Play Chess

Overview

Play Chess is a modern real-time multiplayer chess platform built for fast browser gameplay, competitive progression, and a clean full-stack architecture.

Players can instantly queue for matches, challenge friends, and track their progress using an Elo rating system. The project is designed as a production-style monorepo, with clearly separated applications and shared packages for maintainability and scalability.

Highlights

• Real-time multiplayer gameplay
• Elo rating and competitive ladder
• Friend system with direct challenges
• Game replays and player history
• Pro membership support via Stripe

Demo

GitHub

GitHub - vijaysingh2219/play-chess: A modern, real-time multiplayer chess platform with Elo rankings, friend challenges, game replays, and Pro membership features. Built with Next.js, Express, Socket.IO, and Prisma in a Turborepo monorepo.

A modern, real-time multiplayer chess platform with Elo rankings, friend challenges, game replays, and Pro membership features. Built with Next.js, Express, Socket.IO, and Prisma in a Turborepo mon...

https://github.com/vijaysingh2219/play-chess

Tech Stack

This includes battle-tested tools into a developer-friendly setup, ready for customization. Key technologies include:

• Turborepo: Monorepo orchestration with caching and parallel builds.
• Next.js: High-performance web framework with Turbopack support.
• Express: Flexible backend framework for APIs.
• Socket.IO: Real-time bidirectional event-based communication between client and server.
• Redis: In-memory data store used for caching, matchmaking state, and fast session or game state access.
• TypeScript: Strong typing for robust code.
• shadcn/ui: Accessible, customizable UI components.
• Tailwind CSS: Utility-first styling for rapid design.
• Better-Auth: Secure, modern authentication solution.
• Stripe: Payment infrastructure for accepting payments, managing subscriptions, and handling billing securely.
• TanStack Query: Reactive data fetching and caching.
• React Email & Resend: Streamlined email creation and delivery.
• Prisma: Type-safe database ORM.
• ESLint: Code linting for consistency.
• Prettier: Automated code formatting.
• Jest: Comprehensive testing framework.
• pnpm: Efficient package management.
• Docker: Containerized production deployment.

This stack is open-source, performant, and ready for production.

Key features

Gameplay

• Real-time multiplayer matches powered by (Socket.IO, Redis)
• Responsive chessboard interface for desktop and mobile
• Sound effects for moves and game events

Progress & retention

• Elo rating system for competitive matchmaking
• Player statistics and match history
• Replay system to review past games

Social

• Friend system
• Direct challenges (and Pro‑gated options)

Monetization (optional)

• Pro membership powered by Stripe
• Simple upgrade and downgrade flow

Architecture Highlights

Real-time multiplayer system

The platform uses Socket.IO to synchronize game state between players with low latency.

Moves, resignations, and game events are transmitted through structured server events, ensuring a predictable and maintainable real-time layer.

Monorepo with shared packages

The project is structured as a Turborepo monorepo, allowing core logic to be reused across multiple applications.

This architecture keeps the codebase modular, scalable, and easy to extend.

Project Structure

play-chess/
├── apps/
│   ├── web/          # Next.js frontend
│   ├── api/          # Express + Socket.IO backend
│   ├── email/        # React Email previews/templates
│   └── studio/       # Prisma Studio
├── packages/
│   ├── auth/         # Authentication and sessions
│   ├── chess/        # Chess logic and utilities
│   ├── db/           # Prisma schema and client
│   ├── payments/     # Stripe integration
│   ├── ui/           # Shared UI components
│   └── utils/        # Shared types and helpers
└── turbo.json

Local Development

High-level steps for running the project locally:

1. Clone the repository
2. Install dependencies using pnpm
3. Configure required environment variables
   • Database
   • Authentication
   • Stripe
   • Email service
4. Start the monorepo development environment with Turborepo

Detailed setup instructions should match the repository’s .env configuration and scripts.

Why This Project Matters

This project demonstrates several production-grade engineering concepts:

• Real-time systems using Socket.IO
• Modern full-stack TypeScript architecture
• Scalable monorepo structure with shared packages
• Authentication, payments, and email infrastructure
• Developer-friendly tooling and workflows

The result is a clean, maintainable foundation for building real-time multiplayer applications.