Steam News13 April 20262mo ago

Update — April 13, 2026

Big update today. This one is mostly about fixing things that were genuinely broken, plus a handful of new features that kept coming up in feedback.

In this update4

Full notes

Full Chess Kingdom update

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What changed

10 fixes7 additions6 changes0 removals

Gameplay
Fixes
UI and audio

addedBig update today. This one is mostly about fixing things that were genuinely broken, plus a handful of new features that kept coming up in feedback. If you ran into the bug where the AI moved twice in a row, or your progress vanished when you closed the game, those are gone now.

fixedBug FixesAI giving itself extra turns In some games the AI was getting multiple consecutive moves, skipping the player's turn entirely. In the worst cases the AI made 3 moves in a row, and the move history showed them as if the player had made them. The root cause was stale AI results from a previous turn being applied to the current one. Fixed with a turn token system — each AI turn now gets a unique ID, and any result that arrives late gets discarded.

fixedBug FixesPlayer losing on time while waiting for the AI If the AI was thinking for a long time, the player's clock kept running. In extreme cases this could drain the player's time completely and award them a loss while they sat there waiting. The player's clock now pauses while the AI is thinking and only resumes once the AI move is made.

fixedBug FixesAI taking forever on forced moves The AI was running a full search even when only one legal move existed, which could take 30+ seconds for a move that had exactly one answer. It now detects forced moves immediately and plays them without searching.

fixedBug FixesProgress not saving when closing mid-session If you closed the game without going back to the main menu first, your progress from that session (wins, XP, stats) could be lost. Fixed in three places: saves now flush before the app quits, post-game saves are awaited before navigating away, and saves write atomically to prevent corruption.

fixedBug FixesSettings not saving Music volume, engine depth, and other settings were resetting every time you restarted the game. Fixed — settings now persist correctly between sessions.

Chess Kingdom changes

fixedAI giving itself extra turns In some games the AI was getting multiple consecutive moves, skipping the player's turn entirely. In the worst cases the AI made 3 moves in a row, and the move history showed them as if the player had made them. The root cause was stale AI results from a previous turn being applied to the current one. Fixed with a turn token system — each AI turn now gets a unique ID, and any result that arrives late gets discarded.

fixedPlayer losing on time while waiting for the AI If the AI was thinking for a long time, the player's clock kept running. In extreme cases this could drain the player's time completely and award them a loss while they sat there waiting. The player's clock now pauses while the AI is thinking and only resumes once the AI move is made.

fixedAI taking forever on forced moves The AI was running a full search even when only one legal move existed, which could take 30+ seconds for a move that had exactly one answer. It now detects forced moves immediately and plays them without searching.

fixedProgress not saving when closing mid-session If you closed the game without going back to the main menu first, your progress from that session (wins, XP, stats) could be lost. Fixed in three places: saves now flush before the app quits, post-game saves are awaited before navigating away, and saves write atomically to prevent corruption.

Big update today. This one is mostly about fixing things that were genuinely broken, plus a handful of new features that kept coming up in feedback. If you ran into the bug where the AI moved twice in a row, or your progress vanished when you closed the game, those are gone now.

Here's the full list.

Bug Fixes

AI giving itself extra turns In some games the AI was getting multiple consecutive moves, skipping the player's turn entirely. In the worst cases the AI made 3 moves in a row, and the move history showed them as if the player had made them. The root cause was stale AI results from a previous turn being applied to the current one. Fixed with a turn token system — each AI turn now gets a unique ID, and any result that arrives late gets discarded.

Player losing on time while waiting for the AI If the AI was thinking for a long time, the player's clock kept running. In extreme cases this could drain the player's time completely and award them a loss while they sat there waiting. The player's clock now pauses while the AI is thinking and only resumes once the AI move is made.

AI taking forever on forced moves The AI was running a full search even when only one legal move existed, which could take 30+ seconds for a move that had exactly one answer. It now detects forced moves immediately and plays them without searching.

Progress not saving when closing mid-session If you closed the game without going back to the main menu first, your progress from that session (wins, XP, stats) could be lost. Fixed in three places: saves now flush before the app quits, post-game saves are awaited before navigating away, and saves write atomically to prevent corruption.

Settings not saving Music volume, engine depth, and other settings were resetting every time you restarted the game. Fixed — settings now persist correctly between sessions.

Engine depth dropdown The engine depth dropdown wasn't showing its options, forcing you to type numbers manually. Fixed.

Player names and clocks showing on the wrong sides Your profile name and clock were appearing on the AI's side of the board, and vice versa. Fixed.

Back button overlapping the UI The back button was overlapping content on several screens — most visibly it was sitting directly on top of the player avatar on the profile screen. Fixed.

AI opponent descriptions clipped The personality descriptions on the opponent select screen were getting cut off mid-sentence — "Balanced play with a preference for eleg..." and similar. Fixed, full descriptions now display correctly.

Puzzle mode descriptions clipped The puzzle hub was showing mode names (Daily Puzzle, Puzzle Rush, Themed Puzzles) but cutting off the descriptions below them. Fixed.

New Features

Piece labels Some piece sets make it genuinely hard to tell pieces apart at a glance, especially when you're new to the game. There's now an option in Settings to show a small label on each piece (K, Q, R, B, N). Pair this with the existing "opponent uses your set" option if you want full clarity on both sides.

Move history review You can now click any move in the move list to jump back to that board position. Scroll through the whole game, review any moment, then pick up from the current position whenever you're ready.

Right-click arrows and highlights

Right-click and drag on the board to draw an arrow. Right-click a square to highlight it. Click anywhere on the board to clear them.

Premove toggle Premoves can now be turned on or off in the Gameplay settings. If you keep accidentally queuing moves you didn't intend, just switch it off.

Graphics Settings

Chess Kingdom is not a demanding game — your GPU doesn't need to work hard to run it. But that's exactly why an FPS cap is useful: without one, the game will happily render 500+ frames per second for no reason, burning through CPU and GPU resources you don't need to spend. A new Graphics section in Settings lets you take control of that.

FPS limit — cap at 30, 60, 120, or 144 FPS, or leave it Unlimited
VSync — toggle VSync on or off

Player Portraits

You can now set a custom portrait for your profile.

Upload your own image — go to Collection → Portraits, hit "Upload image", and pick any PNG or JPG. It gets cropped to a square automatically
Shows everywhere — your profile header, the profile select screen, and online game cards all show your portrait instead of your initials
Change or remove anytime — upload a new one whenever, or hit "Remove portrait" to go back to initials
Online — your portrait is attached to your games and shows on your opponent's screen

Thanks for playing, and thanks to everyone who took the time to report issues. If you run into anything else, leave a review or post in the discussions. It all helps.

Source

Steam News / 13 April 2026

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