Chess Joker brings elegant chaos to the classic game of Chess. The rules are quite simple: Play a normal game of chess, but with one extra twist — after each turn, flip the top card of the deck face up next to you. Each card depicts a Joker move, such as "Move your King like a Knight" or "Warp your Queen to deliver check". On your next turn, you can take a normal chess move, or use your card. If you don't use the card, it's gone, and you draw a new one. If you do use it, you score it for points. Accumulate 800 Elo worth of completed cards, and you win immediately — or exploit your cards' powers to deliver checkmate and win traditionally.

Each of the 256 cards in the game is unique, and they are divided into two 128 card sets: basic and advanced. Learning players can start with the basic cards, and introduce the rest when they're ready.