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Lodemate · Chess puzzles

Chess, with magnets
under the board.

Iron pieces are pulled; wooden ones are not. After every move, by either side, each magnet takes the nearest iron piece on its lines and slides it to its side, and only then is check looked at. Real chess sets up the chain reaction, and the magnets finish it.

iPhone & iPad iOS 17 Free to play No ads
Download on the App Store
Level 4-03, Come here: White's lodestone rook has landed on e8, and Black's iron knight is pulled along the rank beside it, glowing blue
THE MAGNETS MOVE
Deep Lode: a knight down a shaft in its own underworld, a small board of rock and pillars with a lit portal to climb out of
DOWN THE SHAFT
THE PREVIEW · 0:25
Versus on Gatehouse: a whole game against the engine at Miner strength, with a gate of iron bars across the middle of the board
WHOLE GAMES
The daily puzzle: today's board, a mate in one, a streak of seven days in a row, and the last four weeks as a row of days
A PUZZLE A DAY
59
Puzzles, each proved
12
Worlds, a mechanic each
10
Arenas, and a random one
4
Strengths of engine

The rules fit in a paragraph

Iron is pulled. Wood shields.

Pieces move as they always do. After every move, each magnet looks north, east, south and west, takes the nearest piece on each line, and if it is iron, slides it up beside the magnet. A wooden piece is never pulled, and it shields whatever stands behind it. Kings are always wood, so a move is legal only if, once the magnets have acted, your own king is not in check — and mate is judged the same way.

So a knight that steps off a file can let a magnet drag away the rook behind it, and a piece that steps in to block a check may not be allowed to, because the magnet would pull it straight back off the line. Hold a piece over a square and the board shows what the magnets would do before you let go.

Level 4-03 solved: a MATE stamp over the board, three stars, no hint, no take-back
THREE STARS FOR A CLEAN SOLVE
The mine: World 4, Lodestone, with a card for each of its levels, its goal and the stars earned
THE MINE, WORLD BY WORLD

Twelve worlds down

A new mechanic each world

  • Iron — fixed magnets, iron and wood.
  • Coils — electromagnets, on while a piece stands on one of their switches.
  • Deep Lode — a shaft drops a piece into an underworld of its own, and what it does down there changes the board above.
  • Lodestone — pieces that are magnets themselves, pulling from wherever they land.
  • Repulsors — magnets turned round, firing iron away down the line.
  • Shields — plates the field cannot cross.
  • Levers — floor that flips, opening gates and latching coils.
  • Ore — locks only a piece carrying ore up from below can open.
  • Other goals — helpmates and selfmates.
  • Poles — north and south, where like poles push.
  • Tilt — a great magnet along one edge, pulling every iron piece at once, that a lever can swing round.
  • Errands — clear the board, or walk your king home.

A short guide opens each world, its diagrams played by the real rules, and pressing and holding any square tells you what is on it.

Beyond the puzzles

Whole games, and one puzzle a day

Versus plays whole games on mirror-image arenas, most of them built round a mechanic, against the engine or a friend on the same device. The engine plays at four strengths, from an Apprentice who sees one move ahead to the Lodemaster. Play White or Black, turn the board round whenever you like, or try the Random pit, a new board every game. When it is over, the game review judges every move and shows the better one.

The daily puzzle is a new board every day, the same for everyone, with a streak to keep. A home-screen widget shows today's board and your streak.

A two-player game on the Lodestones arena, on a walnut board with ivory and red lacquer pieces; the iron pieces keep their blue steel
WALNUT, IVORY AND LACQUER

A puzzle has one answer

Every level is proved

Before a puzzle ships, the game's own solver plays out every defence and proves it is a forced mate in exactly the moves it says, with only one first move that works — and that taking its magnets away changes the answer, so the magnets are never decoration. The daily puzzles are made the same way and held to the same checks.

Nothing on the board is a picture. The pieces, the steel and every iron filing in the field are drawn by the game's own Metal renderer, and every sound is synthesised on the device as it plays.

Free to play, one purchase

Lodemate Full

The download is free: the first three worlds, today's daily puzzle, the two-player game on every arena, and the engine at its first two strengths on two arenas. There are no ads.

Lodemate Full is one in-app purchase, made once: Worlds 4 to 12, every arena and the Random pit against the engine, its two strongest players, the game review, and every past daily puzzle. Two optional packs, also one-time purchases, add board styles and piece sets. Iron keeps its steel in every set, so you can always tell what a magnet will pull.

Lodemate

Chess puzzles where magnets move the pieces, a new one every day, and whole games against the engine. Free to play, with one purchase that opens everything.

Download Lodemate on the App Store iPhone & iPad · iOS 17 or later

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A gear puzzle. Set gears on the pegs, let the mainspring turn the crank, and every dial has to stop exactly where the level asks — then the door opens for Milo.

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Tick Again

A watch-repair game. Eighteen watches nobody came back for, eight real calibers from an English fusee to a hi-beat automatic, and every part where a watchmaker would find it.

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