The most engaging way to play a game of chess.

Have you ever played chess and wished there was more action?

Since the late 1400s, this game of strategy has often been the game played by the brightest minds; all of whom were eager to show off their psychological prowess. But over time the game has grown its reach, expanding to draw in those who may have one considered the game dull.

While chess is still not for everyone, the game continues to find new ways to reach the next generation. Most recently, taking on a new life in virtual reality (VR).

Chess is not by any means brand new to this space. While not every headset has a game available – sorry PlayStation VR2 users, this one isn’t for you – those who own a PCVR setup, or the standalone Quest headsets, may be happy to know there’s an abundance of proper games in the genre.

But for those of you who read the lede and thought “yes, I do,” a new chess game on the Quest series of headsets may make your day.

Developer Teleporter Realities released Merlin’s Chess into early access on May. 22, a game which aims to bring the game to life.

Play in the most epic and immersive way possible – short of magic being real – against computers, or a vast array of online players thanks to the game’s official support from Chess.com. Whether you want to play a seated and chill game by a VR fire or watch as building-sized pieces come alive and destroy another as you forge your way to victory, this is probably one of most inventive ways to play the game.

For those who grew up in the 90s, did you ever wish that your Yu-Gi-Oh! games were more like the cartoon – with the monsters popping up and fighting each other? Well, this is basically that, but with chess.

Unfortunately, you’re not alone in being upset that this is not a thing in VR but maybe write a letter (not to us though, that won’t help).

Anyways, let’s digress from that tangent and jump back to chess.

In Merlin’s Chess the setting is very medieval in nature, with avatars and settings skewing towards the fantasy genre.

The avatars you can create not only stick to elves and other fantasy creature, but you can change up the way your pieces look – though currently there’s only one style of piece for fantasy and they look like odd monsters. The settings where you can play your games as well are created with all the spectacle one might expect if they were living in Arthurian Camelot.

Jumping into a game is pretty simple, just choose the setting, look of the pieces, type of opponent, and of course the match rules. Once you’re ready, push the lever and start your game.

As mentioned earlier, you can watch your pieces come alive. If you’ve chosen the fantasy character setting, you’ll be able to see little goblins and other monsters smash each other to bits, as you watch pieces get taken off the board.

If you’re playing with the regular looking pieces, they kinda just slide around and disappear the other pieces away.

You can play this game as you normally would – via a set of controllers – or you can take advantage of hand-tracking and even use voice commands to command your pieces forward.

Both hand-tracking and voice commands work quite well here – although it does take a while for the computer to register your command when you use your voice.

Gestures required to get around or activate voice commands are limited: movement of your thumb becoming your way to get around or turning. Activating voice commands can be done by holding down a button that appears on your open palm, or by closing your hand quickly.

It should also be noted that there doesn’t seem to be any smooth locomotion options here – just teleportation. This is one of the more annoying aspects of the game, especially since teleportation spots put you into an awkwardly close position to things.

Since this is pretty much just an intense game of chess – and there’s not much movement involved anyways – let’s talk about the graphics before we call it a day.

There is some work that needs to be done here in the looks department. It’s not bad to look at, but there are definitely some things which don’t look like they could.

For instance, when you’re playing in the arena and your opponent is on their little platform on the other side of the giant pieces; and you can barely see them. In fact, the only thing you really see is their comic strip style speech bubbles – this really only occurs when playing the computer, nothing ever popped up during a multiplayer match.

When you’re close objects, things do look better – and the art style is nice for the overall theme they’re going with – but overall this isn’t a VR masterpiece for graphical engagement.

Overall, Merlin’s Chess puts a unique spin on the classic game.

There are definitely some shortfalls and technical hiccups that can make it feel immersion breaking and flawed. However, for those who enjoy chess the new experience may be enough to have them ignore the bumps in the road.

There is quite a bit of potential for this game, with the chance to bring the game into your space via mixed reality, or even adding more skins to offer more twists on the game. Think about it, if they were to work with a larger brand and license it/ the characters to become pieces, they’d probably do pretty well selling DLC to those who want their pieces to be Marvel or some other popular characters.

Regardless of what could be, what currently is, is actually a not too bad way to play chess.

But at the end of the day, it’s still just chess.

Merlin’s Chess, was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving a pre-release key.