Primacy — a chess roguelike by Lars Jacquemetton

Seven courts to put down

The Classic, the Holy See, the Berserker Horde, the Commoner March, the Chancellery, the Amazon Court, the Eternal Court. Each fights on its own board under its own law: 4×4 pocket charters, seven-rank corridors, the full 8×8.

A real engine underneath

Every move is answered by Fairy-Stockfish. Four difficulties from Squire to Grandmaster, a Threat Lens for newer players, premoves you can bank during the enemy's turn, and a sandbox for any position you can imagine.

A court of 37 courtiers

Courtiers are printed cards with finite print runs and copy numbers. Rarity follows scarcity. Deluxe runs circulate, misprints turn up, and the Print House will strike you a fresh copy for a price.

Pieces with careers

Every piece keeps a record: captures, losses, coin earned, upgrade lineage. Deeds earn epithets — Widowmaker, Twice-Risen, Upstart — the one ledger in the world that can't be bought.

Carved, not modeled

The armies are turned, bored, and sawn from wooden blanks, from whittled to master-carved, and the Carver's Bench recarves yours mid-run. Gold, holo, and prismatic traits are decoration that becomes real: the decorated piece moves twice.

A chronicle that remembers

Every match is bound as a chapter: evaluation chart, final position, a printed analysis sheet. Beat the run and your battles replay as a parade over the credits. Beat the Commoner March and you may play as Black.

The trailer

Rendered entirely in-engine. 78 seconds.

The ladder

The ClassicThe arrangement as it has always been.
The Holy SeeBishops that annexed the knight's exemption.
The Berserker HordeViolence, when persuasion is slow.
The Commoner MarchThe ones with no privileges, moving together.
The ChancelleryPaperwork with a knight's exemption.
The Amazon CourtEvery privilege, held by one piece.
The Eternal CourtIt repeats. That is its function.

Screenshots

The Primacy title screen: carved wooden pieces lined up before a board, with letterpress-style buttons — The title screen. Your army, in wood.

The Play menu with New Run, Tutorial, Sandbox and Multiplayer tabs, a starter set picker and the Squire difficulty — Pick a starter set and a difficulty. Squire is gentle. Grandmaster is not.

The Print Room in the Compendium: a grid of woodcut courtier prints with copy counts, Ghost and Ex Libris tags — The Print Room. Twelve of thirty-seven prints, two of them ghosts.

A single courtier print, the Court Advisor, enlarged from a common run — The Court Advisor. Common run.

The Carver's Bench: a rook blank being bored on a lathe while the rest of the army waits below — The Carver's Bench. A rook, remade.

A printed match analysis sheet on cream paper: time, combat, special moves, final board, and an evaluation curve — Every match, printed. Flawless. Perfect. Earned.

The Eternal Court: a full rank of prismatic queens facing a wall of black pawns — The Eternal Court. Distilled power and corruption.

A 4x4 board seen up close, white kings and bishops crowded against black pawns — A pocket charter. Some generations, one survives the walk.

A tilted board with the Holy See's army, white rooks in the foreground — The Holy See. Corrupt indulgence printers.

The Chancellery's army on a tilted board, a black bishop caught among white pieces — The Chancellery. Extortioners all.

A nearly empty board; a lone white pawn with a holo bishop beside it, the file ahead clear — Walk now, Passed Pawn. The file is clear ahead of you.

The Opening Compendium with Openings, Variants, Print Room and Chronicle tabs and cards for discovered openings — The Compendium. Openings you've found, variants you've seen, chapters you've written.

About the project

Primacy is a 3D chess roguelike built in Godot 4 on a custom Fairy-Stockfish integration. It's a solo project, in closed alpha since June 2026, with an in-engine trailer, Steam achievements, a native Linux build, and first-pass translations into Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and French.

Engine: Godot 4 · AI: Fairy-Stockfish · Windows & Linux · Built by Lars Jacquemetton