You have just opened the app and the board is staring back at you without a word. That is normal. ÉCHEC O CUBE takes five minutes to learn, but nobody guesses the rules on their own. Here is what matters.
Pawns go in the grooves, not on the squares
This is the first surprise. Your pawns do not sit in the middle of the squares: they are bars, and they lie down in the grooves that separate the squares. Every square on the board is therefore framed by four grooves. Fill all four and the square becomes a closed cube.
Two colours, two values
The light pawn is short and worth 1 point. The dark pawn is longer and worth 2 points. The dark one overhangs into the corners, and that overhang is what lets it hold a crossing. That single detail is the whole mechanism of the game.
The chaining rule
The very first pawn of the game goes wherever you like. After that, every pawn must touch a pawn of the opposite colour already on the board. A light must touch a dark, a dark must touch a light. And two darks never touch: they are too long, they get in each other's way.
In the app you do not have to memorise any of this. As soon as you pick your colour, the grooves where you are allowed to play light up.
A closed cube does not always count
Here is the point new players miss most often. Closing the four sides of a square is not enough. For the cube to count, each of its four corners must be held by at least one dark pawn. A square closed with light pawns only is a dead square: it earns nothing for anyone.
So the dark pawn is not just the expensive one. It is the structural piece, the one that validates the cube. A player who only plays light pawns will never score.
Counting the points
When a cube is valid, add up its four sides: 1 point per light, 2 points per dark. Then add 2 points for every dark pawn from elsewhere on the board that overhangs into one of the cube's four corners.
The smallest valid cube is therefore worth 6 points. A well-surrounded cube can reach 9 or 12. That is why placing a dark pawn at the right crossing often pays more than closing quickly.
And you call it out
When your cube closes, the app asks you to announce it. Touch ÉCHEC O CUBE. Until you have announced it, the points are not yours. On a real wooden board it works the same way: you say it out loud, and your opponent checks.
The end-of-game trap
Keep this in mind from your very first game: at the end, every pawn still left in your hands costs you points. Each unplayed light pawn takes 1 point away, each unplayed dark pawn takes 2.
In other words, saving your beautiful dark pawns for later is the surest way to lose. You play to place, not to collect.
That is it. You know enough. Open a game against the computer on Beginner level, and close your first cube.
ÉCHEC O CUBE — invented in Quebec in 1999. To play: jeu.echecocube.ca
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