshed out im also sure someone would recreate it in vr if it get really popular

[@themostsupernova]

I'm obsessed... I need to play this

[@jl-c9175]

computing adjancencies when you go over a side of the cube must have been a pain

[@IndikativPraesens]

How about giving an option to also scramble the cube randomly at the beginning? Also, some reward for solving the cube during the game? I don't know what that would look like, but I find the idea interesting that splatoon characters get better and better the more solved your board state becomes.

[@FreakFilms101]

this has been a dream of mine for years. great job

[@0xCAFEF00D]

Going the long way when possible is probably the coolest way to move. So keep it.

[@AroAce_Guy]

As someone who can solve a rubix cube and loves chess this is an absolute win

[@Night-Stars]

Cary this is the most crazy and chaotic but beautiful thing I’ve ever seen

[@Gamebuilder2000]

This is actually a really cool idea I don't think i would have thought of it

[@evanbarnes9984]

If you keep this project going, I'll be excited to see more updates!

[@SkribbyDoodle]

I played something similar on a magnetic cube before. It had less pieces and rotating the cube was counted as a turn.

[@kezzyhko]

You can setup a custom game which would be a normal game of chess on one side of the cube. Or 6 normal games at once at every side of the cube

[@Seven_Red_Suns.]

Pawn be becoming a king with this one

[@butterbutterbutterbutterbutter]

SPLATOON CHARACTERS.....

[@geekoutnerd7882]

I think the knight should be able to have 2 extra moves at 2:44. You can unfold the net keeping white connected to red and red connected to green allowing the night to capture the queen. Alternatively, unfolding the net keeping white connected to green and green connected to red the night can move adjacent to the black queen. Although, I may be missing something.

[@pablitogeral]

Cary, where’s TAMR S3 Leg 10? We are waiting for this a long time! 🙏

[@The2Cat7Guy]

This is a really cool idea!

[@jonnyhughes1689]

I absolutely love it!

[@rueme4228]

The knight at 2:50 has at least 4 more move options in that position

[@joemfunni]

No KH pun? man, so close to finishing my march 2024 bingo! (ok but seriously, the chess cube idea is insane!)

[@isaakvandaalen3899]

2:48 - A problem with how the Knights move. A Knight on the corner should be able to see more squares. If we're going by the traditional chess rules of 2 squares along, 1 across, then when dealing with corners the geometry should allow a Knight to access more squares than you seem to have programmed. For instance... In the timestamp provided, the Knight should be able to see the Red and Green squares two squares down from where it is. By moving two down on the Green, then one across onto Red, it lands as if it just moved 2 down on Red. By moving two down on the Red, then one across onto Green, it lands as if it just moved 2 down on Green.

[@wirelessbaguette8997]

literally 1 second later the author addresses this very point with the on screen note!

[@isaakvandaalen3899]

@@wirelessbaguette8997 unfortunately, as a chess player, I cannot read anything other than digital clocks and chess notation. (I completely missed that lol. Tx for pointing it out. Ik he said he just whipped this together pretty quick, I was just tryna point out something I thought was overlooked.)

[@bloomp7999]

Genius, this is exactemy what the world needed !! No joke this is so creative. I give you an idea for a futur video but i think you can celebrate this achivement already. Idea : chess on a klein bottle (with special rules when pieces meet upside-down) Idea++ : chess on a RUBIKS klein bottle (the mechanism is up to you...)

[@MrMichaeldwatson]

I have to admit, I’ve never understood the basic rules of chess until watching this video. Let alone all the extras!

[@howdymynameishow6582]

so glad we've returned back to these wackies

[@ivycantthinkofaname4303]

my brain is going to explode

[@Boxland_]

I love you for showing this 5:51 explicitly

[@torgranael]

That looks like a nightmare to keep track of, but still a ton of fun.