Chess and Checkers now share a real cohort ladder
Up to now, Sudoku and Math Brain were the only games with a proper difficulty ladder: eight cohorts, seven wins each to move up. Chess had a simpler version — beat the AI once and the next tier unlocked. Checkers didn't have any of it; you just picked a rule set and played a computer opponent that, frankly, moved at random.
What changed
Both games now use the same structure as Sudoku:
- Eight cohorts, Novice through Legend.
- Seven wins inside a cohort unlocks the next one.
- Your level within a cohort is saved, so closing the app mid-ladder doesn't send you back to square one.
Checkers finally has an opponent
The bigger change is under the hood. Checkers' AI used to pick uniformly among its legal moves — it had no idea a capture was worth more than a shuffle. It now weighs material and king value, favors advancing men, and — like Chess's engine — leans on a per-cohort blend of occasional deliberate blunders and evaluation noise. Novice is still very beatable. Legend is not.
Try it
Both ladders are live now in Chess and Checkers under "VS Computer." Let us know how the difficulty curve feels — the feedback board is the fastest way to reach us.