Vanilla Chess Datapack

♟️ Minecraft Chess — Fully Playable Datapack

Play a complete game of chess inside Minecraft, no mods required.

This datapack recreates the classic strategy game with real chess rules, interactive piece selection, legal move detection, sound effects, and win conditions.

Whether you want a fun challenge with friends or a unique server minigame, this pack turns Minecraft into a functional chess board.

⚠️ Version Notice — Please Read

This is Version 1 of the datapack.

While fully playable, you should expect:

• Occasional bugs
• Edge-case rule issues
• Visual quirks
• Ongoing balance / polish updates

If you encounter a problem, please report it on the discord, feedback helps improve the project significantly. bug-report-discord

✅ Features

• Full chess rules
• Legal move detection
• Check + checkmate detection
• Castling
• Pawn promotion
• Capture mechanics
• Audio feedback for moves
• Visual move indicators
• Multiplayer compatible

Designed to be fast, responsive, and playable without heavy lag.

📦 Requirements

• Minecraft Java Edition 1.21+
• No mods required — this is a datapack.
• A resource pack is included for sounds and visuals. needs [EMF] Entity Model Features.

▶️ How To Use

After installing, generate a chess board in your world: /trigger create_board

Basic Controls:

• Punch a piece to select it
• Interact a highlighted square to move
• Captures occur automatically
• The game enforces legal moves, illegal actions will be blocked.

⚠️ Known Limitations

This is an ambitious technical datapack, and some things are still improving:

• Rare edge-case rule behavior
• Sound balancing may change
• Performance depends on server hardware
• Future versions will focus heavily on polish and stability.

🐛 Reporting Bugs

If something breaks, please report it with:

• What happened
• What you expected
• Minecraft version
• Singleplayer or server

This helps fix issues much faster.

⭐ Why This Project Exists

Minecraft is an incredible sandbox, this project explores how far datapacks can push complex game logic inside vanilla mechanics.

If you enjoy technical creations like this, consider following the project for updates.

SPECIAL THANKS to chatGPT 5.2 although 90% of this project was created by me things like this description and bug fixes were all from the help of chatGPT.