> A chess career in 1851 London, from a chalked park table to the masters' room. # Chess: The Woodpusher A chess career in 1851 London, from a chalked park table to the masters' room. Free ยท Free download 5.0 from 1 rating ## See it in action ![The park hands you a queen. Nobody in the last room hands you anything.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-chess/s5.jpg) The park hands you a queen. Nobody in the last room hands you anything. ![Every game opens with a conversation, and the answer you pick changes it.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-chess/s1.jpg) Every game opens with a conversation, and the answer you pick changes it. ![Fifty named players, each with a strength and a temperament of their own.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-chess/s2.jpg) Fifty named players, each with a strength and a temperament of their own. ![Four rooms, from a chalked park table to the international tournament.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-chess/s3.jpg) Four rooms, from a chalked park table to the international tournament. ## About Chess: The Woodpusher A woodpusher is what better players call someone who moves the pieces without a plan. That is what you are on the first Sunday, and the game is about stopping being one. London, the summer of 1851. The Great Exhibition is on, every strong player in Europe is in town, and chess is played in parks and coffee houses by people who will take your sixpence. You begin at a chalked table in Kennington Park, being handed a queen because nobody thinks you can manage without one. ## Who is sitting opposite The cast is fifty named players and each one is somebody. Silas keeps the board at the coffee house and has watched ten thousand games. Jemmy Skate never stops talking. A retired colonel folds his hands and waits you out. Klara Voss entered the tournament under an initial and was not found out until the third round. They have temperaments, and it shows on the board - the hunters come at you, the grinders trade down and squeeze, the careful ones give you nothing. Fifteen strengths run underneath, so the room genuinely gets harder, and you feel it before you are told. ## Every Game starts with a conversation Nobody just sits down. They speak first, and you choose how to answer: politely, plainly, or with your chin out. What you pick sets what the game is worth and what they will give you, and their reply usually tells you something about how they play - if you are listening. ## Four rooms, and each is quieter than the last The park never shuts up. The Divan on the Strand is sixpence for the room and the coffee is incidental. The Cavendish Club has carpet on the floor and nobody raises their voice, and you are there on approval. Then St. George's, the international tournament, where the whole building has gone quiet and one of the best players in Europe is going to have to lose to you. The handicaps go with it. Early on they give you a queen, then two rooks, then a rook, then a knight, then a pawn, then nothing at all. By the end you are the one giving odds away. ## Away from the story Anyone you have met can be sat down with again whenever you like, from either side, at any of the six odds. Openings come from a real book rather than a random generator, so a line played against you is a line somebody actually played. Your best result against each player is kept, and an unfinished game is waiting where you left it. ## Free to Start The park is free - twelve opponents, the whole first act, and no time limit on it. One purchase opens the coffee house, the club and the tournament, and the thirty-eight players in them. It stays open. Two people at one machine is free as well, and always will be. It sells none of the story, so it is not behind the door. The game shows small advertisements for this developer's own apps while it is unlocked-free; the purchase removes them. They are ours, served from our own site, with no advertising network, no tracking and no profile of you. No account, no server, and nothing about your play leaves the machine. Built for Windows 11, and at home on Windows 10. ## Features - Fifty opponents with names, faces and games of their own - a cheesemonger, a colonel, a Frenchman down from the Regence - Every game opens with a conversation, and how you answer decides what you are playing for - Four rooms: a park, a coffee house, a members' club, and the 1851 international tournament - You start by being given a queen. You end by giving one away - Fifteen strengths of opponent, so the climb is felt rather than announced - Any player you have met can be played again outside the story, at any odds, from either side - Openings are played from a real book, not chosen at random - Best results kept for every opponent, and your place kept if you quit mid-game - Two players at one machine, free, with no engine in the way - Offline. No account, no server, and nothing about your play leaves the machine - Free to play the park. One purchase opens the other three rooms, forever ## Details Works on Windows 10 (1809 or later) and Windows 11 Download About 6.9 MB Version 1.1.5, updated October 2026 First released August 2026 Price Free Category Strategy ## Questions Anything else? [Ask us](https://evlarsoft.com/contact?topic=support&app=Chess%3A%20The%20Woodpusher) ### Which versions of Windows does it run on? Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) and Windows 11. ### Is it free? Yes. Chess: The Woodpusher is free to download. ### How do I get it? EvlarSoft apps are moving to direct downloads from this site. 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