AMBIT

AMBIT is one of the daily puzzles on Take5Games, a small site of quick word, chess and pattern games. Its idea is the ambit of a chess piece, meaning every square that piece attacks. You never move anything or play against an opponent. You only drop pieces on an 8x8 board and see which squares they reach.

Each day there is a numbered set of three boards, the same for every player on that date. A board opens with some squares painted gold. Below it sits a rack with a rook, a knight, a bishop, a queen and a king, and a par tells you how many pieces the setter used, three or four. Pick a piece, tap any empty square, and press Check to paint everything your pieces attack in green. The board is solved the moment green and gold match exactly.

The catch is spillover. If any piece attacks a square outside the gold, that square flashes red and you lose one of three lives. Undo takes back a piece but not a lost life, while Check itself costs nothing. Pieces never block each other, so a rook covers its whole row and column however crowded the board gets. Corners and lone gold squares are usually the place to start, since few pieces can reach them without touching anything else.

Solving all three boards earns gold, two earn silver and one earns bronze. The page keeps days played, medals and a streak on your device, and a Share button copies your result. A short demo walks through the first moves, and a separate unlimited version deals fresh boards that do not touch the daily record.

It suits players who know how chess pieces move and like a short spatial puzzle, with no need to know any openings or tactics. There is no sign-up and no ads on the game page.