Animated history · Free chess adventures
Play The Road: recognize a strategy, counter it, and know why.
REAL HISTORY. SIX PIECES. ONE COMPANY.
Five-minute animated history adventures and a free chess experience for curious families.
Episode 1 — The Gunpowder Plot of 1605
Arrives on the official Checkered Crown YouTube channel.
- First look
- The Gunpowder Plot of 1605
- Episode
- CC-101 · Pilot
- Scene
- 07 · The vault
- Place
- London
- Date
- 4 Nov 1605
One world, everywhere
Same cast. New ways to explore.
Watch the Company on YouTube, play free chess adventures, and bring the fun home with our book, puzzles, coloring and merch.
Stories
Meet the six-piece Company and follow their history adventures on our YouTube channel.
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
The Road
Play the free browser adventure. Recognize an opening strategy, counter it, and understand why.
Play The Road
Books & adventures
First Moves: Your First Chess Adventure. Meet the pieces, learn real chess and enjoy stories, puzzles and coloring.
Buy on Amazon (opens in a new tab)
Merch
Wear the Crown. Explore shirts and character-inspired merch in the official Checkered Crown Etsy shop.
Shop on Etsy (opens in a new tab)
Puzzles
Find 24 chess puzzles, mazes, a word search and connect-the-dots in First Moves. See it. Face it. Make it. Name it.
Explore the puzzles
Coloring
Make the Company your own. First Moves includes all six characters to color alongside chess lessons and stories.
Explore coloringSeason 01
Seven nights a crown almost fell.
Explore the tales planned for our first season: mysterious letters, secret journeys and choices that changed the course of a night.
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605
London · 1605
Barrels under Parliament, and one unsigned letter that gives the game away.
CC-102The Men in the Aisle
Florence · 1478
A banking family tries to take a city during Sunday Mass.
CC-103The Drawer the King Couldn’t Open
Madrid · 1578
A royal secretary holds papers his king can never admit exist.
CC-104A King Can Be Fired
The Low Countries · 1581
A room of clerks writes a king out of the law with nothing but ink.
Two sides of the story
Crown and Check.
Each adventure follows people with different plans. Discover what they hope for, what they risk and how their choices shape the story.
Crown
The people in power.
The people protecting the way things are. What will they notice, and how will they respond?
Check
The people with a new plan.
The people trying to change what happens next. Will their plan succeed, or will a small clue change everything?
The company
Six characters. A new role in every tale.
Our cast takes on new roles and costumes in each adventure. Meet the travelers, messengers and everyday people who bring the past to life.
Rook
Steady, strong and ready to help
Knight
Ready for the next journey
Bishop
A careful reader of every clue
Pawns
Everyday people who make a difference
King
Leadership brings responsibility
Part of the cast
Queen
A different view from the crown
Part of the castThe Road · browser game
The story first. Then the strategy.
The Road is a free browser chess adventure with a prologue plus fourteen true-history chapters: fifteen stops in all. Explore the stories, try opening ideas, and take a useful challenge into your next game.
- See it: watch an opening pattern on the board.
- Face it: discover how to respond.
- Make it: swap sides and try the idea yourself.
- Name it: learn the opening’s name after exploring its idea.
The next adventure
Follow the Crown.
New history. New mysteries. Six pieces moving through time.
Waitlist
Get free episode updates.
Get new free episodes and history activities for your family. Parent or guardian email only.
Beyond the screen
Books, puzzles and the Crowned Knight.
Explore First Moves on Amazon, the Crowned Knight collection on Etsy, and free family activities.
Explore Books & More