Did You Know You Can Play Virtual Chess In Facebook Messenger?

Here are the hidden keyboard commands.

Facebook's nerdy secret is out: There's a hidden chess game in Facebook Messenger that you can play if you know the secret commands.

Instead of just using Messenger to send stickers and chat with friends, you can challenge anyone to a game of chess and threaten their virtual queen with your e-bishop anytime, anywhere. Some helpful Redditors discovered this feature, which has quietly existed for at least a month.

All you have to do is type "@fbchess play" in a message thread, and it pulls up a board that looks like this:

Here's what a Facebook Messenger chessboard looks like.
Here's what a Facebook Messenger chessboard looks like.
Facebook/Screenshot

You still have to use text commands for everything, but the instructions are easy to summon if you type in "@fbchess help." From there, you can use letters and numbers to reference where you want each piece to move on the board.

For example, typing in "@fbchess c6" will move your pawn to the spot where c and 6 intersect. Once you get the bigger pieces moving, it's helpful to remember that K=king, Q=queen, B=bishop, N=knight, and R=rook.

So typing in "@fbchess Nf6" will move your knight to the f6 spot. You get the idea.

Now go get your pieces moving and let your nerd flag fly!

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